Daniel C. Peterson


Daniel Carl Peterson is a retired professor of Islamic Studies and Arabic in the Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages at Brigham Young University.

Career

A native of southern California, Peterson received a bachelor's degree in Greek and philosophy from BYU and, after several years of study in Jerusalem and Cairo, earned a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Peterson was a professor of Islamic Studies and Arabic at BYU, where he taught courses in Arabic language and Islamic religion, history and culture. He has authored several books and numerous articles on Islamic and Latter-day Saint topics.
He also founded and served as director of BYU's Middle Eastern Texts Initiative from 1992–2010.
Peterson has served in various capacities including chairman of the board for what is now known as BYU's Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship. In 2007, in recognition of his establishment of the Middle Eastern Texts Initiative, Peterson was named a Utah Academy Fellow and declared a lifetime member of the Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters.
Peterson retired from BYU on July 1, 2021, but is still active in several public non-scholarly projects, including the production of a feature film that tells the story of the three witnesses of the Book of Mormon.

Apologetics

Peterson is known for his work as an apologist and scholar on subjects dealing with claims of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, of which he is a member. He is the founding editor-in-chief of the FARMS Review, a periodical produced by the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, serving since 1989. The institute replaced Peterson as editor in June 2012.
Peterson is also a regular participant in online fora about Mormonism where he discusses the Latter-day Saint faith and its apologetics. One of his projects has been the development of a website featuring the testimonies of Latter-day Saint scholars. The site is currently entitled Latter-day Saint Scholars Testify and is part of FAIR. As of 2025 it hosts 357 testimonies.
Peterson is the first and current editor-in-chief of ''Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship.''

Personal life

Peterson served as a missionary in the Switzerland Zurich Mission, with Edwin Q. Cannon serving as his mission president. Peterson later served on the Church's Gospel Doctrine Committee and as a bishop.
Peterson and his wife, the former Deborah Stephens, have three sons.

Publications

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