Dr. Aziz Suryal Atiya and the Establishment of the Middle East Center and the Aziz S. Atiya Library for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Utah

Abstract

Aziz Suryal Atiya was an Egyptian Coptic Studies expert, historian and orientalist specializing in the study of the Crusades era. He published several important books, including primarily The Crusades in the Later Middle Ages (1938). He contributed to the creation of the Institute of Coptic Studies in Cairo in the 1950s. He was also the originator and founder of the Middle East Center at the University of Utah, which today is one of the most important centers of wide science research on the Middle East. This article discusses the background and circumstances of the establishment of the Middle East Center and the Aziz S. Atiya Library for Middle Eastern Studies, both at the Univer­sity of Utah, which is the fifth largest institution of its kind in North America.

Author Biographies

Leonard C. Chiarelli, University of Utah, Salt Lake City

Historian, PhD in history at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City (1986). Since 1971 he has been associated with the Middle East Center and the Aziz S. Atiya Library for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Utah. His research interests are focused on the reception of the research by Aziz S. Atiya and broadly understood oriental culture.

Mohammad Mirfakhrai, University of Utah, Salt Lake City

Historian. Since 1987, he has been associated with the Middle East Center and the S. Atiya, Aziz Library for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Utah. His research interests are related to the reception of broadly understood oriental culture and issues related to the professional satisfaction of librarians.

References

Atiya, A.S. (n.d.). Ibn Mammati. Encyclopaedia of Islam. Second Edition. Leiden: Brill.

Atiya, A.S. (1955). The Arabic Manuscripts of Mount Sinai; a Hand-list of the Arabic Manuscripts and Scrolls Microfilmed at the Library of the Monastery of St. Catherine, Mount Sinai. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press.

Atiya, A.S. (1962). Crusade, Commerce and Culture. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Atiya, A.S. (1962). Crusade Historiography and Bibliography. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Atiya, A.S. (1968). A History of Eastern Christianity. London: Methuen.

Atiya, A.S. (1970). Catalogue raisonnéof the Mount Sinai Arabic manuscripts: complete analytical listing of the Arabic collection preserved in the Monastery of St. Catherine on Mt. Sinai. Alexandria: Galal Hazzi.

Atiya, A.S. (1985). August 12, 1985, interview 328, transcript. Everett L. Coo­ley Oral History Project, Ms 814. No. 328. Mariott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Atiya, A.S. (1991). The Coptic Encyclopedia. New York City: Macmillan Publishers.

Atiya, L. (1989). Interview 390. In Everett L. Cooley Oral History Project. Salt Lake City: Marriott Library, University of Utah, Pt. 1: 1–3

Atiya, L. (2010). An Index to the History of the Patriarchs of the Coptic Church. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.

Airmet, R., Bayas, H. & Chesley, J. (Eds.). (1998). Aziz S. Atiya Papers. Retrie­ved from: https://lib.utah.edu/pdf/AtiyaRegister.pdf.

Everett L. Cooley Oral History Project (1983–2018). Salt Lake City: Marriott Library, University of Utah.

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Mostofi, Kh. (1985). Interview U-377, U-378. In Everett L. Cooley Oral History Project. Salt Lake City: Marriott Library, University of Utah, Pt. 1: 4–10.

Muh????ammad ibn Qāsim ibn Nuwayrī al-Iskandarānī (1968). Kitāb al-ilmām bi-al-i‘lām fī mā jarat bihi al-ah????kām wa-al-umūr al-maqd????īyah fī waq‘at al-Iskandarīyah. Haydarabad: Matba’at Majlis Da’irat al-Ma’arif al-‘Uthmaniyah.

Niall, Ch. (2014). Cosmopolitan Trade Centre or Bone of Contention? Ale­xandria and the Crusades, 487–857/1095–1453. Al-Masāq 26: 49–61.

Sāwīrus ibn al-Muqaffa’. (1943–1976). History of the Patriarchs of the Egyptian Church. Y. ʻAbd al-Masīh, E. Khs-Burmester; A.S. Atiya & (Eds.). A. Khate Cairo: Sociétéd’archéologie copte.

Steenbergen, J. van. (2003). . In East and West in the Crusader States. Con­text-Contacts-Confrontations, III. Acta of the congress held at Hernen Castle in September 2000 The Alexandrian Crusade (1365) and the Mamluk Sources: reassessment of the Kitāb al-Ilmām of an-Nuwayrī al-’Iskandarānī (d. 1372 AD)(pp. 124–137). Louven: Peeters.

Walker, P.E. (1972). Aziz S. Atiya, A Biography. In Hanna S.A. (Ed.), Medieval and Middle Eastern Studies in Honor of Aziz Suryal Atiya (pp. 5–8). Leiden: Brill.

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Published
2020-12-31
How to Cite
[1]
Chiarelli, L.C. and Mirfakhrai, M. 2020. Dr. Aziz Suryal Atiya and the Establishment of the Middle East Center and the Aziz S. Atiya Library for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Utah. Perspectives on Culture. 31, 4 (Dec. 2020), 43-60. DOI:https://doi.org/10.35765/pk.2020.3104.05.
Section
Orient. Wczoraj i dziś