Smith, Sir George Adam°
SMITH, SIR GEORGE ADAM°
SMITH, SIR GEORGE ADAM ° (1856–1942), Scottish scholar of the Bible and geography of Palestine. Smith was ordained as a minister in the United Free Church of Scotland, became professor of Hebrew and Old Testament studies at Church College, Glasgow (1892), and was principal of Aberdeen University (1909–35). His main work was the Historical Geography of the Holy Land (1894, followed by 25 editions), which proved immensely popular as the best-written and most scholarly account of the subject. He had a profound understanding of the permanent geographical factors and their influence on history.
He also prepared an Atlas of the Historical Geography of the Holy Land (1915, 1936) and wrote Jerusalem: The Topography, Economics, and History from the Earliest Times to A.D. 70 (2 vols., 1907–8). In the field of biblical research he wrote commentaries on Deuteronomy (1918), Jeremiah (19294), and the Twelve Prophets (19282).
[Michael Avi-Yonah]