Youhanna Chiftichi

Youhanna Chiftichi was a Coptic priest and scholar in the 18th and 19th century, who taught Coptic to Jean-François Champollion, thus paving the way for the latter to decipher the Egyptian hieroglyphs. His name has been frequently misspelled as "Icaha Scheptichi" or "Jeacha Sceptidschy". He moved to France in 1802 following Napoleon's failed conquest of Egypt. Chiftichi appears in some correspondences of the French government, who recruited him to assist with the encyclopedic Description de l'Egypte, due to his reputation as a scholar in Oriental languages.

In another letter to his brother, Champollion also wrote:

"My Coptic language is going well, I am very happy. Imagine my pleasure in speaking the language of my dear Amenhotep III, Seti, Ramses and Thutmose! [...] I will meet with a Coptic priest named Chiftichi at the Saint-Roch Church to learn more about Coptic names and letter pronunciation."

"I dream in Coptic. I do nothing but that, I dream only in Coptic, in Egyptian [...] I am so Coptic, that for fun, I translate into Coptic everything that comes into my head. I speak Coptic all alone to myself, since no one else can understand me. This is the real way for me to put my pure Egyptian into my head."

Death Youhanna Chiftichi died in France after 1825.