As the closing event of 2024 the Representation Office of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) held a memorial session in the Ybl Villa on December 12. At the initiative of the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakistan in Budapest and ”BARSZ” Hungarian – Kazak Foundation, the speakers and the guests recalled the memory of István Kongur Mándoky, the person and the scientist who passed away in 1992.
The session was opened by Ambassador István Vásáry, the Executive Head of the Representation Office of the OTS who pointed out that one of the numerous tasks of the Organization was to regularly recall the memory of the excellent Turkologists of the past.
His Excellency, the Ambassador of the Republic of Kazakistan to Budapest Abzal Saparbekuly paid his respects to Kongur Mándoky by calling the outstanding Turkologist and public figure ”the golden bridge” of the spiritual and cultural ties between the Hungarian and Kazak people. The diplomat also emphasized that the event was an opportunity not only to remember the life and work of the late professor but an excellent moment to examine our shared history, culture and brotherly relations as well. Mándoky played a significant role in making the historical relations and spiritual closeness of the Hungarian and Kazak people known. For this reason, he occupies a unique place not only in the country of his birth but in the heart of the Kazak people as well. Our shared duty is to further cultivate and develop the spiritual ties bestowed on us by Kongur Mándoky.
Turkologist Júlia Bartha recalled the path in life of Mándoky which was by no means an easy one in the given political circumstances. She added that the interest of Hungarian scientists in the culture of the Turkic people in Central Asia goes back to a long time. The research into the linguistic heritage of the Cumans that had settled in Hungary was extremely important not only for Turkology and linguistic research in Hungary but from the point of view of the history of Hungarian and Turkic culture as well. It was not an accident that the research into the deep layers of the culture of the Alföld – the Lowlands – was undertaken by scientists who were emotionally attached to the region. Among them it was ethnographer István Györffy, the Turkologists Gyula Németh and Kongur Mándoky, following the footsteps and guidance of his master. In some respects, the latter managed even to surpass the achievements of his mentor.
For Mándoky the place of his birth, Karcag, lying in the heart of the Greater Cuman Land was a defining milieu. He acquired the command of the Turkic languages and the ancient history of the Hungarian people from Gyula Németh. Mándoky had learned the living Turkic languages by making friends with the soldiers in the Soviet army barracks. He started the research into the Cuman linguistic heritage already during his university studies and continued it after graduating. It was his deep belief that the Hungarian people, arriving in Europe from the East, were a link between the East and the West. And the settling of scientific problems was possible only if we are familiar with the customs and life, the line of development and also the scientific achievements of the people related to each other linguistically and culturally. His colleagues called Mándoky – jokingly – a “Cumanologist.” However, only few of them were able to claim that they had a wide view of Turkic culture where he – on the other hand – was moving with certainty.
Within the traditional fields of Turkology, Mándoky was dealing with the Hungarian–Turkic ties before the occupation of the Carpathian basin, the ancient history of the Hungarian people. As a result of his research, he prepared his MA dissertation with the title “Tatar Linguistic Studies from Dobruja – Studies into Morphology and Folklore Texts.” He claimed to have discovered the etymological root of Hungarian words of Cuman origin in the language spoken by the Tatars in Dobruja. The dissertation covers the descriptive linguistics of the Tatar language spoken in Dobruja, and also offers a taste of folklore poetry, adding 117 proverbs.
The study trips by Mándoky to Dobruja were followed by research in Central Asia. Although the political conditions at the time were not favorable for research in the field, he managed to do linguistic and ethnographic collecting work on an annual basis. What is more, he had an opportunity to do research among Tatars in Bashkiria and on the Volga River. The collecting of dialects and ethnography among the Kazaks and the Tatars by Mándoky made a great contribution to the deciphering of several Cuman texts in Hungary. In 1981, Mándoky defended his Candidate of Sciences dissertation with the title “The Elements of the Cuman Language in Hungary” that summarized the more important achievements of his research by that point. With his passing away on August 22, 1992 a promising career was broken at its prime. He covered a great distance even in his death. He was taken from the capital of Dagestan – Makhachkala – to the capital of Kazakistan at the time – to Almaty. He was placed to rest in the Kensay cemetery, where the great representatives of Kazak culture also lie. After his passing away, a monument was erected, the relief of sculptor Sándor Györfi. However, the real monument is what he had been planning all his life – the lively contact between Cumanland in Hungary and Kazakistan was successfully established after his death.
András Gál, the Chairman of BARSZ – the Hungarian–Kazak Foundation that has been operating for thirty years already – drew the attention to the following volume edited by Júlia Bartha and published in 2002 with the support of BARSZ: “The Wide Waters of Amu Darya – A Selection of the Folklore of the Turkic People Translated by István Kongur Mándoky (Barbaricum Karcag, 2002). András Kelemen, a former State Secretary of the MFA and a close friend of Mándoky’s, recalled a few personal memories, among them how deep an impression his visit in 2013 to the school in Almaty named after Mándoky made on him.
As a former colleague of Mándoky’s, Mária Ivanics stressed the significance of the time that the future scientist spent in Eötvös College, “in the cradle of Hungarian Turkology” and the buoyant spiritual life there. The Sociologist Dr. Ottó Csámpay shared his memories of a lecture delivered by Mándoky with the title “From the Yellow River to the Carpathian Basin.” Dr. Ádám Molnár pointed out that the moment he and Mándoky met, – they made friends immediately and remained in close friendship. It was also Ádám Molnár who edited Newcomers from the East (in: Hungarian: Kunok és magyarok), the volume that included the scientific papers of Mándoky’s. Kazak Ethnographer Khinayat Babakhumar said that Mándoky was a “legend” already in his life, and after his death he reached almost “mythical heights.” It is an obligation for all of us to cultivate his invaluable heritage.
It was Ongajsa Mándoky who delivered the closing words of the memorial event. She recalled the ceremony held in Karcag on the occasion of the 80th birthday of her late husband. As she said, Mándoky, the scientist is highly respected not only in the region of his birth, but in the Central Asian countries as well. After all the remarks had been delivered, the organizers greeted on her forthcoming birthday Júlia Bartha, – also born in Karcag. The event was concluded by performing Mándoky’s favorite Hungarian and Kazak folk songs, dances and playing on the dombra.
