In the preface of the English version of his travel account he summarised his motives for starting on a dangerous journey to the cities of Central Asia with these words:
“That the Hungarian language belongs to the stock called Altaic is well known, but whether it is to be referred to the Finnish or the Tartaric branch is a question that still awaits decision. This enquiry, interesting to us Hungarians both in a scientific and a national point of view, was the principal and the moving cause of my journey to the East. I was desirous of ascertaining, by the practical study of the living languages, the positive degree of affinity which had at once struck me as existing between the Hungarian and the Turco-Tartaric dialects when contemplating them by the feeble light which theory supplied.”
Vámbéry’s journey to the territory of modern-day Uzbekistan further deepened his interest in Chaghatay studies and the manuscripts he collected in the cities he visited during this trip served as a firm basis for his future scholarly work. A more detailed account on the manuscripts he managed to get hold of in Central Asia will be provided later, in the chapter on the donators of manuscripts preserved in the holdings of the Oriental Collection of the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
You can learn more about the topic in the book-album "The Cultural Legacy of Uzbekistan in the Collection of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences" (Volume XLII) in the series "The Cultural Legacy of Uzbekistan".
The general sponsor of the project is the oilfield services company Eriell-Group.