Kunos, Ignatz

Hungarian authority on Turkish; born Sept. 20, 1861, at Sámson, Hungary. He attended the gymnasium at Debreczin and the University of Budapest, where he studied linguistics. On receiving his Ph.D. degree he went to the East on a scholarship granted by the Jewish community of Budapest and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and traveled through European Turkey, Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, studying the various Turkish dialects and collecting Turkish popular poetry. The results of these studies were published by the Hungarian Academy in the following works: "Három Karagöz Játék" (1885), "Oszman Népköltési Gyüjtemény " (2 vols., 1887-1889), "Orta-Ojunu" (1889), "Török [Nepmesék" (1889), "Anatoliai Képek" (1891), "Köroglu" (1894). On his return (1891) he was appointed lecturer of the Turkish language and literature at the University of Budapest, and professor of Turkish in the Oriental School of Commerce in that city, becoming director of the last-named institution in 1893.

Kunos is the only Jew in Hungary who is director of a state institution of learning. He is also a member of the State School Board of Business Colleges, corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (since 1893), and of the Société Asiatique of Paris (1889). Together with Bernhard Munkácsi he is editor of the "Keleti Szemlé," the only existing periodical for the Ural-Altaic languages. He has been decorated with two high Turkish orders.

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