January 11, 1857 - Eli Smith Dies

Eli Smith desired to print the Bible in Arabic, so he immersed himself in Arab culture by moving to live on a farm in Beirut. He was trained at Yale and Andover Seminary and was a printer by trade, so he eventually took over the press operations in Malta (pictured) and even invented the font American Arabic. When he died on January 11, 1857, he had completed a portion of the Bible in Arabic and his successor completed the task shortly after.