Aziz Suryal Atiya

Aziz Suryal Atiya
عزيز سوريال عطية
Ⲁⲍⲓⲍ Ⲥⲟⲩⲣⲓⲁⲗ Ⲁϯⲁ
University of Michigan faculty portrait of Atiya
Born( 1898-07-04)July 4, 1898
DiedSeptember 24, 1988 (1988-09-25) (aged 90)
NationalityEgyptian
Alma materUniversity of Liverpool (BA)
University of London (PhD)
AwardsUniversity of Liverpool (DLitt, 1938)
Brigham Young University (LLD, 1967)
Scientific career
FieldsCoptology
InstitutionsCairo University
Alexandria University
Institute of Coptic Studies
Princeton University
University of Utah

Aziz Suryal Atiya (Arabic: عزيز سوريال عطية, Coptic: Ⲁⲍⲓⲍ Ⲥⲟⲩⲣⲓⲁⲗ Ⲁϯⲁ; July 5, 1898 – September 24, 1988)[1] was an Egyptian Coptologist who was a Coptic historian and scholar and an expert in Islamic and Crusades studies.

Atiya was the founder of the Institute of Coptic Studies in Cairo in the 1950s, and was also the founder of the Middle East Center, University of Utah.[2]

His library, the Aziz Atiya Library for Middle East Studies at University of Utah, is considered the fifth largest of such collection in North America.[3]

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.