Vambéry, ARMINIUS, traveller and philologist, was born at Szerdahely in Hungary, 19th March 1832. At twelve he was apprenticed to a ladies' dressmaker, but afterwards took to teaching. Next he entered a school at St George, Presburg, helped by various friends; he was soon able to speak Latin with fluency. In 1846 he entered a school at Coronation, where he struggled to support himself, undaunted by want and privation. His holidays were spent in tramping through the country; at sixteen he was conversant with several languages. A strong desire for eastern travel led him to Constantinople, where he applied himself to the study of Oriental languages. In 1858 he issued a German-Turkish dictionary. He was made corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy, and in 1861 he received a travelling stipend of a thousand florins. In 1862-64 he travelled in the disguise of a dervish, by routes unknown to Europeans, through the deserts of the Oxus to Khliva, and thence by Bokhara to Samarcand. His position precluded him from making instrumental observations for the purposes of geography, but was eminently favourable to an insight into the customs and language of the peoples visited.
His valuable Travels and Adventures in Central Asia (Lond. 1864) was written out in three months from meagre pencil notes on scraps of paper. As a result of his experience he has spoken and written in favour of British influence in the East as against the rule of Russia. In his periodical and other writings Vambéry supports the idea that the rule of England in the East is most beneficent, that of Russia the least so. He has repeatedly visited England and lectured on this subject.
His other publications are partly philological and ethnographical, partly also historical and political. To the former belong his works relating to the Eastern Turkish and Tartar languages, such as the ethnography of the Turks, the origin of the Magyars, &c., whilst the latter comprise his Wanderings and Adventures in Persia (1867); Sketches of Central Asia (1868); History of Bokhara (1873); Central Asia (1874); The Origin of the Magyars (1882); Arminius Vambéry, his Life and Adventures (1883); The Coming Struggle for India (1885); and, with Heilprin, Hungary (1887), besides several contributions to the present work.