Cornelius Van Alen Van Dyck

Cornelius Van Alen Van Dyck, M.D. (August 13, 1818 – November 13, 1895) was an American missionary physician, teacher and translator of the Protestant Bible into Arabic.

Life Cornelius Van Alan Van Dyck was born at Kinderhook, New York and 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 he was stationed at Beirut, Abeih, Sidon, and Mount Tabor. He studied Arabic in Beirut under Butrus al-Bustani and Nasif al-Yaziji, both of whom later became famous Arab writers, and Yusuf al-Asir, with whom he would later collaborate in translating the Bible into Arabic. He married Julia Abbott, daughter of the former British consul-general in Beirut, in December 1842.

In June 1843, they moved to Abeih, where, with W. M. Thomson, he organized a secondary school for training evangelical ministers. He translated al-Razi's ninth-century treatise on smallpox and measles, adding a critical commentary. Often called al-Hakim during his lifetime, Van Dyck had a large medical practice in addition to his academic duties.

Lewis affair He resigned from the Syrian Protestant College after the 1882 commencement address by Professor Edwin Lewis was censored by the college board for mildly favoring Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, considered heretical by most Protestants. He stayed in Beirut, practicing at the Hospital of St. George as its chief physician. He published more books in Arabic, including a translation of Lew Wallace's Ben Hur.

He died in Beirut in 1895.

Family

Cornelius was married to Julia Abbot and they had six children.

State Senator Henry H. Van Dyck (1809–1888) was his brother.