Smith’s involvement with the Oriental societies

Eli Smith assumed a leading role in correspondence between the Syrian Society for Arts and Sciences (1847–1852) and Western Oriental societies, as already de-picted in chapter I (section 2.4). Since Smith was responsible for the mission library and book printing, he acquired new studies for the mission and also distributed

the Arabs no music to us, but our musicians have found it very difficult, often impossible, to detect that nature of their intervals, or imitate their tunes.”

215 Smith, “A Treatise on Arab Music,” 174: “[He] is my personal friend and correspondent, and one of the most intelligent of his nation whom I have known.” Among Smith’s papers at Har-vard, there are several letters to and from Mishaqa. See ABC 16.8.1., Vol. 5; ABC 50, Box 1–2 (HHL).

216 The manuscript is held by NEST: MS Nr. AP-7.

217 Smith, “A Treatise on Arab Music,” 174.

218 Ibid., 200: “From this I have translated most of the chapter in rhythm, and also the section on the ancient guitar, dealing as freely with it in translating, as with Meshâkah’s work.” Smith was referring to a manuscript from the year 666; its author and title are unnamed.

219 More on these works in appendix I.

its own printed works.²²⁰ This was true of his communications with the German Oriental Society (DMG), and presumably with the Syro-Egyptian Society as well, which was founded in London in 1844. A preamble and membership list from the Syro-Egyptian Society are part of Smith’s collected papers today.²²¹ Eli Smith was also a corresponding member of the American Oriental Society, founded in 1842, and he sent regular reports to the society’s leadership. Rufus Anderson, who was one of the society’s five directors, hoped that his foreign missionaries would par-ticipate in the exchange of ideas with scholars at home. In 1843, he wrote to Smith:

The Address of Mr. Pickering before the American Oriental Society will show you the ex-istence and objects of that new association. The Society may be made an exceedingly useful instrument, and I hope you will write for it, and induce other members of the mission to do the same. … Contributions of this sort will be gratefully received, and scarcely anything in the way of a contribution to the stock of knowledge can come amiss.²²²

Other missionaries in Syria – including Simeon H. Calhoun, William Goodell, Henry De Forest, William M. Thomson, Cornelius Van Dyck and Henry Harris Jessup – were also corresponding members. The JAOS regularly published travel accounts, copies of archaeological inscriptions, translations of Arabic treatises, and announcements of new works by Syrian and American authors in the American Mission Press.²²³ From Beirut, the library of the American Oriental Society re-ceived these new works as well as copies of Arabic manuscripts.²²⁴ As was com-mon practice acom-mong missions at this time,²²⁵ the Americans in Syria sent archaeo-logical artifacts to the American Oriental Society, including ancient bronzes from

220 Many of Smith’s letters to Anderson contained lists of books that Smith sought to acquire.

These books were intended for the mission library, as well as for assistance in the translation of Arabic schoolbooks. See Smith to Anderson (Boston, April 19, 1841): ABC 16.8.1., Vol. 1 (139). Smith also took book orders from the mission’s Syrian helpers and passed them along to the ABCFM. See Smith to Anderson (Beirut, December 16, 1848): ABC 16.8.1., Vol. 1 (176).

221 “Syro-Egyptian Society”: ABC 60 (144), (HHL).

222 Anderson to Smith (Boston, August 21, 1843): ABC 60 (1), (HHL).

223 On the corresponding members, see JAOS 2 (1851): xxxvi, and JAOS 9 (1866): lxx. Mission-aries’ contributions to the journal: Smith’s translation of the “Treatise on Arab Music” (see above); H. A. De Forest, “Notes of a Tour in Mount Lebanon and to the Eastern Side of Lake Hûleh,” JAOS 2 (1851): 237–47; ibid., “Notes on the Ruins in the Bûķa’a and in the Belâd Ba’albek,” JAOS 3 (1853): 349–66; ibid., “Phoenician Inscriptions of Sidon,” JAOS 5 (1856):

227–59; C. Van Dyck, “On the Present Condition of the Medical Profession in Syria,” JAOS 3 (1853): 561–91.

224 In JAOS 9 (1866): viii, “From Rev. H. H. Jessup, dated Beirut, Sept. 19th, 1866: ‘I take pleas-ure in sending you, for the Society, the first volume of Mr. Butrus Bistany’s new Arabic lexicon, the Muhît el Muhît. Mr. Bistany is going on with publishing of the two remaining volumes as rapidly as possible. The price to non-subscribers will be four pounds Sterling for the three volumes. I think you will be pleased with it.’”

