Kállay was born in Pest (today part of Budapest). His family derived their name from their estates at
Nagykálló, in
Szabolcs, and claimed descent from the
gens (clan)
Balogsemjén, which had settled the area of the historical
Borsod County,
Szabolcs County, and
Szatmár County in the late 9th century. His family belonged to an old, untitled
Hungarian nobility. They played a prominent part in Hungarian history as early as the reign of
King Coloman (1070–1116); and from
King Matthias Corvinus (1458–1490) they received their estates at
Mezőtúr, near
Kecskemét, granted to Mihály Kállay for his heroic defense of
Jajce in
Bosnia. Stephan von Kállay, Benjamin's father, a superior official of the Hungarian government, died in 1845, and his widow, who survived until 1902, devoted herself to the education of her five-year-old son. Amalie von Kállay née Blašković de Ebetske, was of
Serbian descent. She took over the care of Kállay's education and directed his interest to Slavic studies in general and particularly to Serbian history. She spoke Serbian and it is very likely that her son heard some of her reminiscences relating to the country of her ancestors. She engaged an excellent teacher in the person of
Mihály Táncsics, a well-known populist tribune and revolutionary writer of Serb and
Slovak descent, who was once imprisoned by the Austrians for seditious writings in 1847–48 and again in 1860 (the same Buda jail that
Lajos Kossuth was incarcerated from 1837 to 1840). At an early age Kállay manifested a deep interest in politics, and especially in the
Eastern Question. He traveled in Russia, European Turkey and
Asia Minor, gaining a thorough knowledge of Greek, Turkish, and several Slavic languages. He became as proficient in
Serbian as in his native tongue. ==Career==