Gyula Germanus (6 November 1884, in Budapest – 7 November 1979, in Budapest), alias Julius Abdulkerim Germanus, was a professor of oriental studies, a Hungarian writer and Islamologist, member of the Hungarian Parliament and member of multiple Arabic academies of science, who made significant contributions to the study of the Arabic language, history of language and cultural history.

[1] Both of his grandfathers were soldiers in the Hungarian Revolution of 1848–49 His father, Alexander Germanus (1852–1940), was leather merchant and shoemaker; his mother, Rosalia Zobel, was of Zipszer German origin.

Maybe this confusion led him to studying languages, and accompanied with his great strength of mind, to multilingualism as well: just after finishing high school he sat for exams in Greek and Latin, both widespread in the intellectual class in the region, at that time.

His own first work entitled, The Artillery Lieutenant (A tüzérhadnagy), which discussed the 1870–1871 siege of Strasbourg, carried off the first prize of 20 Hungarian Crowns.

His parents could not afford to acquire even a pianino, and of course they didn't want to see their son wasting his time with another hobby instead of improving as a musician.

As he wrote in his great work, Allah Akbar, languages had been the medium of transmission of eastern culture, art and literature, so he acquired several languages—not just out of affection for foreign tongues—he was seeking the Muslim mind, the "soul of the East".

"Several periodicals, like Mesveret and some other shorter or longer reviews of similar subjects, with complimentary copies of books, were arriving for Vámbery in Pest.

Having graduated from high school, Germanus decided to spend time in Bosnia, the nearest Islamic country to Hungary.

While staying in the Ottoman Empire, Julius Germanus got involved in the Young Turks movement, a coalition of various groups favouring reforms in national administration.

With his work Evlija Cselebi, about Turkish trade guilds in the 18th century, Germanus obtained a scholarship to Great Britain, where he spent three years between 1908 and 1911 in the Oriental Department of the British Museum.

The recommendatory letter from his teacher, Ármin Vámbery, the greatest expert on Islamic studies at that time, benefited him greatly.

[citation needed] Germanus served with the Red Crescent, in the Gallipoli campaign in the Dardanelles, where he was wounded and taken prisoner.

After his release he became acquainted with the commander of the 19th Division, attached to the Fifth Army, Mustafa Kemal Pasha, who later, known as Atatürk, founded the Republic of Turkey in 1923.

[citation needed] Germanus saw how the dreams of his youth, about positive changes in Turkey, had gone sour as the years passed.

Getting out of financial crisis and poverty, this former country of sultans was faced with increasing Europeanization, leading to the loss of the ancient national dress.

He spent three years in Bengal, with his wife Hajnóczy Rózsa, and taught an always a growing group of Islamic pupils under an open sky.

During these years Pál Teleki, the Hungarian Prime Minister, asked him to study the Maori and Munda languages from a linguistic point of view.

He was supported by his Egyptian writer friends, who mellowed the rigour of grand sheik Muhammad al-Ahmadi al-Zawahiri, the uncompromising head of the University, who had not wanted Europeans to enter his Institute.

Eventually, Germanus was allowed to be student for some months, and then to be a member of the teaching staff of the thousand year old mosque-university in the heart of Cairo.

Through friends he could meet the most famous members of contemporary Egyptian literature, like Mahmud Taimur, the most influential 20th-century Egyptian writer Taha Hussein, Muhammed Abdullah Enan, the poet Ibrahim Naji, the drama composer Tawfiq el-Hakim, the novelist and philosopher Muhammad Husayn Haykal, Sauki Amin, the secretary of Academy of Sciences in Cairo and the romantic writer Abbas Mahmud al-Aqqad.

Germanus considered a great honour when he was invited to the royal tent of King Abdul Aziz ibn Saud during the Hajj.

[9] A book about his journeys in the Holy Land came out one year later (1936), first in Hungarian, and after a great success it was translated into German (Allah Akbar.

His companions thought that his life was already beyond hope, but his faithful Arab friend was intractable and did not allow the others to leave the European traveller in the desert, or to kill his camel.

The caravan arrived in Riyadh where King Abdul Aziz ibn Saud received the Hungarian scholar.

During World War II he was on the streets of Budapest to help family, friends and the university, to hide people and secure them, and to save lives and goods.

His works were published in Italian: the book "Sulle orme di Maometto",1938, Milan, and the translation of "Allah Akbar".

He also visited Dina bint 'Abdu'l-Hamid, Queen of Jordan, and Talal ibn Abd al-Aziz, Prince of Saud.

He revisited Indian cities to refresh his memories of Bombay, Delhi, Aligarh, Patna, Agra, Hyderabad, Calcutta, Lucknow and Santiniketan.

In February 1964, the government of the United Arabic Republic (the union of Egypt and Syria) asked him to give lectures in the refurbished school of the Al-Azhar Mosque, on the occasion its 1,000-year anniversary.

The trip meant walking round the sacred place and running between Safa and Marwa seven times, on a hot surface in a huge crowd.