225 Nielssen, et al., Protestant Missions and Local Encounters, 7: “Why was collecting material culture seen as a missionary task? Missionary collectors clearly formed a part of what has been termed the ‘culture of travelling’ in a general sense. In the nineteenth century, collection was a most common activity among travellers. … The importance granted to the collection of ethno-graphic artefacts is underlined by the fact that some of the missionary societies even founded their own museums.”

Mount Lebanon²²⁶ and a stone block with a Greek inscription.²²⁷ They also sent contemporary examples of Syrian traditions, such as a head covering worn by mar-ried women in Mount Lebanon.²²⁸

Before Smith traveled to Germany at the end of 1839 so that Karl Tauchnitz could cast the Arabic type in Leipzig, Edward Robinson introduced him to the Ger-man Orientalists Heinrich Leberecht Fleischer (who later founded the DMG) and Emil Rödiger (also a DMG member).²²⁹ After his trip to Germany, Smith stayed in touch with Fleischer and Rödiger. At the inaugural meeting of the DMG in Leipzig in 1845, Smith was named a corresponding member.²³⁰ The society was less in-terested in Smith’s missionary work, and more in his scholarly activities in Syria.

The society’s journal published several excerpts from Eli Smith’s letters, which not only demonstrate Smith’s interest in the society’s scholarly pursuits, but also his enthusiasm for research and his collaborations with Syrian scholars and friends.²³¹

I have been searching relentlessly for artifacts with Phoenician writing, but to no avail. The jewelers here do not just buy old coins, but sometimes cut stones as well. Some time ago I heard of two stones with writing on them similar to what you would recognize as ancient Hebrew;

they had been seen at a jeweler’s in Damascus, but they were sold and gone before I could ask about them. I haven’t been able to learn more about the inscriptions you identified near

’Amschît and in Seilûn.²³²

Smith also encouraged the DMG to send books to the library of the Syrian Society for Arts and Sciences. The German society reported in 1848:

In the meantime, we have sent the library of the promising new society (which we are happy to assist) the first two works supported by our society – Cazwini’s Athar – al – bilâd by Wüsten-feld und Nasif’s²³³ Epistola critica by Mehren […].²³⁴

226 “Additions to the Library and Cabinet of the American Oriental Society. May 1849 – February, 1851. I. By Donation,” JAOS 2 (1851): xxxii.

227 “Additions to the Library and Cabinet of the American Oriental Society. March, 1851 – April, 1852,” JAOS 3 (1853): iv.

228 “Additions to the Library and Cabinet of the American Oriental Society. May 1849 – February, 1851. I. By Donation,” JAOS 2 (1851): xxxii.

229 Robinson to Smith (November 14, 1838): ABC 60 (63), (HHL); Rödiger to Smith (Halle, No-vember 11 and NoNo-vember 25, 1838), (Halle, October 12, 1848): ABC 60 (65), (HHL).

230 Edward Robinson, too, was a corresponding member. See DMG, Jahresbericht der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft für 1845–1846, 152.

231 To learn more about an old manuscript on arithmetic, he asked Mikhaʾil Mishaqa, Nasif Yaziji, Mahud Efendy (“the most learned […] Muslim […] in Damascus”), and Butrus al-Bustani. See Smith to the DMG (Beirut, August 3, 1850), in: ZDMG 4 (1850): 519–20. In 1850, Smith sent copies of thirteen manuscripts with Latin and Greek inscriptions to Leipzig.

The original manuscripts had been collected by his colleague Henry De Forest. See ZDMG 4 (1850): 144.

232 Smith to the DMG (Beirut, August 3, 1850), in: ZDMG 4 (1850): 520. Smith’s original letters no longer exist, according to information provided by the Martin Luther University Halle-Wit-tenberg, where the DMG archive is located. The letters were translated into German by Emil Rödiger and reprinted in the ZDMG.

233 Nasif al-Yaziji.

234 Fleischer, “Gesellschaft der Künste und Wissenschaften in Beirut,” 78–79.

Eli Smith’s collected papers demonstrate that, from this point on, the Syria Mission and the DMG regularly exchanged books, reprints, and copies of archaeological in-scriptions – an early form of scholarly networking between Germany and the Near East.²³⁵ Emil Rödiger, who corresponded personally with Smith, valued Smith’s engagement very much: “Your communications are of great interest to the German Orientalists, and I urgently ask that you will support us as well.”²³⁶