Background
Van Dyck was born on August 13, 1818, at Kinderhook, New York. He was the son of Henry L. and Catherine (Van Alen) Van Dyck.
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pathologist physician translator academic
Van Dyck was born on August 13, 1818, at Kinderhook, New York. He was the son of Henry L. and Catherine (Van Alen) Van Dyck.
After preparation at Kinderhook Academy, Van Dyck attended Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, graduating in 1839. In January 1841, he was transferred to Beirut, where he studied Arabic intensively under his lifelong friend Butrus al-Bustani, the lexicographer, Nasif al-Yaziji, a poet of distinction, and Yusuf al-Asir, a Moslem mufti.
A tenacious memory and natural linguistic ability enabled him to acquire rapidly a thorough knowledge of both speech and literature.
Appointed a missionary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, Van Dyck sailed from Boston for Syria in January 1840, and in April reached Beirut. After accompanying William McClure Thomson on an extensive tour through northern Syria, he went in July to Jerusalem. In June 1843, he moved to 'Abeih in Lebanon, where he and Dr. Thomson conducted a high school for boys.
During the succeeding six years, he prepared Arabic textbooks on geography, navigation, natural history, algebra, geometry, and plane and spherical trigonometry. These books, later revised, long continued in general use. His geography of Syria and neighboring regions, full of apt quotations from classical Arabic travelers and geographers, had an especially wide popularity. Meanwhile, he was studying theology, and on January 14, 1846, was ordained by the mission.
Three years later, he was transferred to Sidon, his headquarters for extensive medical and preaching tours until November 1857, when he moved to Beirut to continue the translation of the Bible into Arabic which had been begun in 1848 by Eli Smith. Working in close co-operation with the ablest native and European scholars, he completed the work in 1865 and at once proceeded to America to supervise the preparation of electrotype plates.
During his two years in New York, he also taught Hebrew in Union Theological Seminary. Returning to Beirut in September 1867, he became editor of the mission press of its weekly journal al-Nashrah, and, at the same time, professor of pathology in the medical department of the Syrian Protestant College, professor of astronomy in the department of arts and sciences, and director of the astronomical and meteorological observatory. He found time also to carry on medical practice and to write Arabic texts on pathology, chemistry, internal medicine, physical diagnosis, and astronomy.
After resigning his professorship in 1883, he practiced in the Hospital of St. George until 1893, meanwhile publishing in Arabic eight volumes of science primers, a popular volume on astronomy, and a translation of Mrs. E. R. Charles's Chronicles of the Schonberg-Cotta Family (1864). His last work was a translation of Lew Wallace's Ben Hur.
Van Dyck played an important part in the modern renaissance of Arabic literature by showing that it was possible to write correct and idiomatic Arabic in a style so simple as to be readily understood even by the unlearned. Although one of the great pioneer missionary physicians, he is remembered chiefly for his extraordinary mastery of Arabic and his intimate understanding of the people among whom he worked with so complete a lack of offensive condescension that Lebanese and Syrians adopted him as one of themselves. Rue Van Dyck is a street in Beirut that was named in his honor.
Van Dyck has long been respected by Arabs for his intimate knowledge of their history, culture, language, and proverbs, for his ability to work among Syrians without condescension, and especially for his contribution to the revival of Arabic literature in the nineteenth century.
On December 23, 1842, Van Dyck married Julia, daughter of Peter Abbott, formerly British consul general in Beirut.
September 3, 1809 — January 22, 1888 Was an American newspaper publisher, financier and politician from New York.
12 December 1827 - 18 August 1918
4 April 1851 - 23 February 1936
29 March 1871 - 20 March 1908
3 January 1848 - 10 July 1849
21 December 1857 - 17 May 1939
