Authors

Michel Abitbol is an Africanist and an Orientalist. He is an emeritus professor of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and he has also taught at various universities in the USA and France, including Yale University, the University of Paris IV, the University of Paris VIII, INALCO (Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales – National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilisations), EHESS (Écoles des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales – School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences), and Sciences Po (Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris – Paris Institute of Political Studies). As part of his professional activities, he was the director of several university institutions, including the Ben Zvi Institute in Jerusalem and the Rothberg International School of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He was also a founder member of the Fondation France-Israël (France-Israel Foundation), and he is currently director of the Histoires partagées (Shared Histories) collection of the Projet Aladin (Aladdin Project) (Paris).
He has published tens of articles and several works that have been translated into a number of languages, on Africa, the Maghreb, and Judæo-Arab relations, including “Le Passé d’une discorde – Juifs et Arabes depuis le VII°” (Perrin, 1999 and 2003), which received the Académie Française’s Thiers Prize, and “Histoire des Juifs” (Perrin, 2013).
Judaism - Zionism

Rémy Arcemisbéhère is an agrégé (the holder of an aggrégation (higher teaching degree)) in Modern Literature, and is a doctorant contractuel (a Ph.D. candidate conducting research) at the University of Paris IV – La Sorbonne. Under the supervision of Ms. Sophie Basch, he is currently working on a thesis on the work of sources in the writings of the poet Gérard de Nerval. He is affiliated to the CELLF (Centre d'étude de la langue et de la littérature française – Centre for the Study of French Language and Literature) 19-20, a mixed unit of the CNRS (Centre National de Recherche Scientifique – National Centre for Scientific Research) and the University of Paris IV.
His areas of specialisation are French and European Romanticism, the 19th-century Orient, and the study of sources (genetics, intertextuality, and philology).
Gérard de Nerval

Sylvie Aubenas is a palaeographer archivist (ENC (École Nationale des Chartes – National School of Palaeography and Archival Studies), graduation year 1988), being a graduate of the University of Paris IV – La Sorbonne and of the EPHE (École Pratique des Hautes Études – School for Advanced Studies). She is general curator at the BnF (Bibliothèque Nationale de France - French National Library), where, since 2007, she has been head of the Print and Photograph Department. She is a specialist in 19th-century photography, especially the links between the fine arts and photography. In relation to photography in the Middle East, she is responsible for an exhibition and a catalogue on the theme of “Voyage en Orient” (BnF, 2001), an exhibition, a catalogue, and various articles on Gustave Le Gray (Bnf 2002), the “Primitifs de la photographie, le calotype en France (1843-1860)” exhibition (BnF, 2010), and the “Visions d’Egypte, Emile Prisse d’Avennes (1807-1879)” exhibition (BnF, 2011). An exhibition in collaboration with the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York and the Musée d’Orsay is planned in 2019, based on the personality and the work of Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey (1804-1892). The BnF has almost 200 of his daguerreotypes, in addition to lithographs and albums.
Photo: Jacques Hénocq ©
Felix Bonfils - Charles Theodule Deveria - Albert Goupil - Gustave Le Gray - Louis Vignes

Sophie Basch is a universities honorary professor, an honorary member of the Institut universitaire de France (University Institute of France), of UMR (Unité Mixte de Recherche – Mixed Research Unit) 8599 of the CNRS, and of the University of Paris – La Sorbonne, as well as being the editor of “Voyage en Orient” by Alphonse Lamartine and “L’Orient” by Théophile Gautier (Gallimard). Her specialisms cover literature and archaeology, literature and Orientalism, and the work of Marcel Proust, as well as the world of circuses and funfairs in literature.
She is the author of “Les Sublimes Portes”, which is a collection of some of her studies on the ports of the Levant (Champion, 2004). She has directed, inter alia, “Portraits de Victor Bérard” (École française d’Athènes, 2015), the first work on the multiple facets of the great Hellenist. With Nilüfer Göle, she co-ordinated “Cahier de L'Herne” on Orhan Pamuk (September 2017).
The Writers’ Orient - Princess Belgiojoso - Chateaubriand - Flaubert - Théophile Gautier - Lamartine

