Francis Edward Peters, SJ (June 23, 1927 – April 30, 2020), was an American academic. He served as professor emeritus of history, religion and Middle Eastern and Islamic studies at New York University (NYU).

Early life and education

Peters was born in New York City and graduated from Regis High School in Manhattan in 1945. He entered the Jesuits that summer and spent four years at their novitiate at St. Andrew on Hudson in Hyde Park, N.Y. He then studied at St. Louis University for three years, earning his B.A. in 1950 and his M.A. in Latin and Greek in 1952, as well as a licentiate in philosophy awarded by a Pontifical Institute in Rome.

Career

He taught for two years from 1952 to 1954 at Canisius High School in Buffalo, N.Y., and was released from his Jesuit vows in 1954. He earned a degree in Russian language studies from Fordham University in 1956 and completed his Ph.D. in Islamic Studies at Princeton University in 1961. He taught at NYU from 1961 to 2008. Trained in both Islamic studies and in classical Greek and Roman studies, he considered himself a scholar of religion, particularly the comparative study of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. At NYU he served as chairperson of both the Classics and the Middle Eastern Studies departments. He was a visiting professor at a number of other institutions, including several in the Middle East as well as the General Theological Seminary in New York City. He participated in curating exhibitions at the College of the Holy Cross, The British Library, and the New York Public Library.

Death

He died on April 30, 2020, in hospice in Schenectady, N.Y..

Selected works