Raphaël de Monachis dating history

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Rufa'il Zakhûr known in France as Raphaël de Monachis (1759 - 1831) was an Egyptian-born monk of Syriac ancestry, known for his orientalist studies and for being one of Jean-François Champollion's language teachers. He was born in Cairo to a Syriac-Melkite family. He studied at the Greek seminary in Rome and took his vows at the Basilian Monastery of the Saviour in Sidon where he remained from 1789 to 1794 when he returned to Egypt. During Napoleon's campaign in Egypt he served as Napoleon's personal interpreter. In 1803 he traveled to France where after visiting Joseph Fourier in Grenoble, he traveled to Paris to give important documents to the French government. He was appointed as adjunct professor of Arabic language at the Ècole des Langues Orientales. Among his students there was Champollion, to whom he taught colloquial Arabic and Coptic. He was also the single Arab member of the French Institut d'Égypte. His colleague there, Silvestre de Sacy, who taught literary Arabic was strongly opposed to having a second professor of Arabic at the School of Oriental languages, considering it a personal offense. In 1803 he participated in the Coronation of Napoleon I and was depicted in Jacques-Louis David's famous painting.