Syrian Protestant College (now American University of Beirut)
Colegio Protestante Sirio (hoy Universidad Americana de Beirut)
- Date
- 1866 · confidence high
- Place
- Beirut, Lebanon
- Credited to
- Daniel Bliss and American Protestant missionaries
- Field
- Life & health
What it is
A college founded in Beirut with a medical school from 1867, where modern science was taught to Arab students, initially in Arabic, with Arabic textbooks by Cornelius Van Dyck. It was the principal centre of modern science in the Arab Levant.
Teaching moved from Arabic to English around 1880-1882 after a controversy over Darwinism (the Lewis affair). It changed its name to the American University of Beirut in 1920.
What it led to
- a generation of Arab scientists, physicians and intellectuals of the Nahda
- first modern chemistry, anatomy and astronomy textbooks in Arabic
- an observatory, natural history museum and university hospital