Aziz Suryal Atiya

Professor Aziz Suryal Atiya (Arabic: عزيز سوريال عطية‎; July 5, 1898 - September 24, 1988) was a prominent Coptologist who was a Coptic historian and scholar and an expert in Islamic and Crusades studies. Professor Atiya was the founder of the Institute of Coptic Studies in Cairo in 1950s, and was also the founder of the Middle East Center, University of Utah.. His library, The Aziz Atiya Library for Middle East Studies at University of Utah, is ... more

Professor Aziz Suryal Atiya (Arabic: عزيز سوريال عطية‎; July 5, 1898 - September 24, 1988) was a prominent Coptologist who was a Coptic historian and scholar and an expert in Islamic and Crusades studies. Professor Atiya was the founder of the Institute of Coptic Studies in Cairo in 1950s, and was also the founder of the Middle East Center, University of Utah.. His library, The Aziz Atiya Library for Middle East Studies at University of Utah, is considered the fifth largest such collection in North America and is recognized internationally as a major research library in this field. . He was married, and father of two children. Professor Atiya published a large study 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... less