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from every country on earth, and living chiefly in Jerusalem, Hebron, Tiberius, Safed, and the Jewish colonies. But the Jews of Damascus (5,000), Aleppo (15,000), and Beirut (5,000) are natives, speaking the Arabic, and many of them possess great wealth (see ZIONISM).

VI. Modern Protestant. Missions in Syria. 1. American Presbyterian: The first modern Protestant mission to Syria began in Jan., 1819, when Revs. Pliny Fisk (q.v.) and Levi-Parsons, missionaries of the A. B. C. F. M., landed in Smyrna. In

1. Origins Feb., 1821, Parsons reached Jerusalem. and Work. In 1823 Messrs. Fisk, Jonas King, from America, and Way, of the London Jews Society, reached Beirut, and summered in Lebanon. Jerusalem and Beirut continued for years the two centers of American missionary labor, until 1843, when the American mission was withdrawn from Jerusalem, and confined to Syria proper, leaving Palestine to the Church Missionary Society. In 1871 the Syria mission of the American Board was transferred to the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions of the United States, owing to the then recent reunion of the two branches of the Presbyterian Church. The whole number of American missionaries laboring in Syria under these two boards from 1823 to 1910 is as follows: male missionaries, 60; female missionaries, 93; printers, 4; total, 157. The missionaries were at first directed to attempt the reform of the oriental churches, leaving the converts within the oriental communions; but it soon became necessary to organize a distinct Oriental Evangelical Church. Thirty-four native Evangelical churches have been organized, of which 14 have native ordained pastors, and 27 licensed preachers aid in the work of, evangelization. The number of converts is about 2,800, of whom 1,100 are women. Eighty Sunday-schools contain about 7,000 scholars. The number of Protestant adherents is about 8,000. Medical mission work has received especial attention in a well-equipped hospital at Tripoli and in medical practise among the poor in the interior towns and villages. The first refuge and sanatorium for tuberculous patients was opened at Tunieh in 1909, with summer quarters at Shebainyeh.

The great work undertaken by the American Syria Mission, however, is not merely for the three millions in Syria, but, through the medium of the

Arabic Scriptures and Christian Arabic 2. Publiea. literature, for the 235,000,000 of the

inal .tongues into Arabic was begun in 1848 by Dr. Eli Smith, who labored assiduously until his death, Jan. 11, 1857. Only Genesis, Exodus, and the first sixteen chapters of Matthew had received his final revision; but he had revised and nearly prepared for the press the whole of the New Testament, and all except Jeremiah, Lamentations, and the last fourteen chapters of Isaiah, of the Old Testament. On his death, Rev. Cornelius Van Alan Van Dyck continued the work of translation. In 1860 the New Testament was completed, and issued from the press; and in 1865 the entire Bible was finished, and sent forth to the world. Dr. Smith had prepared in 1837, with the aid of Homan Hal-

lock, the punches of a new font of Arabic type, made from the best specimens of Arabic calligraphy. The type was cast by Tauchnitz, in Leipsic. This type, which at first was anathematized by the religious heads of the oriental sects, has beenadopted by the Turkish government journals, the Dominican press at Mosul, the Greek, and other native presses, and the Leipsic Arabic press. Seven complete editions of the Arabic Bible have been electrotyped at the American Press at Beirut at the expense of the American Bible Society, together, with many portions in various types of different. books of the. Old and New Testaments. Of the seven complete editions four are unpointed except where ambiguity would result without .the vowels and two are completely voweled. One is a second font Reference Bible, and two editions of a first font Reference Bible have been printed from types. An entirely new edition of the largest first font Reference Bible is now in preparation, with a new set of references based upon the standard American and English editions. The adaptation of the new references was begun in 1908 by the present editor, Rev. F. E. Hoskins, D.D., and, with the making of the plates for about 1,450 pages, can not be completed before 1914. A photographic edition of the first font pointed Bible has also been issued in London by the British and .Foreign Bible Society. The Arabic Bible, during the past thirty-seven years, has been distributed throughout Syria and Palestine, Mesopotamia, Egypt, in Asia Minor, Tunis, Algiers, Tripoli, Morocco, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Zanzibar, Aden, Bagdad, India, China, and wherever Syrian emigrants are found in the United States, South America, and Australia. Between July 1, 1872, and Dec. 31, 1909, there have been printed in Beirut, 158,998 complete Bibles, 210,522 complete New Testaments and 972,746 parts, making a total of 1,342,266 volumes of the Arabic Scriptures. In addition to this, nearly 500 different books have been, printed at the Beirut press; comprising works on.medicipe, surgery, anatomy and physiology, chemistry, natural

`philosophy, botany, astronomy, the higher mathematics, geography with atlases, grammar, arithmetic, history, theology, homiletics,. church history, evidences of Christianity, mental philosophy, hermeneutics, . etc., together with religious books and tracts, and illustrated books for the young, and weekly and monthly journals. Butrus Bistany, a learned convert from the Maronite faith, who aided Dr. Eli Smith in the Bible translation, published, in 1870, a fine dictionary of the Arabic language (2 vols., 8vo, 1,200 pages) and began in 1872 an Arabic encyclopedia (12 vols., 8vo, 800 pages each), of which vol. xi. is completed. During - the year 1909, 39,231,000 pages in Arabic were printed' at the Beirut press, making 962,577,000 from the foundation of the press. The demand for the Beirut publications is greater in Egypt than in any other country. The Beirut press has an Arabic type foundry and electrotype apparatus, five steam presses, six hand presses, hydraulic, hot rolling, and embossing machines, and sixty-two employees.. The American Bible Society and the American and London Religious Tract Societies have given substantial aid in the. printing and publishing work of the mission.