Missionary schools played a significant role in the education of women and girls in the Arab countries from around 1830 until the 1950s. State-sponsored female education did not develop until the mid-nineteenth century and, then, institutions were few and far between. However, during this same period, the Arab countries, most of which were ruled by the Ottoman Empire, were the targets of myriad – mostly Christian – European and American missionary projects, which focused much of their energies o…