Eli Smith (September 13, 1801 – January 11, 1857) was an American Protestant missionary and scholar.

Biography

Smith was born in Northford, Connecticut, to Eli and Polly (née Whitney) Smith. He graduated from Yale College in 1821 and from Andover Theological Seminary in 1826. He worked in Malta until 1829, then in company with

H. G. O. Dwight Harrison Gray Otis Dwight (1803–1862) was an American Congregational missionary. Biography Harrison Gray Otis Dwight was born on November 22, 1803 in Conway, Massachusetts. His father was Seth Dwight (1769–1825) and mother was Hannah Stro ...

traveled through Armenia and Georgia to Persia. They published their observations, ''Missionary Researches in Armenia'', in 1833 in two volumes. Smith settled in Beirut in 1833. Along with Edward Robinson, he made two trips to the

Holy Land The Holy Land; Arabic: or is an area roughly located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Eastern Bank of the Jordan River, traditionally synonymous both with the biblical Land of Israel and with the region of Palestine. The term "Holy ...

in 1838 and 1852, acting as an interpreter for Robinson in his quest to identify and record biblical place names in Palestine, which was subsequently published in Robinson's '' Biblical Researches in Palestine''. He is known for bringing the first printing press with Arabic type to

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

. He went on to pursue the task which he considered to be his life's work: translation of the Bible into Arabic. Although he died before completing the task, the work was completed by C. V. Van Dyck of the Syrian Mission and published in 1860 to 1865.

Family

Smith married three times. His first wife was Sarah Lanman Huntington Smith, who was also a missionary. She died in 1836. He then married Maria Ward Chapin, who died in 1842. He married Mehitable (Hetty) Simkins (Butler) Smith on October 7, 1846, in

Northampton, Massachusetts The city of Northampton is the county seat of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of Northampton (including its outer villages, Florence and Leeds) was 29,571. Northampton is known as an acade ...

. His daughter Mary Elizabeth Smith was educated at the

female seminaries A female seminary is a private educational institution for women, popular especially in the United States in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when opportunities in educational institutions for women were scarce. The movement was a sign ...

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

, and

Ipswich, Massachusetts Ipswich is a coastal town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 13,785 at the 2020 census. Home to Willowdale State Forest and Sandy Point State Reservation, Ipswich includes the southern part of Plum Island. A reside ...

, and taught at the Female Seminary at

Mt. Auburn, Cincinnati Mount Auburn Historic District is located in the Mount Auburn neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. It extends along both sides of Auburn Avenue roughly between Ringold Street and William H. Taft Road. The population of Mount Auburn was 5,094 at the ...

. She was listed In the Women's Who's Who of America in 1914–15.

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Biography

Family

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Further reading

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