Fulgence Fresnel

Fulgence Fresnel (15 April 1795 – 30 November 1855) was a French Orientalist. He was brother to physicist Augustin Fresnel (1788–1827) and is noted as an Orientalist scholar who led one of the first archaeological teams to excavate in Mesopotamia.

Fulgence Fresnel
Born15 April 1795
Mathieu, Calvados
Died30 November 1855(1855-11-30) (aged 60)
Baghdad
OccupationOrientalist
Translator

Education and career

As a young man, he studied sciences, literature and languages, and translated a few works of Berzelius, stories by German novelist Johann Ludwig Tieck (1773–1853) and fragments of a Chinese novel (Fragments chinois, 1822–23). He was a pupil of Sylvestre de Sacy (1768–1838) in Paris, and in 1826 undertook studies of Arabic at Maronite College in Rome.

Later, he served as a consular agent in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah. In Arabia, he became a proficient speaker of local dialects, and during this time period, he came in contact with descendants of the Himyarites. Fresnel is credited as the first European to provide a translation of ancient Himyarite inscriptions. He also wrote the first description of the Shehri language.[1]

In 1851 he was put in charge of a scientific expedition to Mesopotamia, where he was accompanied by assyriologist Jules Oppert (1825–1905) and architect, Felix Thomas.[2] A notable feature of the expedition was the use of a new and still secret procedure for making casts, developed by Lattin de Laval. Fresnel's notes on the expedition were included in the treatise, Expedition Scientifique En Mésopotamie: Exécutée Par Ordre Du Gouvernement De 1851 À 1854 by Julius Oppert first published in 1858.[3]

When the expedition members were recalled in 1854, Fresnel chose to remain in the Middle East, and died in Baghdad on 30 November 1855.

Selected publications
  • L’Arabie vue en 1837-1838, Paris, Imp. nationale, 1871 ;
  • « Lettre à M. Caussin de Perceval », 27 avril 1850, Journal asiatique, octobre 1850 ;
  • Cinquième Lettre sur l’histoire des Arabes avant l’islamisme à M. Stanislas Julien, Djeddah, février 1838 ;
  • « L'Arabie », dans Revue des deux Mondes, vol. 17, 1839
  • Expédition scientifique en Mésopotamie, exécutée… de 1851 à 1854, par MM. Fulgence Fresnel, Félix Thomas et Jules Oppert, publiée par Jules Oppert ;
  • Extraits d’une lettre de M. Fresnel… à M. Jomard,… sur certains quadrupèdes réputés fabuleux ;
  • Lettre sur la géographie de l’Arabie ;
  • Lettre sur la topographie de Babylone, écrite à M. Mohl ;
  • Lettres sur l’histoire des Arabes avant l’islamisme, 1837 ;
  • Lettres… à M. Mohl ;
  • Mémoire de M. Fresnel, consul de France à Djeddah, sur le Waday (1848-1850) ;
  • Notice sur le voyage de M. de Wrède dans la vallée de Doan et autres lieux de l’Arabie méridionale ;
  • Notice sur les sources du Nil, à l’occasion d’une découverte récente ;
  • Nouvelles et mélanges. Lettre à M. le rédacteur du ″Journal asiatique″, 2 mai 1839 ;
  • Pièces relatives aux inscriptions himyarites découvertes par M. Arnaud, [Signé : Arnaud et F. Fresnel] ;
  • Recherches sur les inscriptions himyariques de San’à, Khariba, Mareb, etc..

Translations

See also

References
Specific
  1. Simeone Senelle, Marie-Claude. "The Modern South Arabian Languages." In Hetzron, R. (ed). 1997. The Semitic Languages. London: Routledge, p. 378-423. http://llacan.vjf.cnrs.fr/PDF/Publications/Senelle/SAMLanguages.pdf
  2. Larsen, M.T., The Conquest of Assyria: Excavations in an Antique Land, Routledge, 2014, pp 307-08 and p. 315
  3. Pouillon, F., Dictionnaire des Orientalistes de Langue Française, KARTHALA, 2008, p. 924
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