György Almásy

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The native form of this personal name is Almásy György. This article uses the Western name order.
György Almásy
György Almásy

György Almásy de Zsadány et Törökszentmiklós (Hungarian: törökszentmiklósi és zsadányi Almásy György, Felsőlendva, August 11, 1867 – Graz, September 23, 1933) was a Hungarian traveller, expert on Asia, zoologist and ethnographer. He was the father of László Almásy, the Afrologist.

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[edit] Life

His father, Ede Almásy, was a founding member of the Hungarian Geographical Society. György Almásy studied for a law doctorate at the University of Graz, as customary for his status in society. After university he worked in Budapest as a civil servant, but after leaving his profession he returned home to manage his estate. He was interested from the beginning in zoology and, within that, ornithology. He published a book with István Chernel as co-editor. His first more serious journey was taken to the Danube delta to study ornithology.

He first travelled to Asia in 1900 with Stummer-Traunfels, his teacher of zoology at the University of Graz. They journeyed through the region of the river Ili, the eastern areas of the Issyk Kul, and the unexplored, third mountain range of the Tien-San. The zoological achievement of their journey was the collection of around 20,000 animals (mostly birds), with many newly discovered species among them. This tour gave him extensive experience, but rather than from his zoological observation, this experience was derived from his vivid ethnographical notations, which are concerned with the everyday life of the Kyrgyz and Kazakh peoples. The young Gyula Prinz also took a part in this journey, but they had several disagreements, their world views were separate and so their roads soon split and they made independent, but valuable, observations (Prinz's My Journeys in Central Asia give vivid descriptions of the things they saw). Almásy came home disappointed from his last journey, from this point onwards he lived withdrawn on his land. His journal and letters sent to his wife tell the rest of the story, but these unfortunately have not been published. His knowledge of the Russians and Turks made it possible to better understand and communicate with Russian officials and Kyrgyz tribal chiefs during his travels.

[edit] Contributions

György Almásy's field work and descriptive writings about them constitute his highest achievement. Later, he primarily made ethnographical and oriental studies; these found readership in the Ethnographical Bulletin and Bernát Munkácsy's journal. His collected works on the Kyrgyz, which the Néprajzi Múzeum holds, have played a part in ethnographical exhibitions. The material's scientific publication is still waiting processing.

[edit] Works

  • Madártani betekintés a román Dobrudzsába (Ornithological investigation into the Romanian Dobruja). Budapest, 1898.
  • Utazásom orosz Turkesztánba (My Journey to Russian Turkestan). Budapest, 1903.
  • Vándor-utam Ázsia szívébe (My Travels to the Heart of Asia). Budapest, Természettudományi Könyvkiadó-vállalat, 1903.

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