Exhibition showcases Hungarian contributions to Oriental studies

AMMAN — An exhibition on the accomplishments of Orientalist Hungarian scholars and researchers seeks to build bridges of communication between Hungary and the region.

Dubbed “Hungarians Exploring the Orient”, the 10-day exhibition sheds light on the contributions of Hungarian historians to Arab and Islamic studies. 

The exhibition, based on collections of the Hungarian Academy for Sciences, also documents African, Hebrew, Iranian, Caucasian Ottoman, Korean and Japanese studies, in addition to Egyptology, Indology, Sinology and studies on Central, Inner and Southeast Asia.

Oriental studies were a means for Hungarians to learn about their history and origins, Hungarian Ambassador to Jordan Csaba Czibere said at the opening of the exhibition at the University of Jordan (UJ) on Thursday.

Since the 9th century, Hungarians started travelling to the East, including India and the Ottoman Empire, to trace their origins, he added.   

Czibere reviewed contributions of several Hungarian explorers, including Alexander Csoma de K?rös, Arminius Vámbéry and László Ede Almásy to Indology, Ottoman Studies and Islamic Studies respectively.

“Jordan is the first stop of this travelling exhibition. This is a country with an enviably rich heritage — historic, cultural and religious,” he said, highlighting the role of such international partnerships in promoting understanding among nations.

UJ President Ekhleif Tarawneh described Hungarian culture as one of the most connected to Arab and Islamic culture.

“The East remained a passion and a place of interest for Hungarian researchers and Orientalists,” he said, and the two nations enjoyed relations of rich cultural interaction for many years.

Tarawneh highlighted the role of knowledge-seeking Hungarian Orientalists in serving Arab culture through exploration and documentation, noting that the exhibition is an addition to the university’s cultural role. 

István Mezei, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary at the Hungarian embassy, told The Jordan Times the exhibition will later tour 12 Arab states as well as China, India, Turkey, Japan, Korea and countries south of Russia.

He said the “non-scientific” exhibition in the Hungarian and English languages was designed with content suitable for those who may not know the details of history.

“The exhibition refers to the time of history when the two nations were largely cooperating,” Mezei added, seeking to link Hungarians to their Eastern roots and boost understanding among the two nations.

He noted that the content of the exhibition was prepared by Hungarian academics, scientists and professors to document and build on the efforts of explorers of the Orient throughout history.

For his part, UJ Library Director Mohannad Mubaidin called on embassies of other countries to organise similar exhibitions and cultural activities at UJ to further enrich the library’s content and educate students and the public. 

He said the library, which includes some 1.75 million titles in the main building and 14 secondary libraries across the university, is open until midnight as a “rich” source of information for researchers.