The Collection
The Oriental Collection of the Szeged University Library has been assembled mostly by bequests from Hungarian orientalists. It was founded by the mongolist Lajos Ligeti, who offered his private library to the University in 1974, in order to help the establishment of a research centre on Altaic studies in Szeged.
Ligeti’s gift is about 11000 documents: over 5000 books plus thousands of offprints relating to Turkic, Mongolian and Chinese linguistics, Hungarian prehistory, history of Eurasian nomadic peoples, Buddhism, Shamanism. It contains periodicals and hundreds of dictionaries in different oriental languages.
Other significant holding is the bequest of the turcologist Gyula Németh. His scholarly library was purchased by the University in 1978. Its 8000 volumes include 2500 books, more than 5000 offprints and periodicals concentrated on Turkic philology.
In the 1980’s, two minor collections became the property of the Library: the bequest of the turcologist Margit Palló and the books on Georgian studies of Lajos Tardy.
In 2007 Professor András Róna-Tas, the former head of the Department of Altaic
Studies donated his books on Tibetan studies to the Library.
The third larger unit of the Collection is the 5000 volume library of the Department of Altaic Studies, encompassing books and periodicals on Turkic and Mongolian studies dating from the last few decades.
The opening of the new, larger building of the University Library in December 9, 2004 provided a new home for the holdings of Oriental studies mentioned above. These collections were brought together, and the newly formed Oriental Collection houses now over 25000 items, serving the research needs of individual readers.
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