SMITH, Eli, missionary, born in Northford, Connecticut, 13 September, 1801 ; died in Beirut, Syria, 11 January, 1857. He was graduated at Yale in 1821, and at Andover theological seminary in 1826, ordained the same year, and went to Malta as superintendent of a missionary printing establishment. He was subsequently transferred to the Syrian mission, travelled through Greece in 1829, and with Dr. Harrison G. O. Dwight in Armenia, Georgia, and Persia in 1830-'1, which journey resulted in the establishment of the Armenian and Nestorian missions of the American board. He settled in Beirut in 1833, and in 1838 and again in 1852 was the companion and coadjutor of Professor Edward Robinson in his extensive exploration of Palestine. His intimate knowledge of Arabic enabled him to render important service in the production of a new and improved form and font of Arabic type, which was cast under his supervision at Leipsic in 1839. He published with Harrison G. O. Dwight "Missionary Researches in Armenia" (2 vols., Boston, 1833), and from 1847 until his death was engaged in translating the Bible into the Arabic, which work was subsequently completed by Dr. Cornelius V. Van Dyke (New York, 1866-'7).--His wife, Narah Lanman, missionary, born in Norwich, Connecticut, 18 June, 1802; died in Boojah, near Smyrna, Asia, 30 September, 1836, was the daughter of Jabez Huntington. She married Dr. Smith in 1833, accompanied him to Beirut, and, having learned Arabic, assisted him in his translations into that language, and taught in a native school for girls which she established. See her "Memoir, Journal, and Letters," edited by the Reverend Edward Hooker (London, 1839).