Claudius Iohannes Labib (; 6 January 1868 – 9 May 1918) was a Coptic (

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 ...

)

Egyptologist Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , ''-logia''; ) is the scientific study of ancient Egypt. The topics studied include ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end ...

. His family was known for copying church books. He used to accompany his father to the el-Muharraq monastery to learn Coptic with the monks. He was the youngest of three brothers, the eldest being Pahor and the middle being Tadros. Labib learned

Egyptian hieroglyphs Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs ( ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined Ideogram, ideographic, logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with more than 1,000 distinct char ...

from the French Egyptologists and was the second modern Egyptian to learn this ancient language (the first was

Ahmad Kamal Ahmed Kamal (; 9 April 1938 – 25 May 2023) was a Pakistani diplomat, most noted for his work at the United Nations. He served as a professional diplomat in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan for close to forty years until his retire ...

and Ahmad Kamal is of Turkish origin). Claudius Labib is credited for making the first Coptic-Arabic Dictionary. He died before finishing it. Claudius Labib was the chief editor of "On" (, Heliopolis) magazine which had articles written in Coptic. He also pioneered educational books for children named ⲁϧⲱⲙⲫⲁⲧ (''Akhomphat)''. Claudius Labib was also responsible for editing a series of religious texts used by the

Coptic Orthodox Church The Coptic Orthodox Church (), also known as the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria, is an Oriental Orthodox Christian church based in Egypt. The head of the church and the See of Alexandria is the pope of Alexandria on the Holy Apo ...

. The works were published at Cairo as follows: Katamãrus, 1900–02; Euchologion, 1904; Funeral Service, 1905.

References

External links

The Coptist: Claudius Labib – short biography and bibliography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Labib, Cladius 1868 births 1918 deaths Coptologists Coptic language Coptic Orthodox Christians from Egypt Egyptian lexicographers Egyptian Egyptologists People from Asyut Governorate