Ali Benmakhlouf is an agrégé in philosophy. He is currently a universities professor in the Department of Philosophy of the University of Paris Est Val de Marne, and a Senior Member of the Institut universitaire de France. The guiding principle of his research is logic, history, and the philosophy of logic. He intends to cover the history of mediæval Arab logic (“Pourquoi lire les philosophes arabes”, Albin Michel, 2015), which is rich in commentaries on Aristotle’s “Organon”. Thus, he led work on translating the writings on logic by Al Farabi (“Al Fârâbî, philosophie à Bagdad au Xeme siècle”, Seuil, bilingual edition, 2007) and by Averroes (“Averroès”, “Figures du savoir” collection, Belles lettres, 2000), authors on whom he has also written monographic studies.
He is tasked with revising translations of articles into Arabic.

Jean-Sylvain Caillou is a doctor of the history and civilisations of Antiquity. A former resident of the Ecole biblique et archéologique française de Jérusalem (French Biblical and Archaeological School of Jerusalem) and a former researcher at the Institut français du Proche-Orient (French Institute of the Near East) (head of the Palestinian Territories branch), he is joint director of the Missions archéologiques françaises (French Archaeological Missions) at the Tomb of the Kings (Jerusalem) and in Samaria-Sebaste.
He is the author of several articles and a book on the history of archaeological research: “Les Tombeaux royaux de Judée” (Éditions Geuthner, 2008).
Archeology in Palestine

Christian Cannuyer was born in Ath (Belgium). He is a historian and a doctor of Egyptology. Since 1991, he has taught at the Faculty of Theology of the Catholic University of Lille, where he teaches the history of religions, the history of the Church, and the history of the churches of the Orient. At the University, he also facilitates the Groupe de recherche sur les Traditions religieuses du Proche-Orient (GRETREPRO – Research Group on the Religious Traditions of the Near East). Since 1994, he has been Chairperson of the Société Royale Belge d'Études Orientales (Royal Belgian Society for Oriental Studies), and he is Director of the Solidarité-Orient / Werk voor het Oosten (Solidarity Orient / Work for the East) association, the Belgian equivalent of Oeuvre d'Orient (Work for the Orient) in France. His studies cover the Copts, the Christians of Egypt. He is also director of the “Fils d’Abraham” collection at the publisher Brepols.
Photo: Bruno Deheneffe ©.
Christianity

Laurent Cassagnau is a former student of the ENS (Ecole normale supérieure – Higher Normal School) in Saint-Cloud. He is an agrégé in German, doctor of Germanic Studies, and a universitie professor at the ENS in Lyon, as well as being a member of the Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches Comparées sur la Création (Centre for Comparative Studies and Research on Creation) (CERCC, EA (Equipe d’accueil – Reception Team) 1633). His research covers German-language poetry from the 19th to the 21st centuries (especially the historical avant-gardes and the possibility / impossibility of poetry after the Shoah). He is also a translator.
In 2012, he published a new translation of Gœthe’s West-Östlicher Divan (West-Eastern Divan), published by Belles-Lettres.
Goethe

Thomas Cazentre is a former student of the École normale supérieure. He is an agrégé in modern literature, a docteur ès lettres (Doctor of Literature), and a Library Curator. From 2008 to 2017, he was in charge of the collections of 19th-century photographs within the Print and Photograph Department of the BnF. As part of his duties, he supervised the digitisation of 19th-century photograph albums conserved in that department. He was curator of the exhibitions “Été 14, les derniers jours de l’ancien monde” (BnF, 2014) and “Le Caire sur le vif. Beniamino Facchinelli, photographe, 1875-1895” (INHA, 2017).
He is also the author of several articles or contributions to collective works on 19th-century travel and architecture photography. In 2017, he was given responsibility for modern and contemporary collections in the Manuscript Department.
Bisson and Welling’s journey to Egypt

Jacqueline Chabbi is an agrégée in Arabic, a docteur ès Lettres, and an universities honorary professor.
She was a student of Régis Blachère, Claude Cahen, and Mohamed Arkoun.
For the last twenty years, her research has covered the origins of Islam from a historical and anthropological point of view.
She is the author of “Le Seigneur des tribus, l'islam de Mahomet” (Noésis, 1997; republished by the CNRS, 2010, 2013), “Le Coran décrypté, Figures bibliques en Arabie” (Fayard, 2008; republished by Cerf, 2014), and “Les trois piliers de l'islam, lecture anthropologique du Coran” (Seuil, 2016).
Religions - Islam - The Quran, translations by M. Kazimirski

