Born in 1945; Turkologist, historian; professor emeritus, corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Former Ambassador of Hungary to Ankara (1991–1995), and to Tehran (1999-2003). From 1996 until 2015 Professor of Turkic and Central Asian Studies at the Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest. Specialises in medieval history of the Eurasian steppe region. Author of the books Az Arany Horda [The Golden Horde] (Bp. 1986); Az Arany Horda kancelláriája [Chancellery of the Golden Horde] (Bp. 1987); A régi Belső-Ázsia története [A History of Ancient Inner Asia] (Bp. 2003); Cumans and Tatars. Oriental Military in the Pre-Ottoman Balkans, 1185–1365. Cambridge 2005; Turks, Tatars and Russians in the 13th–16th Centuries (Variorum Collected Studies Series). Aldershot, Hampshire – Burlington, VT 2007; Magyar őshazák és magyar őstörténészek [Hungarian Primordial Homelands and Historians of the Early Hungarians] (Bp. 2008), and more than 200 articles and reviews published in international and Hungarian periodicals.

Selected bibliography

Books

 

Az Arany Horda. Kossuth Könyvkiadó, Budapest 1986. 318 l.

Az Arany Horda kancelláriája. Kőrösi Csoma Társaság, Budapest 1987. 88 l.

A régi Belső-Ázsia története. Második, átdolgozott kiadás. Balassi Kiadó: Budapest 2003. (Magyar Őstörténeti Könyvtár 19) 196 l.

Cumans and Tatars. Oriental Military in the Pre-Ottoman Balkans, 1185–1365. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge 2005. xvi, 230 pp.

Turks, Tatars and Russians in the 13th–16th Centuries. (Variorum Collected Studies Series). Ashgate Publishing Ltd.: Aldershot, Hampshire – Burlington, VT 2007. x + 352 pp.

Magyar őshazák és magyar őstörténészek. Balassi Kiadó: Budapest 2008. (Magyar Őstörténeti Könyvtár XXIV.) 198 l.

 

Articles

 

A jezsuita Cseles Márton és a Julianus–jelentés (A Magna Hungaria- és a Jugria-kérdés történetéhez). In: Középkori kútfőink kritikus kérdései. Szerk. Székely György. Budapest 1974, 261–275.

The Hungarians or Možars and the Meščers/Mišers of the Middle Volga region. Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi  1 (1975), 23–275.

The Golden Horde term daruġa and its survival in Russia. Acta Orientalia Hungarica  30 (1976), 187–197.

Susun  and süsün  in Middle Turkic texts. Acta Orientalia Hungarica  31 (1977), 51–59.

The origin of the institution of basqaqs. Acta Orientalia Hungarica 32 (1978), 201–206.

A contract of the Crimean Khan Mängli Giräy and the inhabitants of Qïrq-Yer from 1478/79.Central Asiatic Journal  26 (1982), 289–300.

The institution of foster-brothers (emildäš  and kökäldäš) in the Chingisid states. Acta Orientalia Hungarica  36 (1982), 549–562.

Nép és ország a türköknél. In: Nomád társadalmak és államalakulatok. Szerk. Tőkei Ferenc. (Kőrösi Csoma Kiskönyvtár 18) Budapest 1983, 189–213.

[Sh. Mukhamedyarov-val közösen] Two Kazan Tatar edicts (Ibrahim’s and Sahib Girey’s yarliks). In: Between the Danube and the Caucasus. A Collection of Papers Concerning Oriental Sources on the History of the Peoples of Central and South-Eastern Europe. Edited by G. Kara. Budapest 1987, 181–216.

The linguistic aspect of the “Bashkiro-Hungarian complex”. Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi  5 (1985 [1987]), 205–232.

Bemerkungen zum uigurischen Schrifttum in der Goldenen Horde und bei den Timuriden. Ural-altaische Jahrbücher, Neue Folge 7 (1987), 115–126.

Orthodox Christian Qumans and Tatars of the Crimea in the 13th-14th centuries. Central Asiatic Journal  32/3-4 (1988), 260–271.

‘History and legend’ in Berke Khan’s conversion to Islam. In: Aspects of Altaic Civilization III. Indiana University, Bloomington 1990, 230–252.

Origins and possible Cuman affiliations of the Asen dynasty. Archivum Ottomanicum  13 (1993–1994), 335–345.

Mongolian impact on the terminology of the documents of the Golden Horde. Acta Orientalia Hungarica 48 (1995), 479–485.

Russian and Tatar genealogical sources on the origin of the Yusupov family. Harvard Ukrainian Studies  19 (1995) (Essays presented to Edward L. Keenan on his sixtieth birthday by his colleagues and students), 732–746.

Clans of Tatar descent in the Muscovite elite of the 14th-16th centuries. In: The Place of Russia in Eurasia. Edited by Gyula Szvák. Magyar Ruszisztikai Intézet: Budapest 2001, 101–113.

Western sources on the early towns of the Middle Volga Region. Acta Orientalia Hungarica  55 (2002), 257–262.

Cuman warriors in the fight of Byzantium with the Latins. Acta Orientalia Hungarica  57 (2004), 263–270.

Oriental languages of the Codex Cumanicus: Persian and Cuman as linguae francae in the Black Sea region (13th-14th centuries). In: Il Codice Cumanico e il suo mondo. Edited by Felicitas Schmieder and Peter Schreiner. Rome 2005, 105–124.

Nagy Lajos tatár hadjáratai. In: Studia Caroliensia (A Károli Gáspár Református Egyetem folyóirata) 7/3–4 (2006) (Testis temporum, vita memoriae. Ünnepi tanulmányok Pálóczi Horváth András 65. születésnapjára), 17–30.

