Sándor Kőrösi Csoma

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Sándor Kőrösi Csoma : biography

March 27, 1784 – April 11, 1842

Studies in Göttingen

Between 1816 and 1818 he studies Oriental languages. In Göttingen, he was noted for being literate in 13 languages including Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, German, and Romanian apart from Hungarian. In his Calcutta years he also mastered Bengali, Marathi and Sanskrit. He returned to Transylvania in 1818. On 7 February 1819, Csoma met Hegedus and informed him of his intent to learn Slavonic in Croatia. He left on foot for Agram and spent a few months there. He received the aid of one hundred florins from Michael de Kenderessy to help him in this journey.

Eastward bound

The journey that Csoma undertook after leaving Croatia is reconstructed mainly from to a letter that Csoma wrote introducing himself to the British Captain Kennedy who detained him on entry at Sabathu on suspicion of being a spy. Csoma did not apply for an Imperial passport and obtained a Hungarian passport at Nagy Enyed and visited Bucharest. He had it signed by the General Commandant in Hermanstadt and went to Romania (then called Wallachia) at the end of November 1819. He attempted to go to Constantinople but not finding the means he left Bucharest on the 1st of January 1820 and passed the Danube by-Rustchuk and reached Sofia and then after five days to Philipopolis.

Middle East, Central Asia

Csoma de Kőrős arrived in Edirne (Adrianopolis) and he wished to go from there to Constantinople but was forced by the plague to move to Enos. He left Enos on February 7, 1820 and reached Alexandria on a Greek ship. He reached on the last day of February but had to leave soon due to a plague epidemic. He boarded a Syrian ship to Larnica in Cyprus and then took another ship to Tripoli and Latakia. From here he travelled on foot and reached Aleppo in Syria on the 13th of April. He left on the 19th of May, joining various caravans and by raft along the river going through Orfa, Merdin and Mosul to arrive in Baghdad on 22 July. He wrote to the English resident Mr. Rich and sought help in his travels. He was provided a European dress and money through a Hungarian friend Mr. Swoboda with whom he stayed. He left Baghdad on 4 September and travelled with a caravan through Kermanshah and Hamadan and reached Teheran on 14 October 1820. He sought help from Henry Willock who made it possible for him to stay on for about four months. He left Teheran on the 1st of March 1821, leaving behind his passport and papers and changing from a European costume to a Persian one apart from writing notes in in Hungarian which were to be passed on in the event that he died on his way to Bukhara. He reached Meshed on 18 April and due to the troubles in the area he could not continue until 20 October. He reached Bukhara on 18 November. He initially intended to spend the winter in Bokhara but fearing the Russian army he left after five days and joined a caravan that passed through Balk, Kulm, and Bamian to reach Kabul on the 6th of January, 1822. He left Kabul on the 19th of January and headed towards Peshawar. On the 26th of January he met two French officers at Daka, Messrs. Allard and Ventura, who joined him to Lahore. The reached Lahore on the 11th of March and he left on the 23rd passing through Amritsar, Jammu to reach Kashmir on 17 April. Finding company to travel with he left on the 9th of May to reach Leh on the 9th of June. Finding the route to Yarkand risky, he decided to return to Lahore and on the way to Kashmir, on 16 July 1822 he met William Moorcroft, the famous English explorer. He decided to stay on with Moorcroft and joined him to Leh. Here Moorcroft introduced Csoma to George Trebeck. He also lent Csoma a copy of Alphabetum Tibetanum by Agostino Antonio Giorgi. He also helped Moorcroft by translating a Russian letter (from Count Nesselrode Petersburgh dated 17 January 1820) addressed to Ranjeet Singh into Latin. Before Moorcroft left Leh, Csoma requested him that he wished to stay on with Trebeck in Leh. He then joined Trebeck back to Srinagar on 26 November. He stayed on here for five months and six days during which time he took an interest in the Tibetan language and discussed with Moorcroft an interest in examining the contents of the books found in the local monasteries.