Leyla Dakhli was born in 1973 in Tunis. She is a doctor and an agrégée in history, and a specialist of the intellectual and social history of the contemporary Arab world. In particular, she worked on the history of Syria and the Lebanon, Tunisia and the city of Jerusalem, as well as on transnational Arab intellectual and militant networks.
She is currently Head of Research at the CNRS, posted to the Centre Marc Bloch (Marc Bloch Centre) in Berlin.
She recently published “Une Génération d’intellectuels arabe. Syrie-Liban 1908-1940” (Karthala, 2009) and “Histoire du Proche-Orient contemporain” (La Découverte, 2015), and she directed “Le Moyen-Orient fin 19ème-20ème siècle” (Le Seuil, 2016).
Politics

Ségolène Débarre is a professor at the University of Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne and a researcher at the Laboratoire Géographie-Cités (Geography-Cities Laboratory) (UMR 8504), as well as being an associate researcher at the Institut Français d’Études Anatoliennes (French Institute of Anatolian Studies) and the Centre d’Études Turques, Ottomanes, Balkaniques et Centrasiatiques (Centre for Turkish, Ottoman, Balkan, and Central Asian Studies) (UMR 8032).
She is the author of “Cartographier l’Asie Mineure. L’Orientalisme allemand à l’épreuve du terrain” (Peeters, 2016). She also contributed to the “Between Three Seas: Ottoman and French Cartography from the Dardanelles to the Bosphorus” exhibition (İzmir, Arkas Art Center, May 2016).
Maps and plans of Istanbul

Andrea del Lungo is a Professor of French Literature at the University of Lille 3, a member of the Institut Universitaire de France, and a specialist in the 19th-century novel.
He has published reference works on the beginning of a novel, “L’Incipit Romanesque” (Seuil, 2003), and on the image of the window in literature, “La fenêtre. Sémiologie et histoire de la représentation littéraire” (published Seuil, 2014), as well as several collective works on the writings of Balzac, on the relationship between literature and knowledge, and on women novelists.
He arranged for the publishing of a few famous novels by Balzac, including “Illusions perdues” (Garnier-Le Monde, 2009), and he currently directs an ANR (Agence Nationale de la Recherche – French National Research Agency) project on an electronic and hypertextual edition of “La Comédie humaine” (ebalzac.com).
Balzac

Christiane Delplace is Emeritus Director of Research at the CNRS. She directed the French archaeological missions of Urbs Salvia in Italy (1976-1979) and Palmyra in Syria (2001-2008), and she taught at the University of Strasbourg II and the University of Paris I before joining the CNRS. Her two main strands of research are Central Italy and Syria.
Main works: “Le Griffon. De l'archaïsme à l'époque impériale. Etude iconographique et essai d'interprétation symbolique” (Bruxelles & Rome, 1980); “La romanisation du Picenum. L'exemple d'Urbs Salvia” (Collection de l'Ecole Française de Rome, 177, 1993); with J. Dentzer-Feydy et al., “L'agora de Palmyre” (AUSONIUS Ed. Mémoires 14 – IFPO, BAH 175, 2005); “Palmyre. Histoire et archéologie d’une cité caravanière à la croisée des cultures” (CNRS-éditions, 2017).
Archeology in Syria

Jessica Desclaux is an agrégée in Modern Literature and a docteur ès Lettres. She is a temporary professor and researcher at the ENS in Paris, and an associate researcher at République des Savoirs (USR (Unité de Service et de Recherche – Service and Research Unit) 3608: ENS, Collège de France, CNRS). Under the supervision of Antonie Compagnon, she wrote her thesis on the travels of Maurice Barrès. Her research covers the use of the rich Barrès fund, which is held at the BnF.
Following on from the work of Ida-Marie Frandon, author of “L’Orient de Maurice Barrès” (Droz, 1952), and Émilien Carassus, editor of “Un Jardin sur l’Oronte” (Gallimard, Folio, 1990), in June 2017 at the Collège de France, she organised a study day on “L’Orient à l’épreuve de la Grande Guerre. Autour d’Une enquête aux pays du Levant de Maurice Barrès”.
Maurice Barrès

