Vartan of Nazareth: Missionary and Medical Pioneer in the Nineteenth-century Middle East

This is the little-known story of a medical pioneer and missionary who founded a hospital in Nazareth 150 years ago. This book traces the remarkable life of Pacradooni Kaloost Vartan, the son of a poor Armenian tailor in Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul). Born in 1835 at a time of great change in the Ottoman Empire, the young Vartan attended the first American missionary school in the imperial city. He left school to join the British Army as an interpreter in the Crimea and, having witnessed the rigours of battlefield medicine, he was drawn to a career as a surgeon and physician.
 
Malcolm BIllings has spent most of his career broadcasting and producing Radio 4 and BBC World Service programmes. He presented the Today programme during the 1970s.