Dr. Aziz Suryal Atiya and the Establishment of the Middle East Center and the Aziz S. Atiya Library for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Utah

Aziz Suryal Atiya was an Egyptian Coptic Studies expert, historian and orientalist specializing in the study of the Crusades era. He published several important books, including primarily The Crusades in the Later Middle Ages (1938). He contributed to the creation of the Institute of Coptic Studies in Cairo in the 1950s. He was also the originator and founder of the Middle East Center at the University of Utah, which today is one of the most important centers of wide science research on the Middle East. This article discusses the background and circumstances of the establishment of the Middle East Center and the Aziz S. Atiya Library for Middle Eastern Studies, both at the Univer­sity of Utah, which is the fifth largest institution of its kind in North America.