Aziz Suryal Atiya papers
Scope and Contents
The Aziz Suryal Atiya papers (1927-1993) contain curriculum vitae, honorary documents, membership cards, contracts, royalty information, personal and academic correspondence, memos, reports, class schedules and materials, notebooks, lecture notes, book reviews, programs, memorial materials, biographies, and maps. Some of the subjects included in the material are studies Atiya did for the Coptic Encyclopedia, an expedition he took to Mount Sinai, and Arab-Israeli relations. Also included are papers related to Joseph Smith's Egyptian papyri and Atiya's role in making them public. While searching for Coptic and Arabic papyri in the Metropolitan Museum of Art storeroom in New York City, it was brought to Atiya's attention that the Joseph Smith Egyptian papyri, which is significant because they are the original documents used for research to write Facsimile No. 1 of the Book of Abraham, a scripture of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Since the Egyptian language could not be read in the 1830s and 1840s when the papyri were supposedly translated, this discovery provided the first chance to check Joseph Smith's ability to translate the Egyptian papyri. Atiya functioned as the mediator between the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the First Presidency of the LDS Church.
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Dates
- Creation: 1927-1993
Creator
- Atiya, Aziz Suryal, 1898-1988 (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
Twenty-four hour advanced notice encouraged. Materials must be used on-site. Access to parts of this collection may be restricted under provisions of state or federal law.
Conditions Governing Use
The library does not claim to control copyright for all materials in the collection. An individual depicted in a reproduction has privacy rights as outlined in Title 45 CFR, part 46 (Protection of Human Subjects). For further information, please review the J. Willard Marriott Library’s Use Agreement and Reproduction Request forms.
Biographical / Historical
Aziz Suryal Atiya (1898-1988) was a prominent scholar, writer, historian, and librarian whose expertise spanned the fields of the Crusades, Islamic and Coptic studies. Born in a small village in Egypt, Atiya was sent at the age of five to a school in Cairo and moved to the University of Liverpool in England to continue his studies. In 1931 he earned a B.A. with first-class honors in Medieval and Modern History and transferred to the University of London, where he completed his Ph.D. in Arabic and Islamic Studies in 1933. By the time of the publication of his indispensable work on the Crusades, Atiya could also speak Egyptian, English, Arabic, French, German, Italian, Latin, and to a lesser extent, Spanish, Greek, Coptic, Turkish, Welsh, and Dutch. In 1936, Atiya began his career in publishing with The Crusades of Nicopolis. His monumental study of the Crusades, The Crusades in the Later Middle Ages, was published in 1938. In the same year, the University of Liverpool awarded him a D.Litt. (Doctor of Letters). He was the first non-Briton from the Middle East ever to be granted that distinction. From 1935 to 1939, Atiya served as Docent and Honorary Professor of Medieval (including Oriental) History for Kahle's Orientalisches Seminar in Bonn, Germany. In 1939, however, he returned to Egypt and became First History Inspector of the Secondary Schools for the ministry of Education. He also began a tenure as Professor of Medieval History at Cairo University, which lasted until 1942. In that year, he moved to Alexandria University, where he held a foundation chair in Medieval History until 1952, and served as Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Arts (1949-1950) and as Chairman of the History Department (1952-1954). During this period in Egypt, Atiya married, became the father of two children, and participated in many academic expeditions. After an extensive lecture tour in the United States from 1950 through 1951, Atiya felt the desire to go abroad again. For the 1955 through 1956 session, he served the University of Michigan as Medieval Academy Visiting Professor of Arabic Studies, and then accepted a position at the Union Theological Seminary and Columbia University. In 1957, he was Patten Visiting Professor and Lecturer at Indiana University. That year's lectures became his two books Crusade, Commerce, and Culture, and Crusade Historiography and Bibliography. He then spent two years at Princeton as Professor of Arabic and Islamic History (1957-1958) and then as a member of the Institute of Advanced Study (1958-1959). In 1959, Atiya came to the University of Utah as a Professor of Languages and History to build a complete center for the study of Arabic and Middle East cultures. At the University of Utah, Atiya founded the Middle East Center and created the Aziz S. Atiya Middle East Library, a division of the Marriott Library. In 1967 he was designated Distinguished Professor of History, and was further granted the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters. Brigham Young University, at the same time, made him an honorary Doctor of Laws (LL.D.), in recognition of some of this discoveries in the world of papyri. During this time, Atiya continued to publish major academic works. In 1968, he published The History of Eastern Christianity and in 1969, he organized the publication of Catalogue Raisonne of the Arabic Manuscripts of Mount Sinai. At the time of his death, Atiya was preparing to publish a multi-volume Coptic Encyclopedia, which was completed under the direction of his wife and assistant, Lola Atiya. Overall, Atiya published approximately twenty books, many of which are multi-volume projects. His journal articles, book chapters, and encyclopedia articles appeared regularly over a period of thirty-five years.
