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Cornelius Van Alen Van Dyck
Image: Unknown author, Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Cornelius Van Alen Van Dyck

كرنيليوس فان دايك

Notable figure 1818–1895 · Source: Yahya Murad, Muʿjam asmaʾ al-mustashriqin (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2004), p. 769 · Second source: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, GND authority record: Van Dyck, Cornelius Van Alen (1818-1895)

From the United States; worked in Lebanon

Field: Prosody

Affiliation

Prosodist; author of Muhit al-Da'ira on metre (1857)

Biography

Born in the United States to a family of Dutch origin, he came to Beirut as a physician in 1840 and learned Arabic from Butrus al-Bustani, Yusuf al-Asir and Nasif al-Yaziji, memorising much of its poetry and proverbs. He wrote Muhit al-da'ira fi 'ilmay al-'arud wa-l-qawafi (1857), a manual of Arabic prosody and rhyme, and with al-Bustani, al-Yaziji and al-Asir completed the Arabic Bible translation begun by Eli Smith. He taught at the college that became the American University of Beirut and wrote Arabic science textbooks for it.