A Nagy Mongol Birodalom utódállamai, Dzsingisz kán és öröksége. A Mongol Birodalom. Kiállítás a Magyar Nemzeti Múzeumban, 2007. május 25–szeptember 2. Budapest 2007, 27–35 = Successor states to the Great Mongol Empire, Genghis Khan and his heirs. The Mongol Empire. Exhibition in the Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum, 25th May-2nd September 2007. Budapest 2007, 27–35.

On the Periphery of the Islamic World: Diplomatic Correspondence of the Nogays with the Russians. Annales Islamologiques (Caire) 41 (2007), 31–40.

The Tatar Ruling Houses in Russian Genealogical Sources. Acta Orientalia Hungarica 61 (2008), 365–372.

Mongol or Turkic? Notes on bükevül, a Military and Court Official of the Turco-Mongolian polities. In: The Early Mongols. Language, Culture and History. Studies in Honor of Igor de Rachewiltz on the Occasion of His 80th Birthday. Ed. by Volker Rybatzki, Alessandra Pozzi, Peter W. Geier and John R. Krueger. (Indiana University Uralic and Altaic Series, Vol. 173). Indiana University: The Denis Sinor Institute for Inner Asian Studies 2009, 195–207.

The Jochid realm: the western steppe and Eastern Europe. In: The Cambridge History of Inner Asia, vol. II: The Chinggisid Age. Ed. by Peter B. Golden – Nicola di Cosmo – Allen Frank. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge 2009, 67–85.

The Beginnings of Coinage in the Blue Horde. Acta Orientalia Hungarica 62 (2009), 371–385.

Cumans. In: The Oxford Encyclopedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology. Editor in Chief: Clifford J. Rogers. Oxford University Press 2010. I, 521–523.

Golden Horde. In: The Oxford Encyclopedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology. Editor in Chief: Clifford J. Rogers. Oxford University Press 2010. II, 214–215.

Battle of Kulikovo. In: The Oxford Encyclopedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology. Editor in Chief: Clifford J. Rogers. Oxford University Press 2010. II, 476–477.

Mongols. In: The Oxford Encyclopedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology. Editor in Chief: Clifford J. Rogers. Oxford University Press 2010. III, 19–20.

The Crimean Khanate and the Great Horde (1440s–1500s). A Fight for Primacy. In: Das frühneuzeitliche Krimkhanat (16.-18. Jahrhundert) zwischen Orient und Okzident. Edited by Meinolf Arens – Denise Klein. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz  2012, 13–26.

Az aranyhordai és iráni mongol uralkodók iszlámra térésének narratívái”,  Conversio. Szerk. Déri Balázs (ΑΓΙΟΝ Könyvek 1.), Budapest: ELTE BTK Vallástudományi Központ 2013, 163–172.

Qarā Ḵeṭāy. In: Encyclopædia Iranica, online edition, 2013, available at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/qara-ketay (accessed on 17 December 2013).

Többnyelvűség és kulturális kölcsönhatások az Arany Hordában. Magyar Tudományos Akadémia: Budapest 2014. 26 l. (Székfoglalók a Magyar Tudományos Akadémián. A 2013. május 6-án megválasztott akadémikusok székfoglalói.) = http://mta.hu/data/cikk/13/33/23/cikk_133323/Vasary_Istvan_ 2013/book.swf

Two Patterns of Acculturation to Islam: The Qarakhanids versus the Ghaznavids and Seljuqs. In: Edmund Herzig – Sarah Stewart (eds.), The Age of the Seljuqs. (The Idea of Iran, Volume 6). I.B. Tauris: London – New York 2015, 9–28.

The Tatar Factor in the Formation of Muscovy’s Political Culture. In: Reuven Amitai – Michal Biran (eds.), Nomads as Agents of Cultural Change. The Mongols and Their Eurasian Predecessors. University of Hawa‘i Press:  Honolulu 2015, 252–270.

Berke b. Jochi Khān, The Encyclopaedia of Islam Three. Eds. Kate Fleet – Gudrun Krämer –Denis Matringe – John Nawas – Everett Rowson. Brill: Leiden – Boston 2015, 44–47.

The role and function of Mongolian and Turkic in Ilkhanid Iran. In: Éva Á. Csató – Lars Johanson – András Róna-Tas – Bo Utas (eds.), Turks and Iranians: Interactions in Language and History. The Gunnar Jarring Memorial Program at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (Turcologica 105.). Harrassowitz: Wiesbaden 2016, 141–153.

Golden Horde Khanate. In: The Encyclopedia of Empire, First Edition. Edited by John M. MacKenzie, 1–10. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. DOI: 10.1002/9781118455074.wbeoe233.

The Preconditions to Becoming a Judge (Yarġuči) in Mongol Iran. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, series 3, 26/1-2 (2016), 157–169.

Golden Horde. In: The Encyclopaedia of Islam Three. Eds. Kate Fleet – Gudrun Krämer – Denis Matringe – John Nawas – Everett Rowson. Brill: Leiden – Boston 2016, 106–112.

Hungarians and Mongols as ″Turks″: On the Applicability of Ethnic Names”. In: Ádám Bollók – Gergely Csiky – Tivadar Vida (eds.), Between Byzantium and the Steppe. Archaeological and Historical Studies in Honour of Csanád Bálint on the Occasion of His 70^th Birthday. Institute of Archaeology, Research Centre for the Humanities, Hungarian Academy of Sciences: Budapest 2016, 537–543.

Jochi b. Chinggis Khān. In: The Encyclopaedia of Islam Three. Eds. Kate Fleet – Gudrun Krämer –Denis Matringe – John Nawas – Everett Rowson. Brill: Leiden – Boston 2018, 134–136.