Mahler Ede

* Cífer, September 28, 1857 – † Újpest, June 29, 1945 / orientalist, astronomer, naturalist, archaeologist, Egyptologist, corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences ; ; His father, Mahler Salamon (1823–1895), was a rabbi in Cífer. His older brother, Miksa, was a high school teacher, and his younger brother, Gyula, was a doctor. The family lived in Bratislava from 1873, where Ede graduated from high school (in 1876). He then studied mathematics and astronomy at the Royal Hungarian University of Budapest, the predecessor of today's ELTE, and at the University of Vienna, but Egyptology and Semitic languages also piqued his interest. He received his doctorate in 1880. Between 1880 and 1886, he worked at the Viennese observatory of astronomer Theodor Oppolzer, but in 1885 he was appointed assistant to the Imperial and Royal Austrian Commission for the Measurement of Degrees, and in this capacity he contributed to the triangulation and mapping of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. At the same time, he also dealt with ancient history, which was partly related to astronomical chronology. Later, thanks to his mathematical and astronomical knowledge, he was able to determine the dates of many events of historical importance more precisely. He also began to study the Egyptian language in Vienna, but he continued to study Egyptology after settling in Budapest in 1896. In 1898, he became a private tutor in Egyptology and Assyriology and primarily dealt with the history of the ancient East and chronological issues. In November 1910, he was appointed a full professor and at the same time the Department of Ancient History of the Eastern Peoples was established, which he headed. He catalogued the Egyptian collection of 541 items belonging to literary scholar and academic Zsolt Beöthy, which the heirs offered to purchase for the university after the owner's death (1922), but not even a fraction of the requested amount could be raised, so the collection finally became the property of Uppsala University in Sweden in 1936. Mahler was retired in 1928, but he taught at the university for another ten years and, with the help of two of his students, Aladár Dobrovits and Vilmos Wessetzky, he founded the Egyptian collection of the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts, which opened in 1939. ; ; His main works: ; Babylonia and Assyria, 1906, Ancient Egypt, 1909, ; Ancient Chronological Researches, 1915.