Biography

Cornelius Van Alen Van Dyck (August 13, 1818 – November 13, 1895) was an American missionary and translator of the Bible into Arabic. He was educated at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, from which he graduated as M.D. in 1839. In 1840 he was sent to Lebanon by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions as a medical missionary for the Dutch Reformed Church, and was stationed at Beirut among other places. He studied Arabic in Beirut. In June 1843 he moved to 'Abeih, where, with W.M.Thomson, he organized a secondary school for training evangelical ministers. He saw that there was very little written teaching material in Arabic and undertook the task of creating textbooks. He completed his translation of the Arabic bible in 1865. Cornelius Van Alen Van Dyck was the brother of William Henry Van Dyck. He was mentioned in the letter 18060817FWS_WHS.