[2][1] Youhanna Chiftichi was born in Cairo in the late 18th century.
[3] He moved to France in 1802 following Napoleon's failed conquest of Egypt.
[3] He first landed in Marseille then moved to Paris, and settled in Saint-Roch, where he was given permission to provide religious services to his Coptic countrymen who had also moved to France following Napoleon's conquest of Egypt.
[4] 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 one of his letters to his brothers, Champollion wrote about Chiftichi saying: In another letter to his brother, Champollion also wrote: Youhanna Chiftichi died in France after 1825.