Syriac professor, writer, and translator Youssef Quzi passes away at 88

BARTELLA, Iraq — At the age of 88, scholar and professor Youssef Quz from the town of Bartella in Nineveh Plains, passed away in Ankawa. Quzi was the Secretary-General of Syriac Writers Union and the founder of the Syriac Language Department at the College of Languages ​​at Baghdad University.

Born in Bartella, he grew up using the Syriac language. Quzi entered the Institute of St. John and was ordained a Syriac Catholic Priest in the 1960.

He earned a BA in Philosophy, a BA in Semitic Languages, and a PhD in Theology from the University of Louvain in Belgium.

Quzi worked as a teacher of Semitic languages ​​at the Babylon College of Philosophy and Theology. He also taught Aramaic and Syriac at Salah al-Din University and was appointed head of the Syriac Language Commission at the Iraqi Scientific Academy.

His intellectual output of books and translations was enormous and included titles such as Christ and the Prophets, The Holy Scriptures, Divine Love, Ecumenical Movement, and Towards Christian Unity.

He contributed to the translation of the works of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council and the transfer of the Great Treasure book from Mandaean into Arabic. Quzi also authored the largest Syriac–Arabic dictionary which includes over 4,000 pages, entitled The Semitic and Syriac-Arabic Comparative Lexicon.