Gyorgy Almazy was one of the most famous travelers, zoologist and ethnographic explorers to have visited Central Asia. Perhaps Lazlo being his father's son had something to do with the ways things turned out. In his spare time he was either tinkering with, or piloting, a de Havilland Gypsy Moth over Egypt's uncharted territories. In time, Lazlo Almazy was soon working for the British-run Egyptian Desert Survey Department. Both were acquaintances of Prince Youssef Kamal whose own hunting expeditions had taken him to Kenya with Janos Almazy and Victor Semeika as his personal guests. Semeika recalls that one of these hunting expeditions was for account of Duke Antal Esterhazy in 1926 and another the following year for Count Szigmond Szechenyi. The term used then was " acheter une chasse." Semeika, then a regular guest at Almazy's Budapest home, recalls how the walls of the main hall were decorated with the heads of 40 African water buffaloes.Īccording to the Hungarian Observer, Lazlo Almazy was doing the same thing in reverse: organizing African safaris for Austro-Hungarian aristocracy. It was through Lazlo Almazy that the Egyptian prince and his limited entourage arranged for the best hunting lodges money could buy. The middleman for these grand affairs" recounts Semeika, "was Janos Almazy." "In those days several Egyptian princes hunted pheasants and gibier in the large estates bordering the woods of Hungary and Prince Youssef Kamal was an habitue. Whereas in Europe Janos was the grand host and socialite, it was Lazlo who became the more recognized in Cairo and thereabouts. Lazlo Almazy and his brother Janos lived in Castle Bernstein, a medieval fort-like abode situated on a dominating hill in Austria's parochial Burgenland which borders Hungary. "One thing the multilingual Lazlo was not" says Semeika who hasn't seen the movie, "a dashing Casanova". Instead he is remembered as an explorer, a self-proclaimed geographer and a daredevil pilot, elements no doubt which made The English Patient the success it is. Almazy (pronounced Alma-jee)-an engineer with the former Austro-Hungarian auto firm Steyr-appeared on the Cairo scene during the interwar period as a businessman-engineer, yet no one seems to recall Almazy for his industrial contacts. A descendant of Viceroy Mohammed Ali who ruled Egypt the first half of the 19th century, Prince Youssef was world famous for his horsemanship, his globetrotting hunts, his love for the arts and most importantly, for his generosity.Īlthough Ladislaus "Lazlo" E. Semeika, 90+, remembers Lazlo Almazy well for both men were friends of Prince Youssef Kamal who not unlike his cousin Prince Kamal al-Din had a penchant for the outdoors. It was I who introduced him to the prince!" His rise to fame started when he caught the attention of Egypt's great desert explorer Prince Hussein Kamal al-Din. Lazlo was an introvert with a bit of an inferiority complex but the one with the most diverse life experience. "Janos was the convivial bon viveur always surrounded by beautiful women. "Lazlo was the least charismatic of the two Almazy brothers" recalls former jet-setter and Egyptian polo champion Victor-Mansour Semeika. Lazlo Almazy: pilot, explorer, soldier, spy. Both articles centered on Lazlo Almazy (1895-1951), the romanticized hero of the nine Oscar-winning movie ![]() On the occasion of the showing of the award winning blockbuster The English Patient following is a partial rewrite of From Mag-Arabs To al-Magary: A Look at some of Egypt's Hungarians which appeared on this page on Saturday 13 April 1996, plus salient excerpts from Father of The Dunes published this year by Jozsef Kasza in The Hungarian Observer. T HE E NGLISH P ATIENT: E GYPT'S C ELEBRATED H UNGARIAN B ROTHERS THE ENGLISH PATIENT: EGYPT'S CELEBRATED HUNGARIAN BROTHERS, suggests following articles VILLA PRINCESS FAWZIA.
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