Aziz S. Atiya Collection - Middle East Library - Marriott Library Special Collections

University of Utah

Marriott Library

Special Collections

Middle East Library

Aziz S. Atiya Collection

The Aziz S. Atiya Papers (1927-1991) contains documents relating to the life of Dr. Atiya (1898-1988), a scholar in the areas of Medieval, Coptic, and Islamic studies, and founder and director of the University of Utah’s Middle East Center and Library. See a Biography of Aziz S. Atiya.

The Aziz S. Atiya collection is comprised of 71 boxes. The general contents of these boxes are listed at the right. There is also a Subject Index for the original 39 boxes of the collection. There is no index for boxes 40-71.

Materials of the collection include curriculum vitae, honorary documents, membership cards, contracts, royalty information, personal and academic correspondence, memos, reports, class schedules and materials, notebooks, lecture notes, academic and financial documents, articles, publications, newsletters, news clippings, research materials, offprints, book reviews, programs, memorial materials, biographies, and maps.

The collection was donated in five separate sections.
Boxes 1-39 were donated together in 1997 by the Middle East Library.

Boxes 1-3

Boxes 1-3, dating from 1931 to 1979, contain personal materials, including a curricula vita, honorary documents and memberships, employment contracts, Atiya’s degree certificate from the University of Liverpool, and information relating to royalties from some of his publications.

Boxes 4-10

Personal and academic correspondence, correspondence regarding Atiya’s year-long visit to America, and correspondence in Arabic are in boxes 4-10 and date from 1931 to 1979. All personal and academic correspondence in English is arranged alphabetically according to the person who sent the letter or to whom Atiya wrote.

All Arabic correspondence, however, is in chronological order due to the difficulty of translating or transliterating names.

Boxes 11-21

Materials concerning the University of Utah from 1936 to 1984 are in boxes 11-21, including news clippings, memos, correspondence, letters of reference, academic documents, contracts, class schedules, test questions, class materials, receipts, packing lists, and financial documents. All reference letters in English have been arranged alphabetically by the name for whom the letter of reference was written.

Boxes 22-33

Boxes 22-33 date from 1934 to 1978 and contain subject files with information on Baldwin Wallace College, Atiya’s expedition to Mount Sinai, various institutions and organizations, international congresses and meetings, Arab-Israeli relations, and some of Atiya’s research on the Coptic Church.

Boxes 34-37

Writings by Atiya and related materials are in boxes 34-37. These materials date from 1938 to 1979 and include manuscript drafts, correspondence, book reviews, offprints of articles by Atiya, and lectures and speeches.

Boxes 38-39

Materials relating to Atiya’s many speaking engagements are in box 38, while box 39 contains miscellaneous documents. These materials date from 1949 to 1979.

Boxes 40-41

The material in boxes 40 and 41, dating from 1959 to 1972, was donated in 1976 and 1991 and includes materials relating primarily to the Joseph Smith 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, Atiya discovered the Joseph Smith Egyptian papyri, 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 Saint. 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. These boxes contain a transcribed interview of Atiya by Everett L. Cooley and Marian sheets; correspondence; photocopied material regarding the Book of Abraham; a paper on Atiya’s Mount Sinai expedition; a biography of Dr. Libib Habuchi, a noted Nubian scholar; copies of the issue of the Improvement Era that features Joseph Smith and the papyri in English and other languages; programs from Atiya’s lectures and displays, and Dr. Philip B. Price’s “Ethiopian Journal,” recording his journey to Ethiopia.

Boxes 42-53

The materials in boxes 42-53, as well as folder 4 of box 60, were donated in 1997 upon cleaning out the campus office of Atiya’s widow, Lola Atiya. Boxes 42-43, dating from 1962 to 1990, contain personal materials, primarily correspondence, relating to Atiya’s death in 1988. Included are letters of condolence, letters regarding gifts to the University in memory of Atiya, a memorial tribute, Atiya’s honorary Ph.D. from Baldwin-Wallace College, and a copy of Joseph Smith’s Egyptian Alphabet and Grammar. Materials relating to Atiya’s various book and article publications, including manuscript drafts, correspondence, news clippings, notes, essays, reports, book reviews, publisher’s galleys, and articles, are in boxes 44-49 and date from 1951 to 1977. Boxes 50-53 contain notebooks and class materials from Atiya’s scholarly work at the University of Liverpool in England, and date from 1927 to 1929. Folder 4 of box 60 holds oversize certificates, diplomas, and other items related to Atiya’s education.

Boxes 54-58

Boxes 54-58 were donated in 1997 by the Middle East Library, and originated in Atiya’s personal office files. The materials date from 1928 to 1990 and include primarily papers by students, offprints and publications by a variety of scholars, and materials relating to the Coptic Encyclopedia. Also included are correspondence, a grant proposal, news clippings, travel documents, reports, funeral programs, and newsletters.

Boxes 59-60

Box 59 and folders 1-3 of box 60 were donated by the Middle East Library in 1998. Dating from 1929 to 1991, the personal and academic materials contained in these two boxes include honorary degrees, certificates, travel documents, book reviews, correspondence, offprints and publications, and materials relating to the Coptic Encyclopedia.

Boxes 61-71

This addendum to the Aziz S. Atiya Papers (1928-1983) contains lectures, edited manuscripts, drafts, articles, a published book, reports, correspondence, and Atiya’s Masters thesis. In this addition to his collection are the rough drafts and edits of his books. The addendum collection was donated by Ragai Makar in March 1999.

Photographs (14) donated with these materials have been separated from the collection and transferred to the Multimedia Section of the Manuscripts Division. The Aziz S. Atiya manuscript collection described here is numerically designated as: P0485.