SALT LAKE CITY — FOX 13 News got a unique opportunity to look back in time with the J. Willard Marriott Library preservation department at the University of Utah.
“We're going to be looking at some of the materials from the Middle East collection, notably some Arabic papyrus fragments,” said Lyuba Basin, rare books librarian at J. Willard Marriott Library.
Papyrus is a type of writing support used mostly in Egypt and parts of the Middle East. Papyrus comes from the Papyrus plant. The plant has been used for over a thousand years, and it still exists.
“We are currently in the process of doing some conservation work in treatment to the papyrus to ensure that they can be used for decades and decades to come,” Basin shared.
It’s part of a larger collection of paper samples and parchment here at the university that makes one of the largest collections of Middle Eastern materials in the world. It’s all thanks to one man.
Dr. Aziz Atiya was hired at the University of Utah in the late 1950s to start the Cultural Center at the university, the Middle East Center, and library. According to Basin, with him came a vast number of books that he had collected himself, including these papyrus fragments.
“In Dr. Atiya’s homeland in Egypt, he was well known as a scholar, a researcher, and he also had a lot of connections to book dealers and other bookstores,” Basin explained. “So, he knew the right people to contact.”
The collection dates from the eighth century to the 10th century. While most of the collection are fragments, the writings provide insight culture, politics and economy of Egypt and the broader Middle Eastern world, Basin said.
“There are marriage certificates, there are legal documents, there are tax receipts, there’s some magic involved and some fragments from the Quran,” she added.
The collection of Papyrus was housed by Dr. Atiya’s wife Lola in the 1960s.
"She was using standard treatment techniques known at the time in the 1960s,” said Jeffrey Hunt, conservator at the Preservation Department of the J. Willard Marriott Library. “It’s been 60 years and conservation science has developed since that time. What we are interested in doing now is cleaning them up, removing some of the tape that she put on the on pieces, replacing the glass, making some of the handwriting more legible, if possible.”
The collection is available for anyone to see. But of course, it takes a lot of behind-the-scenes work so that future generations can see this history up close and personal.
“They’re 1,000 years old, 1,200 years old, and it's exciting to be able to participate in treating this material, making it clean and available for researchers,” Hunt said. “That's the job of our department.”
