Name

Ignatius Niʻmatallāh Aṣfar

Original name

Ignatius Niʻmatallāh Aṣfar

Main activity

Patriarch

Secondary activity

Astrologist, Physician

Title

Patriarch of Antioch

Name variations

ܦܛܪܝܪܟܐ ܢܥܡܗ̈ ܐܠܗ, Nehemes, نعمة الله "

Education place

Mardin

Education institution

Activity place

Diyarbakır, Amid, Rome

Activity institution

Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate in Antioch

Activity start date

1557

Activity end date

1576

Place of birth

Mardin

Date of birth

1515

Place of death

Rome

Date of death

1587

Bibliographical references

https://www.zotero.org/groups/2447618/euqu_european_quran/tags/Patriarch%20Ni%CA%BBmatall%C4%81h%20of%20Antioch/library

Descriptive card

During his Patriarchate he was involved in the negotiation for the reunification of his Church with the Roman one. He fled from Amid following disputes with the Ottoman authorities and took refuge in Rome. There, he was welcomed for his scientific and linguistic skills and was involved in various pontifical cultural projects under Gregorius XIII, such as the reform of the calendar, the teaching of oriental languages, and the publishing activities of the Typographia Medicea, founded in 1584 by Cardinal Ferdinando de 'Medici. He sold his precious collection of manuscripts to him in exchange for a pension for life, and it constituted the original nucleus of the collection of the Medici typography. Among his manuscripts were philological rarities of different genres, but also copies of the Qur'an, which were available to Giovanni Battista Raimondi, scientific director of Typographia Medicea, and his collaborators.

Entry author

Sara Fani