A learned
Maronite, born in Hekel, or Ecchel (hence his surname), a village on
Mount Lebanon, in 1600; died 1664 in Rome. He studied at the
Maronite College in Rome, published a Syriac grammar (1628), and
taught Syriac and Arabic at the College of the Propaganda. In 1630
he began to teach the same languages in the Royal College Paris, and
to assist in editing Le Jay's "Polyglot Bible", working
with Gabriel Sionita on the Syriac and Arabic texts and their Latin
translation. He contributed III Mach. in Arabic, and Ruth in Syriac
and Arabic, with a Latin translation. Abraham and Gabriel soon
quarrelled, and the former wrote three letters explaining this
difference, and defending his work against its depreciators,
especially Valerian Flavigny. In 1642 he resumed his teaching in
Rome, but returned to Paris in 1645; after eight years he again went
to Rome, where he remained until his death. Among his many works we
may mention: a "Synopsis of Arab Philosophy" (Paris,
1641); some disciplinary canons of the Council of Nice, according to
Eastern attribution, though unknown to the Latin and Greek churches
(Paris, 1641) "Abr. Ecchellensis et Leon. Allatii Concordantia
Nationum Christianarum Orientalium in Fidei Catholicae Dogmate"
(Mainz, 1655); "De Origine nominis Papae, necnon de illius
Proprietate in Romano Pontifice, adeoque de ejus Primatu contra
Joannem Seldenum Anglum" (Rome, 1660); "Epistola ad J.
Morinum de variis Graecorum et Orientalium ritibus"; "Chronicon
Orientale nunc primum Latinitate donatum, cui Accessit Supplementum
Historiae orientalis (Paris, 1653); "Catalogus librorum
Chaldaeorum tam Eccl. quam profanor., Auctore Hebed-Jesu Latinitate
Donatus et Notis Illustratus" (Rome,1653); a "Life of St.
Anthony"; a Latin translation of Abulfath's "Paraphrase of
Apollonius' Conic Sections, 5, 6, and 7."
A.J. MAAS