Extent
36 Linear Feet (70 boxes and 2 oversize boxes)
Language of Materials
English
Arabic
German
French
Danish
Swedish
Norwegian Nynorsk; Nynorsk, Norwegian
Finnish
Dutch; Flemish
Spanish; Castilian
Portuguese
Samoan
Rarotongan; Cook Islands Maori
Japanese
Chinese
Korean
Abstract
The Aziz Suryal Atiya papers (1927-1993) document the life and work of Aziz Atiya. Included are curriculum vitae, memorabilia, and personal correspondence and financial records. Also included are materials relating to his career as a teacher, scholar and author, including lecture notes, student papers, publication contracts, royalty information, materials relating to the publication of the Coptic Encyclopedia, articles, newsletters, offprints, clippings, research files and maps. Aziz S. Atiya was the founding director of the Middle East Center at the University of Utah. He was the author of many books and articles and editor of the Coptic Encyclopedia.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donated by Aziz S. Atiya and Lola Atiya (boxes 1-39) in 1997.
Donated by Aziz S. Atiya and Lola Atiya (boxes 40-41) in 1976 and 1991.
Donated by Ragai Makar (boxes 42-58) in 1997.
Donated by Ragai Makar (boxes 59-60) in 1998.
Donated by Ragai Makar (boxes 61-67) in 1999.
Transferred from Leonard Chiarelli (boxes 68-72) in 1999.
Separated Materials
See also the Aziz S. Atiya photograph collection (P0485) in the Multimedia Division of Special Collections.
Processing Information
Processed by Rebecca Airmet, Hermoine Bayas, Jane Chesley in 1998.
Luke Kelly and Lindsey Moore in 2006.
Click here to read a statement on harmful language in library records.Subject
- Atiya, Aziz Suryal, 1898-1988 -- Archives (Person)
- University of Utah -- Faculty -- Archives (Organization)
- University of Utah. Middle East Center -- Records and correspondence (Organization)
Genre / Form
- Academic theses
- Business correspondence
- Essays
- Greeting cards
- Invitations
- Lectures
- Manuscripts for publication
- Maps
- Newspaper clippings
- Outlines and syllabi
- Periodicals
- Personal correspondence
Geographic
Topical
- Arab-Israeli conflict -- Sources
- Book collectors -- Utah -- Salt Lake City -- Archives
- Christianity -- Sources
- College teachers -- Utah -- Salt Lake City -- Archives
- Crusades -- Sources
- Egyptian Americans -- Utah -- Salt Lake City -- Archives
- Egyptology -- Sources
- Improvement era -- Specimens
- Medievalists -- Utah -- Salt Lake City -- Archives
- Middle East libraries -- Utah -- Salt Lake City -- Sources
- Middle Eastern American authors -- Utah -- Salt Lake City -- Archives
- Title
- Inventory of the Aziz Suryal Aitya papers
- Author
- Finding aid written by Rebecca Airmet, Herminoe Bayas, Jane Chesley and Lindsey Moore.
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- The finding aid was written in English.
Repository Details
Part of the J. Willard Marriott Library Special Collections Repository
295 South 1500 East
Salt Lake City Utah 84112 United States
801-581-8863
special@library.utah.edu