Sidon or Saida is the third-largest city in Lebanon. It is located in the South Governorate, of which it is the capital, on the Mediterranean coast. Tyre to the south and Lebanese capital Beirut to the north are both about 40 kilometres away. Sidon has a population of about 80,000 within city limits, while its metropolitan area has more than a quarter-million inhabitants.
Butrus al-Bustani was a writer and scholar from present day Lebanon. He was a major figure in the Nahda, which began in Egypt in the late 19th century and spread to the Middle East.
The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) was among the first American Christian missionary organizations. It was created in 1810 by recent graduates of Williams College. In the 19th century it was the largest and most important of American missionary organizations and consisted of participants from Protestant Reformed traditions such as Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and German Reformed churches.
Cornelius Van Alen Van Dyck, M.D. was an American missionary physician, teacher and translator of the Protestant Bible into Arabic.
Mary Rebecca Stewart Bird (1859–1914) was a Church Mission Society (CMS) missionary who pioneered Christian ministry to Iranian women and women's medical missions in the CMS.
The EMMS Nazareth Hospital, also known as Scottish Hospital and English Hospital, is the Christian community hospital in Nazareth, Israel. It was founded as a Christian mission by Dr. Kaloost Vartan and the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society in 1861. The hospital now houses 147 beds, employs over 500 staff, and receives over 50,000 visits annually.
Mary Hannah Fulton was a medical missionary sent to South China by the Presbyterian Church. She began her work by setting up a dispensary in Kwai Ping, then continued by working with the Canton Hospital. Dr. Fulton set up a college to train women in medicine, the Hackett Medical College for Women, and served as the dean there. In addition, she preached the Presbyterian faith and ultimately began a multi-denominational Christian congregation in Shanghai. There she also translated English medical volumes into Chinese. She died in Pasadena, California at the age of 72.
Arley Isabel Munson Hare, MD was an American physician, surgeon, author, and lecturer. As a young woman in the early 20th century, Munson was a pioneer in the field of medical mission work with the Wesleyan Methodist Mission in Medak, Andhra Pradesh, India. Along with evangelical motives, Munson had a special interest in the state of the health of Indian women and children and in the treatment of epidemics such as cholera or tuberculosis.
William McClure Thomson was an American Protestant missionary who worked in Ottoman Syria. After spending 25 years in Syria, he published a bestselling book that described his experiences and observations during his travels. He used his knowledge of the region to illustrate and explain passages from the Bible, giving readers a new perspective on the scriptures.
Dr. Mary West Niles was born in Watertown, Wisconsin to Rev. William Allen Niles and Mary Elizabeth Niles. Dr Niles played an important role in the Canton Medical Missionary Society as the first woman missionary physician at the Canton Hospital. She was a pioneer physician to open school for the Blind in China, the Mingxin School (1889-1932), and in translating the English Braille system into the Cantonese /Chinese language by learning it herself first.
Nancie Monelle Mansell was an American physician. She was the second physician sent out by the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the first woman doctor who went out alone as a missionary into an Indian Princely State. Mansell fought against Indian baby marriages, pleading that the marriageable age of girls be raised to 14 years.
Harriet Merrick Warren was an American editor. She was also an untiring worker in the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, its first recording secretary, and for years, president of the New England Branch. Warren is remembered as a "major leader of 'Woman's Work for Woman'" movement.
Reverend James Cantine, D.D. was an American missionary, scholar, and traveler. While studying at New Brunswick Theological Seminary in New Jersey, he co-founded the Arabian Mission with John Lansing and Samuel Marinus Zwemer. The mission exists today as the American Mission Hospital of Bahrain. He was a missionary for forty years, which included establishing the first mission for the Reformed Church in Arabia, which was also the first mission in eastern Arabia. Between 1891 and 1929, he established mission posts, medical clinics, and churches in Arabia.
The Canton Hospital (廣州博濟醫院) or Ophthalmic Hospital in Canton, also known as the Canton Pok Tsai Hospital, was founded by Protestant medical missionary Peter Parker in Canton, China on November 4, 1835. Known as Sun Yet Sen Memorial Hospital and Second Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yet Sen University, it treated thousands of patients in need, became the center for the Medical Missionary Society in China, and still exists today as one of the most prestigious ophthalmic institutes in the world.
Frederick Charles Roberts was an English physician and medical missionary who served with the London Missionary Society in Mongolia and China. Roberts spent his entire career as a practicing physician in East Asia, dying in China after seven years of mission work. He is best known for his contributions as the sole medical provider and second director at the Tientsin Mission Hospital and Dispensary in China, where he treated an estimated 120-150 patients a day, and for his famine relief efforts in the rural districts outside Tientsin. He also taught at the first Western medical school in China and is the namesake of Roberts Memorial Hospital, which was established in T'sangchou, China in 1903.
Lucinda L. Combs-Stritmatter was an American physician who was the first female medical missionary to provide medical care in China. She is credited with establishing the first women's hospital in Beijing. Combs was a pioneer in women's medical care while serving the Women's Foreign Ministry Society's North China Mission for seven years.
Sarah Lanman Smith was a 19th-century American Christian missionary, memoirist, and school founder. In 1835, she established the American School for Girls, which became the Lebanese American University.
Ruth Robertson Berrey was an American pediatrician, educator, and a medical missionary to Nigeria. Berrey was active within the Alabama Pediatric Society and became a fellow in the American Academy of Pediatrics. As a medical missionary, she helped children in Nigeria and helped reduce leprosy in the population. As a public health officer in four Alabama counties, she conducted clinics for the detection of tuberculosis, cancer, diabetes, sickle cell anemia, and other diseases.
Frances Perkins Andrews Shepard was an American physician who worked as a missionary and university lecturer in Turkey. As a result of her gender, she was unable to work as a physician. However, she was able to work as a nurse and midwife, as well as to lecture in medical botany at the Medical Department of the Central Turkey College. She also assisted widows and orphans to support themselves by providing them with the ability to sell goods they crafted. She made a scientifically significant botanical collection in and around the area she lived sending these specimens to George Edward Post thus assisting with his publication The Flora of Syria, Palestine and Sinai. Her collection is held in the Herbarium of the American University of Beirut and her type specimens are held at Conservatory and Botanical Garden of the City of Geneva.
Jesse Krekore Marden was an American physician and hospital administrator who was a leader of medical relief efforts during the Armenian Genocide through his work for Near East Relief.
