Ignác Kúnos

Ignác Kúnos (originally Ignác Lusztig; 22 September 1860 in Hajdúsámson, Hungary – 12 January 1945 in Budapest, Hungary) was a Hungarian linguist, turkologist, folklorist, a correspondent member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

Kunos attended the Reformed College in Debrecen, then studied linguistics at the Budapest University between 1879 and 1882.

With the financial support of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Budapest Jewish community he spent five years in Constantinople studying Turkish language and culture.

The most significant merit of him was that he collected an impressive amount of folk tales and anecdotes that were published in Hungarian as well as many other European languages.

As a recognition of his scientific contributions, he was elected a correspondent member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, but he also was a vice-president of the International Society for the Investigation of Central and Eastern Asia.