Small 4to. 303 pp., engraved frontispiece plate, numerous engraved illustrations, half-title, modern half-calf with marbled boards, marbled endpapers, original wrappers preserved, few pencil annotations in margins of introduction pages, otherwise copy in very good condition, Alfred Mame et Fils, Editeurs, Tours, [1900].

Synopsis

Ármin Vámbéry, also known as Arminius Vámbéry (1832 – 1913), was a Hungarian Turkologist and traveller. He was especially attracted by the literature and culture of the Ottoman Empire including Turkey. By the age of twenty, Vámbéry had learned enough Ottoman Turkish to enable him to go, through the assistance of Baron Joseph Eötvös, to Istanbul and establish himself as a private tutor of European languages. He became a tutor in the house of Huseyin Daim Pasha, and, under the influence of his friend and instructor, Ahmet Efendi, became a full Osmanli, serving as secretary to Fuad Pasha.