Towards the end of the 19th century the Albanian part of the Ottoman Balkans became a target of
Austro-Hungarian foreign policy. In the attempt to expand the empire across this region
scholarship acquired great significance. To date the focus has been primarily on Austrian
researchers while the fact that Hungarian scholars and the Hungarian elite were also pursuing
their own interests has been overlooked. Looked at in this light the Hungarian-Albanian
Dictionary produced by Zoltán László (1913) can be seen as a cultural-political tool relating
to the expansionist ambitions in the South-western Balkans. The monograph by Krisztián
Csaplár-Degovics and Lumnije Jusufi offers a comprehensive reconstruction of the history of how
László's dictionary came into being. The edition of the original version is accompanied by a
comparative linguistic analysis and a historical analysis from a modern imperial history
perspective.
