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Show AZIZ SURYAL ATIYA Historian, writer and teacher, Professor Aziz Suryal Atiya has had a long and varied career extending to the Old World and the New. Having taught in various institutions in England, Germany, Switzerland and the Middle East, he also lectured in no less than twenty American Universities since he came to this country as first Fulbright exchange professor from Egypt in 1950-51. During his present visit to America, he spent last year as Medieval Academy Visiting Professor of Islamic and Near Eastern Studies in the University of Michigan. This year, he has been selected as Henry W . Luce Professor of World Christianity at Union Theological Seminary in N e w York. Simultaneously he holds the Visiting Professorship of History at the Near and Middle East Institute in Columbia University. In his country of origin Dr. Atiya served in various capacities in the Egyptian universities and in the Ministry of Education. In 1950 he retired from the chairmanship of the Department of History in the University of Alexandria to become co-founder and first President of Coptic Studies in Cairo. As an author of some forty books, monographs and articles in three languages, his publications have appeared in six countries and cover a wide range of scholarship. T o the historian he is best known by his work on "The Crusade in the Later Middle Ages," a classic in its field, which the late Professor John L. La Monte described in Speculum as "a really epoch-making work in crusading historiography." T o the Orientalist he is credited with the edition of a number of important original Arabic manuscript texts, of which the most complex deals with the Age of Saladin. To the archaeologist and Biblical scholar he will be remembered for his contribution to the Mount Sinai Expedition, which microfilmed for the Library of Congress many pages of priceless manuscripts in twelve languages. Dr. Atiya was the editor of the Sinai Arabic collection on which he published a volume printed by the John Hopkins University Press. It was in the course of this expedition that he discovered the manuscript which he called "Codex Arabicus," a unique Biblical palimpsest on ancient parchment with five layers of writing in three languages - Syriac, Greek and Arabic - dating from the fourth to the ninth centuries. Equipped with western methods of research together with a wide knowledge of Western and Middle Eastern languages, both classical and modern, Dr. Atiya has devoted many years of his life to the study of the relations between the Near East and the West. His scholarly pursuits, contacts, and experiences in both the Near East and West qualify him as an interpreter of the relations between these two important areas of the world. PROGRAM CRUSADE, COMMERCE AND CULTURE Chapters in the Relations between the Near East and the West February 20 Scope of lectures: Crusade, Commerce and Culture. Significance of East-West Relations. Series of Problems and Attempts at a Solution. Spiritual Frontiers of Europe and Legacy of Hellenistic Mind across the Ages. The Eastern Question in the Middle Ages. The Byzantine Solution. The Caroling-ian Solution. East-West Contacts in Spain, Sicily and Palestine. February 27 The Frankish Solution of the Eastern Question: the Crusade. Old Concepts and New Ideas. Definition. Historiography. Three Phases. Analysis and Survey. The Later Crusades. Age of Propaganda: Ramon Lull, Marino Sanudo and Philippe de Mezieres. Expeditions to Asia Minor, Egypt, North Africa and the Balkans. The Crusade of Nicopolis and its Aftermath. March 6 The Turco-Mamluk Solution of the Eastern Question: the Counter- Crusade. Muslim Propaganda. Literary Analysis. Egypt versus Armenia, Cyprus and Rhodes. Turkey in Europe: Constantinople, Vienna and Lepanto. Oriental Christians. Tartars. Results of Crusades. March 13 Commerce in the Levant. Routes. Emporia. Commodities. Trade System. Corporations and Capitalists. Rise and Decline of Mediterranean Commerce. Causes and Effects. March 20 Muslim Civilization and Culture in the Middle Ages. Arabic rendering of Greek learning. The Exact Sciences: Mathematics, Physics and Alchemy, Botany and Zoology, Astronomy and Geography, Medicine. Art and Architecture. Letters, Philology and Philosophy. Education. March 27 The Near East in Modern History. Lethargy and the Awakening. Western Colonialism and Imperialism. Arab Aspirations and Independence. Nationalism and the Changing M a p of the Middle East. Suez and Oil. Israel and Consequences. Eyes on the United Nations and America. Decline of the West. Antagonism between Eastern and Western Cultures. Whither America? |