Yusuf ibn Abu Dhaqn, known to the West as Josephus Abudacnus or Josephus Barbatus, was an

Egyptian ''Egyptian'' describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of year ...

Copt Copts (; ) are a Christian ethnoreligious group native to Northeast Africa who have primarily inhabited the area of modern Egypt since antiquity. They are, like the broader Egyptian population, descended from the ancient Egyptians. Copts pre ...

who traveled in Europe mainly teaching Arabic in the 17th century CE. He was born in Cairo around ?1570s CEAlastair Hamilton
An Egyptian Traveller in the Republic of Letters: Josephus Barbatus or Abudacnus the Copt
Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 57. (1994), pp. 123–150. and learned Greek and Turkish in Egypt. In 1595 he was sent to Rome with a letter from

Pope Gabriel VIII of Alexandria Pope Gabriel VIII of Alexandria was the 97th Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark. Gabriel VIII was originally from Mir (in Middle Egypt in the Asyut Governorate) and his lay name was Shenouda. He became a monk in the Monast ...

Pope Clement VIII Pope Clement VIII (; ; 24 February 1536 – 3 March 1605), born Ippolito Aldobrandini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 30 January 1592 to his death in March 1605. Born in Fano, Papal States to a prominen ...

, where he converted to

Roman Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

and learned Italian and some ancient Greek and Latin. He also went to Paris and England. His Arabic skills, however, were limited as confessed by him to

Scaliger The House of Della Scala, whose members were known as Scaligeri () or Scaligers (; from the Latinized ''de Scalis''), was the ruling family of Verona and mainland Veneto (except for Venice) from 1262 to 1387, for a total of 125 years. History ...

and as confirmed later by

Erpenius Thomas van Erpe, also known as Thomas Erpenius (September 11, 1584November 13, 1624), Netherlands, Dutch Orientalist, was born at Gorinchem, in Holland. He was the first European to publish an accurate book of Arabic grammar. After completing hi ...

who studied under him. Erpenius, who had already learned some Arabic from William Bedwell, commented to his teacher that Barbatus had taught him 'many Arabic words' but of the 'corrupt language' that was spoken at the time 'by Egyptians and others', he wrote that today only the learned understood Arabic as spoken by the old. He also authored some books, the most well known of which is titled ''Historia Jacobitarum, seu Coptorum, in Aegypto, Libya, Nubia, Aethiopia'', which is not strictly a history but an account of the Coptic liturgical rites of his time. The book was described by

Edward Gibbon Edward Gibbon (; 8 May 173716 January 1794) was an English essayist, historian, and politician. His most important work, ''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'', published in six volumes between 1776 and 1789, is known for ...

as being of low value.Wadi Al-Fransiskani
Yusuf ibn Abu Dhaqn and his history of the Copts-يوسف بن أبي دقن وتاريخه عن الأقباط
Priest's Friend Journal-مجلة صديق الكاهن . Retrieved 2008-04-14

References

Converts to Roman Catholicism from Oriental Orthodoxy 16th-century Egyptian people 16th-century Oriental Orthodox Christians 16th-century Roman Catholics 17th-century Roman Catholics 17th-century Egyptian people {{Ottoman-bio-stub