Thomas Obicini

As an early orientalist, Arabist and linguist, he translated Arabic texts into Latin and took possession of the Grotto of Nazareth for the Franciscan order in 1620.

The background to this mission began seven years earlier, in 1613, when Fakhr ad-Din II had taken refuge in Tuscany, Italy.

On Saturday 29 November 1620, the group took possession of the sanctuary built on the foundations of the House of Loreto and known as the Holy Grotto - the site venerated by Christians as the place where the Angel Gabriel announced the birth of Christ to the Virgin Mary.

[1] While Obicini was abbot in the convent of Aleppo, Syria he had mastered Syriac, Arabic, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Coptic languages.

In 1636 Obicini published Thesaurus Arabico-Syro-Latinus, his opus magnum; a Latin expanded translation of Elijah of Nisibis's 11th-century glossary intended to assist Latin-speaking prelates in converting Syrians and other Arabic speakers.