Aziz Suryal Atiya ( ar, عزيز سوريال عطية, ; July 5, 1898 – September 24, 1988)Egypt Radio
/ref> was an Egyptian

Coptologist Coptology is the science of Coptic studies, the study of the Coptic language and Coptic literature.What is Cop ...

who was a

Coptic Coptic may refer to: Afro-Asia * Copts, an ethnoreligious group mainly in the area of modern Egypt but also in Sudan and Libya * Coptic language, a Northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century * Coptic alphabet ...

historian and scholar and an expert in Islamic and Crusades studies. Atiya was the founder of the Institute of Coptic Studies in Cairo in 1950s, and was also the founder of the

Middle East Center Middle or The Middle may refer to: * Centre (geometry), the point equally distant from the outer limits. Places * Middle (sheading), a subdivision of the Isle of Man * Middle Bay (disambiguation) * Middle Brook (disambiguation) * Middle Creek (d ...

, University of Utah.Coptology Amazon
/ref> His library, The Aziz Atiya Library for Middle East Studies at University of Utah, is considered the fifth largest such collection in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

and is recognized internationally as a major research library in this field. While at the University of Utah, Professor Atiya rediscovered ten lost papyri fragments related to the Mormon scripture, Book of Abraham, in the archives of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Work

Atiya published a large study entitled ''The Crusades in the Later Middle Ages'' in 1938, and was also the first author of '' The Coptic Encyclopedia'', published in 1991. The chapters on the Copts in his book ''The History of Eastern Christianity'' (1968, 1980) have become landmarks, not only for specialists but also for the general public. It was Atiya who, after many lively debates with the publishers and their readers, had the words ' Coptology' and '

Coptologist Coptology is the science of Coptic studies, the study of the Coptic language and Coptic literature.What is Cop ...

' introduced into the English language. He could speak English, Arabic, French, German, Italian, Latin, and to a lesser extent, Spanish, Greek, Coptic, Turkish, Welsh, and Dutch.

Academic career

*Honorary Professor of Medieval (including Oriental) History for Kahle's Orientalisches Seminar in Bonn, Germany 1935-1939 *Professor of Medieval History at Cairo University 1939–1942. *Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Arts (1949–1950) and Chairman of the History Department at Alexandria University 1952–1954. *Medieval Academy Visiting Professor of Arabic Studies at University of Michigan. *Positions at the Union Theological Seminary and Columbia University. *Patten Visiting Professor and Lecturer at Indiana University1957 *Professor of Arabic and Islamic History at Princeton University (1957–1958). *Professor of Languages and History at University of Utah 1959.

Awards

*Earned a B.A. with first-class honors in Medieval and Modern History University of Liverpool in England 1931. *Ph.D. in Arabic and Islamic Studies University of London 1933. *Awarded a D.Litt.( Doctor of Letters) University of Liverpool 1938. *Granted the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters and honorary Doctor of Laws (LL.D.), Brigham Young University United States 1967.

Publications

*''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'' (1955). ASIN B0006AU4NM. *''The Coptic Encyclopedia'', vol. 1 (1991). *''The Copts and Christian Civilization'' (1979). . *''Crusade, Commerce and Culture'' (1962). ISBN ASIN B0000CLOTM. *''The Crusade'' (1977). . *''The Crusade: Historiography and Bibliography'' (1962). ASIN B0000CLOU1. *''The Crusade in the Later Middle Ages'' (1938). *''The Crusade of Nicopolis'' (1934). *''The Crusade'' (1962). .Atiya, A. Suryal. (1962)
The crusade
Bloomington: Indiana University Press. *''Egypt and Aragon: Embassies and Diplomatic Correspondence Between 1300 and 1330 A.D.'' (1966). ASIN B0007J1LYI. *''A Fourteenth Century Encyclopedist from Alexandria'' (1977). ASIN B0006XYA4I. About

Muḥammad ibn al-Ḳāsim al-Nuwayrī al-Iskandarānī Muḥammad ibn al-Ḳāsim al-Nuwayrī al-Iskandarānī al-Mālikī (fl. 1365–1373) was a Muslim historian and native of Alexandria in the tradition of secular local historiography. He wrote a three-volume history ostensibly of the Cypriot-led c ...

, whose three-volume history of Alexandria Atiya edited and published in six volumes. *''A History of Eastern Christianity'' (1980). . This is an expanded edition of the first edition published in 1968. ASIN B000IOZ7AG. *''The Monastery of St Catherine and the Mount Sinai Expedition'' (1952). ASIN B0007EBOK4. *Atiya published approximately twenty books, many of which are multi-volume projects also journal articles, book chapters, and encyclopedia articles, including authoring or co-authoring dozens in the monumental Coptic Encyclopedia.

References

External links