Mishaqa-Smith Correspondence

The correspondence between Mikha’il Mishaqa and Eli Smith, dating from 1844-1855, was one of the major resources used for the book Prophet of Reason. The majority of the letters are found in the Eli Smith (Arabic) Papers (ABC50) at the Houghton Library, Harvard (see handlist on this website). Another set is in the United Presbyterian Church of the USA Syria Mission Records, Record Group 115, at the Presbyterian Historical Society (digitised). One letter is available only in the excerpt given by Asad Rustum and Subhi Abu Shaqra in their introduction to Mishaqa, Muntakhabat min al-Jawab ‘ala iqtirah al-ahbab (Beirut, 1955). A further set is in the Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifiyya archive administered by Lebanon’s Directorate General of Antiquities and hosted by the Université Saint-Esprit de Kaslik (these are not used in Prophet of Reason as I was not aware of them at the time: they date from 1844-1848 and relate to the Protestants of Hasbaya.)