Brigham Young University honored U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett Tuesday for his help funding a Middle Eastern literature research project.

Bennett, R-Utah, has helped to secure $750,000 for the Middle Eastern Texts Initiative, a project that BYU professors and others have been working on for 15 years.

Most of the money, $500,000, was allocated in 2005. Bennett has requested $250,000 more.

The researchers are finding, translating and publishing works by philosophers and theologians who wrote mostly in Arabic during the Golden Age of Islam more than 1,000 years ago.

So far, the project has published 13 volumes.

Daniel Peterson, who directs the initiative, said the work is important to building understanding and respect with the Islamic world.

"It's an important thing to help people in the West understand where Islamic civilization is coming from," Peterson said.

Bennett said the project is important because it demonstrates respect for the Islamic world that will reap large dividends.

Researchers met with Bennett and officials from the Library of Congress on Tuesday afternoon in Washington, D.C. The researchers presented Bennett and others with works produced by the project as tribute.

Bennett received a volume from the series titles The Medical Works of Moses Maimonides, a collection of poems by Saint Ephrem of Syria and a work by Christian writer Theodore Abu Qurrah.

Bennett said he plans to look at the texts, but he won't read them all the way through.

Peterson said the process of collection and translation is long and meticulous.

The researchers have to edit the texts in both Arabic and English. Because there are places where the original Arabic is missing, they have to revert back to Hebrew and Greek translations.

"It's substantial," Peterson said. "Sometimes I'm astonished at how hard this is to do."

BYU spokesman Michael Smart said the university often receives federal funding for projects.

Peterson said he doesn't like it when federal money is wasted, but he thinks this project is worth the expenditure.

"I'm normally opposed, very opposed, to anything that looks like pork," Peterson said. "This one seems to be pretty worthwhile. Of course it would, because it's mine."

Brittani Lusk can be reached at 344-2549 or at blusk@heraldextra.com.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page D2.