Claude Sicard
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/eb/Carte_des_d%C3%A9serts_de_la_Basse-Th%C3%A9ba%C3%AFde_aux_environs_des_monast%C3%A8res_de_St_Antoine_et_de_St_Paul_hermites_avec_le_plan_des_lieux_par_o%C3%B9_les_Isra%C3%ABlites_ont_probablement_pass%C3%A9_en_sortant_d%27Egypte.jpg/220px-thumbnail.jpg)
Father Claude Sicard (1677–1726) was a French Jesuit priest, and an early modern visitor to Egypt, between 1708 and 1712.
Sicard was a scholar and at the age of 22 was a professor in the seminary at Lyon.[1] He was well educated in Latin, Greek, Coptic and Arabic.[1] He was also skilled in cartography. His aim was to convert Egypt's Coptic Christians to Roman Catholicism.[1]
Sicard was Supervisor of the Jesuit Mission in Cairo. He ate only vegetables and conformed to the Egyptian way of living for nine successive years.[2]
He was the first European to locate Thebes. He identified the ruins of Karnak and Luxor as those of ancient Thebes.[3] Sicard commented that "Its remains are magnificent and more extensive than it is possible to imagine."[1]
Sicard died of plague from nursing the afflicted in 1726.[1]
Works
- Extrait de la Carte de l'Egypte ancienne du P. Sicard présentée à L. XV. Au Kaire l'an 17 .. (1722)
References
- ^ a b c d e Thompson, Jason. (2015). Wonderful Things: A History of Egyptology. 1: From Antiquity to 1881. American University of Cairo Press. pp. 77-78. ISBN 978-9774165993
- ^ Roman Catholic Missions. (1832). The Quarterly Register 4: 216.
- ^ La Farge, Henry Adams. (1980). Museums of Egypt. Newsweek. p. 165
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