Eli Smith was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 Protestant Missionary

Missionary

A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...

 and scholar, born at Northford, Conn.  He graduated from Yale

Yale College

Yale College was the official name of Yale University from 1718 to 1887. The name now refers to the undergraduate part of the university. Each undergraduate student is assigned to one of 12 residential colleges.-Residential colleges:...

 in 1821 and from Andover Theological Seminary in 1826. He worked in Malta

Malta

Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...

 until 1829, then in company with H. G. O. Dwight

Harrison Gray Otis Dwight

Harrison Gray Otis Dwight was an American Congregational missionary.-Biography:Harrison Gray Otis Dwight was born on November 22, 1803 in Conway, Massachusetts...

 traveled through Armenia

Armenia

Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...

 and Georgia

Georgia (country)

Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...

 to Persia

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

. They published their observations, Missionary Researches in Armenia in 1833 in two volumes. Eli Smith settled in Beirut in 1833. Along with Edward Robinson

Edward Robinson (scholar)

Edward Robinson was an American biblical scholar, known as the “Father of Biblical Geography.” He has been referred to as the “founder of modern Palestinology.” -Biography:...

, he made two trips to the Holy Land

Holy Land

The Holy Land is a term which in Judaism refers to the Kingdom of Israel as defined in the Tanakh. For Jews, the Land's identifiction of being Holy is defined in Judaism by its differentiation from other lands by virtue of the practice of Judaism often possible only in the Land of Israel...

, acting as an interpreter for Robinson in his quest to identify and record biblical place names in Palestine. He is known for bringing the first printing press with Arabic type to Syria. He went on to pursue the task which he considered to be his life's work: translation of the Bible

Bible

The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...

 into Arabic

Arabic language

Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

. Although he died before completing the task, the work was completed by C. V. Van Dyck

Cornelius Van Allen Van Dyck

Cornelius Van Alen Van Dyck, M.D. was an American missionary and translator of the Bible into Arabic.He was born at Kinderhook, NY, and educated at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, from which he graduated as M.D. in 1839...

of the Syrian Mission and published in 1860 to 1865.