A financial gift from the Sultan of Oman will establish a Middle East studies professorship at the College of William and Mary.
The college said Sultan Qaboos bin Said's contribution will fully fund and endow a professorship that will support the teaching and research of Middle Eastern culture. It caps the school's newly designed Asian and Middle Eastern studies program.
College and Omani officials signed an agreement Monday at a ceremony at the Williamsburg school. School officials declined to disclose the amount of the gift.
Fifteen other colleges that have established similar Qaboos professorships include Harvard and Georgetown universities; Leiden University in the Netherlands; Peking University; Tokyo University; the University of Melbourne; and Oxford and Cambridge universities in England.