传教运动实际上早在18世纪工业革命在欧洲爆发之前就已开始，并一直持续到伊斯兰国于1924年被废除为止。16世纪末，马耳他建立了一个规模庞大的传教中心。该中心充当总部，传教士们由此对穆斯林世界发动了传教攻势。但在1625年，他们迁往沙姆地区，并试图在那里也建立传教运动。传教士们除了开办了几所学校、出版了几本宗教书籍之外，并未取得多大成功，最终于1773年失败：他们的活动被叫停，并返回了马耳他。

The missionary movement actually started before the Industrial Revolution erupted in Europe in the 18th Century, and it continued until the Islamic State was dismantled in 1924. A huge missionary centre was established in Malta towards the end of the 16th century. This acted as the headquarters from which they conducted their missionary onslaught on the Muslim world, but in 1625 they moved to al-Sham and tried to establish missionary movements there as well. The missionaries did not find much success beyond establishing a couple of schools and publishing few a books on religious matters, finally succumbing to failure in 1773 when their activities were shut down and they returned to Malta.

19世纪,传教士真正取得突破,是在伊斯兰国开始推行各种改革(称为坦志麦特)之后,这些改革主要是为了缓解来自西方日益增长的压力。这些改革涉及土地、税收和非穆斯林的权利等诸多领域。尽管其中一些明显与伊斯兰教相悖,但当时的伊斯兰国确实援引了伊智提哈德,并得出结论:这些改革并不违背沙里亚。因此,不能说他们实施的是背离伊斯兰的法律,因为在穆斯林的认知中,这些措施并不与沙里亚相抵触。

The real breakthrough for the missionaries was made during the 19th Century when the Islamic State started to introduce various types of reforms, known as Tanzimat, mostly aimed at diffusing the increasing pressure from the West. These reforms affected many areas, including land, taxation and the rights of non-Muslims. Although some of them were clearly contradictory to Islam, the Islamic State at that time did actually refer to ijtihad and it concluded that these reforms did not contradict the Shari‘ah. So one cannot say that they implemented Kufr laws because in the minds of the Muslims, these measures did not contradict Shari‘ah.

这些改革的部分内容包括赋予伊斯兰国境内基督教徒更大的自治权。哈里发们几乎让俄国和法国在处理与基督教徒有关的问题上拥有了近乎自由的手脚，而这两国利用这一机会渗透进伊斯兰国。这一有利时机促使传教工作更加积极，并为1820年在贝鲁特设立传教中心铺平了道路。这一中心就像一颗致命的毒瘤，扩散到伊斯兰国各处，成为奥斯曼哈里发国衰落的催化剂。

Parts of these reforms included a greater autonomy for the Christian citizens of the Islamic State. The Khulafa’ gave countries like Russia and France an almost free hand in dealing with problems relating to Christians, and these countries used this opportunity to infiltrate the Islamic State. This window of opportunity led to a greater vigour in missionary work and paved the way for the establishment of a missionary centre in Beirut in 1820. This centre was to act as the deadly cancer that spread all over the Islamic State, acting as a catalyst in the decline of the ‘Uthmani Khilafah.

传教士起初遇到了巨大的困难，但他们坚持开展自己的工作。

The missionaries initially faced great difficulties but they persisted with their activities.

他们最关注的首要领域是宗教布道与宗教文化；其教育计划仍然有限且薄弱。他们在黎巴嫩的阿因图拉村（A‘ntoura）设立了一所学院。美国传教团将其印刷厂从马耳他迁至贝鲁特，以印制和分发其书籍，到1834年，他们已渗透到整个黎凡特（al-Sham）地区。

Their first area of concern was religious preaching and religious culture; their education programme remained limited and weak. They managed to open a college in the village of A‘ntoura in Lebanon. The American mission transferred its print shop from Malta to Beirut in order to print and distribute its books, and they penetrated the entire region of al-Sham by 1834.

这一时期一位著名的传教士是美国人伊莱·史密斯（Eli Smith），他曾在马耳他担任志愿者，负责传教印刷所。伊莱·史密斯于1827年抵达贝鲁特，但一年后，恐惧与无聊使他离开了那里，回到了马耳他。他于1834年再次返回贝鲁特，并与妻子一同开办了一所女子学校。他的工作范围逐渐扩大，并将一生奉献给了在沙姆地区，尤其是贝鲁特的工作。

One notable missionary from this period was the American Eli Smith, who had been working in Malta as a volunteer in charge of the mission press. Eli Smith arrived in Beirut in 1827 but a year later fear and boredom drove him out and he returned to Malta. He next returned to Beirut in 1834 and together with his wife opened a school for girls. His area of work broadened and he devoted his life to working in al-Sham, Beirut in particular.

在易卜拉欣帕夏于叙利亚采纳并推行新的小学教育课程后，传教士又迎来了一个机会。这套课程的根源来自埃及的教育体系，而埃及的教育体系又源自法国的自由主义制度。易卜拉欣还强制实行了定期征税，为非穆斯林担任政府职务打开了道路，并宣布了欧洲关于所有公民在法律面前一律平等的观点。传教士抓住了这一机会，加强了他们的活动，并在此过程中扩大了他们的印刷工场。耶稣会于1773年被教宗暂停活动，此时卷土重来，声势浩大；英国和美国的新教传教士则于1839年成立叙利亚新教教会，牢牢站稳了脚跟。紧随其后，叙利亚新教学院（即今天的贝鲁特美国大学）于1866年创立，而耶稣会的活动则在1874年于贝鲁特创办圣约瑟夫大学达到高潮。

A further opportunity came for the missionaries when Ibrahim Pasha adopted and implemented a new primary education syllabus in Syria. The roots of this syllabus lied in the Egyptian educational system which in turn was taken from the French libertian system. Ibrahim also enforced regular taxation, opening the way for the non-Muslims to hold posts in the government, and proclaimed the European view of equality of all citizens before the law. The missionaries took advantage of this opportunity and intensified their activities, expanding their printing works in the process. The Jesuits, whose order had been suspended by the Pope in 1773, returned in force, and British and American Protestant missionaries established a firm foothold by establishing the Protestant Church of Syria in 1839. Following on from this the Syrian Protestant College, now the American University of Beirut, was established in 1866 and Jesuit activity culminated in Universite Saint-Joseph in Beirut in 1874.