Reference letters by Dr. Aziz S. Atiya for candidates to fill library positions at McGill University and The University of Texas at Austin

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• • 0 February I, 1968 0r. Charles J. Adams, Director Institute of Islamic Studies McGill University Montreal, Quebec Canada Dear Dr. Adams5 The Executive Secretary of our Association for Middle Eastern Studies, Dr. William Zarfcaan, has just written tl advise me of the existence of an opening at your Institute for a qualified librarian with experience in Near Sast Library work. I think we have that person at present and, though we should have liked to retain him on our staff, it would seem physically and financially impossible because we had already employed three similar specialists. They all came to this country as immigrants including that man. If you have the post still available and would like me to advise him to send a formal application with his credentials, please let me know and I shall be happy to infer*him to do that. In the meantime, I should like to give you a preliminary out­line of his case for advance consideration. The candidate I have in mind, Fawtsi M. Tadros by name, is a graduate with the degree of B.A. from the Institute of Librarianship in Cairo University. He was head of the Exchange Service in the National Egyptian Library in Cairo, and at present we _re using him temporarily as Assistant Librarian in the Middle East Section over and above the other three and it may not be possible for us to continue his servicejfor reasons of work limitations and shortage of funds. During his brief stay here, he has proved his willingness for infinite industry and res­ponsiveness to responsibility. With his main languages being Arabic, English and French, he has enough command over Persian and Turkish to handle shelves of books in those languages. He has shown a serious disposition towards learning, and he will therefore have an open mind to follow your instructions about extending his horizon in those and other languages. He is a very amiable person and his loyalty and obedience to his superiors are sometimes embarrassing. I feel con­fident that he will seirve your institution with unflagging devotion if he were offered the opportunity . Turning to other matters, it was a pleasure to send Dean Frost my acceptance of your kind limitation to me to become external examiner of the thesis on Jesus in the Qur'an. It was a delightful experience for me to visit your Institute in the summer, though I regretted missing your presence. I hope to return some day when you are there and have the privilege of making your personal acquaintance. With highest regards. Very sincerely yours, ASAfcyfc Aziz S. Atiya