Book section : Chapter
Orientalists from the margins: scholars from Transylvania and Hungary in British India — Alexander Csoma de Kőrös and Edward Rehatsek
- Abstract:
- The chapter examines two scholars of humble origins from the borders of the Habsburg Empire. Alexander Csoma de Kőrös, a Székler-Hungarian from eastern Transylvania, was the founder of Tibetology and Edward Rehatsek, a Croatian from southern Hungary, was an important translator of Persian. Contrasting positional and practical identities in the lives of these scholars, this study examines how their sense of marginality in the Habsburg Empire was carried over to India and helped them establish a personal freedom that was perceived as eccentricity by the British. Csoma was motivated by the broader national quest to find the eastern relatives of the Hungarians at the time of the discovery of the Indo-European language family. Rehatsek was abhorred of and ran away from social backwardness and ignorance. Both of them had lifestyles close to that of the ‘natives’ and seem to have actively participated in ‘native’ cultural life. While Csoma acknowledged and underlined the existence of learning beyond Europeans and appears to have been interested in native-language education, Rehatsek shunned the company of the Europeans and regularly contributed to the fortnightly Native Opinion until his very last days. Their attitudes raise the broader question of the extent that it is possible to use Orientalism outside the framework of Empires.
- Publication status:
- Accepted
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
Actions
Authors
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- Host title:
- Global Approaches to Habsburg History
- Chapter number:
- 18
- Language:
-
English
- Keywords:
- Subtype:
-
Chapter
- Pubs id:
-
2431533
- Local pid:
-
pubs:2431533
- Deposit date:
-
2026-06-09
- ARK identifier:
Terms of use
- Notes:
- The chapter examines two scholars of humble origins from the borders of the Habsburg Empire. Alexander Csoma de Kőrös, a Székler-Hungarian from eastern Transylvania, was the founder of Tibetology and Edward Rehatsek, a Croatian from southern Hungary, was an important translator of Persian. Contrasting positional and practical identities in the lives of these scholars, this study examines how their sense of marginality in the Habsburg Empire was carried over to India and helped them establish a personal freedom that was perceived as eccentricity by the British. Csoma was motivated by the broader national quest to find the eastern relatives of the Hungarians at the time of the discovery of the Indo-European language family. Rehatsek was abhorred of and ran away from social backwardness and ignorance. Both of them had lifestyles close to that of the ‘natives’ and seem to have actively participated in ‘native’ cultural life. While Csoma acknowledged and underlined the existence of learning beyond Europeans and appears to have been interested in native-language education, Rehatsek shunned the company of the Europeans and regularly contributed to the fortnightly Native Opinion until his very last days. Their attitudes raise the broader question of the extent that it is possible to use Orientalism outside the framework of Empires.
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