Istvan Vasary is Professor of Turkish and Central Asian Studies at Lorand Eotvos University, Budapest. His previous publications (in Hungarian) include The Golden Horde (Kossuth, 1986), and History of Pre-Mongol Inner Asia (1993, 2ed.: Balassi, 2003). He served as Hungarian Ambassador to Turkey (1991-1995), and to Iran (1999-2003).