The University of Utah Middle East Center is located on the campus of the

University of Utah The University of Utah (the U, U of U, or simply Utah) is a public university, public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret (Book of Mormon), Deseret by the General A ...

Salt Lake City, Utah Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Salt ...

. The center was officially established in 1960 and offers both undergraduate and graduate degrees. The Center was established under the influence of scholar Dr. Aziz Atiya. The Center has established graduate and undergraduate programs in Persian, Arabic, Hebrew, and Turkish, as well as cultural and historical studies of the region. The Center has administered degree programs at all levels (B.A., M.A., and Ph.D.) and offers, both to students and to the larger community, a variety of opportunities for the advancement of understanding of the Middle East. Such opportunities have included conferences, lecture series, workshops, continuing education courses, and outreach activities. Distinguished scholars of the Middle East from all over the world are invited to participate in many of these events, and conference papers normally result in published volumes. In addition, the MEC is able to arrange opportunities for intensive language study, fieldwork and research in a number of countries of the Middle East.

Aziz Atiya Library

The Aziz Atiya Library, which is named after the founder of the Middle East Center

Aziz Suryal Atiya Aziz Suryal Atiya (, ; July 5, 1898 – September 24, 1988) was an Egyptian Coptologist who was a Coptic history, Coptic historian and scholar and an expert in Islamic and Crusades studies. Atiya was the founder of the Institute of Coptic S ...

, is the fifth largest

library A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...

for Middle East studies in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

. It contains over 160,000 books,

monographs A monograph is generally a long-form work on one (usually scholarly) subject, or one aspect of a subject, typically created by a single author or artist (or, sometimes, by two or more authors). Traditionally it is in written form and published a ...

, and

periodicals Periodical literature (singularly called a periodical publication or simply a periodical) consists of Publication, published works that appear in new releases on a regular schedule (''issues'' or ''numbers'', often numerically divided into annu ...

, including works written in

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

Ottoman Turkish Ottoman Turkish (, ; ) was the standardized register of the Turkish language in the Ottoman Empire (14th to 20th centuries CE). It borrowed extensively, in all aspects, from Arabic and Persian. It was written in the Ottoman Turkish alphabet. ...

, and modern Turkish. The collection is housed in the

J. Willard Marriott Library The J. Willard Marriott Library is the main academic library of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah. The university library has had multiple homes since the first University of Utah librarian was appointed in 1850. The current building ...

References

External links

Middle East Center Homepage

Arabic Papyrus, Parchment, and Paper
a
University of Utah Digital LibraryMarriott Library Special Collections

Fayez Sayegh
a
University of Utah Digital LibraryMarriott Library Special Collections
{{DEFAULTSORT:Utah Middle East Center, University of Universities and colleges established in 1960 Education in Salt Lake City Middle Eastern studies in the United States Middle Eastern studies organizations Middle East Center 1960 establishments in Utah