{{Short description|French Jesuit priest and egyptologist (1677–1726)}} thumb|Sicard's 1717 map of Egypt '''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.<ref name="Thompson 2015">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}}</ref> He was well educated in Latin, Greek, Coptic and Arabic.<ref name="Thompson 2015"/> He was also skilled in cartography. His aim was to convert Egypt's Coptic Christians to Roman Catholicism.<ref name="Thompson 2015"/>
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.<ref>[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.ah3mh2&view=1up&seq=228 ''Roman Catholic Missions'']. (1832). ''The Quarterly Register'' 4: 216.</ref>
He was the first European to locate Thebes. He identified the ruins of Karnak and Luxor as those of ancient Thebes.<ref>La Farge, Henry Adams. (1980). ''Museums of Egypt''. Newsweek. p. 165</ref> Sicard commented that "Its remains are magnificent and more extensive than it is possible to imagine."<ref name="Thompson 2015"/>
Sicard died of plague from nursing the afflicted in 1726.<ref name="Thompson 2015"/>
== Works ==
* ''Extrait de la Carte de l'Egypte ancienne du P. Sicard présentée à L. XV. Au Kaire l'an 17 ..'' (1722)
== References == {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sicard, Claude}} Category:1677 births Category:1726 deaths Category:18th-century French archaeologists Category:18th-century deaths from plague (disease) Category:People from Aubagne Category:French Egyptologists Category:18th-century French Jesuits Category:French cartographers Category:French Roman Catholic missionaries Category:Roman Catholic missionaries in Egypt Category:French expatriates in Egypt Category:Jesuit missionaries Category:French missionary linguists Category:Thebes, Egypt
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