Vanessa Desclaux is a Library Curator in charge of the Prehistory, Ancient History, and Archaeology collections of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. She is an Egyptologist and an associate researcher at the Laboratoire Histoire et Sources des Mondes Antiques (History and Sources of Ancient Worlds Laboratory) (HiSoMA - UMR 5189), as well as being a member of the French archaeological mission of Coptos. She directed the library of the Institut français d’archéologie orientale (French Institute of Oriental Archaeology) from 2006 to 2012.
Her doctoral thesis studied calls to passers-by in Ancient Egypt, a subject on which she has written several articles. With H. Virenque and J. Olivier, she co-edited the research log “L’Antiquité” at the BnF.
Archeology in Egypt

Frédérique Duyrat is Head of the Coins, Medals, and Antiques Department of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. A former professor in Greek History at the University of Orléans and a former Junior Member of the Institut universitaire de France, she was Curator of Greek Coinage at the Coins, Medals, and Antiques Department at the Bibliothèque nationale de France before taking over as Head of that department in September 2013. She is an associate researcher with the Orient et Méditerranée – Mondes sémitiques (Orient and Mediterranean – Semitic Worlds) team (University of Paris – Sorbonne), and a member of the Archaeology doctoral school of the University of Paris I - Panthéon Sorbonne. She has organised a number of colloquia (most recently in 2016 on Henri Seyrig (1895-1973)), and she is the author of an habilitation à diriger des recherches (accreditation to direct research) published in 2016: “Wealth and Warfare. The Archaeology of Money in Ancient Syria”.
The Latakia trove

Élodie Gaden is an agrégée in modern literature and a docteure ès lettres, as well as being an associate of the UMRs THALIM (Théorie et histoire des arts et des littératures de la modernité – Theory and History of the Arts and Literatures of Modernity) (University of Paris 3) and Litt&Arts (University of Grenoble). In 2013, she defended a thesis entitled “Les écrits de femmes en Égypte francophone (1898-1961)”. Her research covers women’s French-language literature in the Arab world, women’s travel literature from a perspective of literary history, and the French-language press in Egypt (she collaborated on the work done by the CEAlex (Centre d’Études Alexandrines – Centre for Alexandrian Studies) in Alexandria, and she published two articles in “Presses allophones de Méditerranée” (J.-Y. Empereur and M.-D. Martellière (dir.), CEALex, 2017). She was the joint organiser of several colloquia and study days, including “Femmes européennes en voyage. Afrique, Orient: regards littéraires” (2013) and “Valentine de Saint-Point, à la croisée des avants-gardes” (2017), etc.). Élodie Gaden is also responsible for republishing “Au cœur du harem” by Jehan d'Ivray (PU Saint-Etienne, 2011) and “À Damas sous les bombes” by Alice Poulleau (Éditions des Régionalismes, 2014; with P. Roux).
L'Égyptienne - Images

Julie Garel-Grislin is a curator at the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
She is a member of the SAPRAT (Savoirs et Pratiques du Moyen Âge au XIXe siècle (Knowledge and Practices from the Middle Ages to the 19th century) – EA 4116) laboratory, and a doctoral candidate at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes. She is working on a critical edition of the travel journal of Henri-Joseph Redouté, a draughtsman with Bonaparte’s expedition to Egypt.
The Description of Egypt

Eve Gran-Aymerich is a docteur ès lettres. Her work as a researcher at the Académie des inscriptions et belle-lettres has covered the history of French archaeology viewed in the international, scientific, and political framework.
She has published “Les Chercheurs de passé 1798/1945. Aux sources de l’archéologie” (CNRS éditions, 2007). Her most recent research has covered cultural and scientific transfers at work in the 19th and 20th centuries within the Western scholarly community, especially between the Germans and the French. Her publications include, inter alia: with J. von Ungern-Sternberg, “L’Antiquité partagée. Correspondances franco-allemandes (1823-1861)” (Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, 2012); “Ludwig Ross en Grèce. La dimension européenne des sciences de l’Antiquité” in M. Espagne and S. Maufroy (dir.); and “L’Hellénisme de Wilhelm von Humboldt et ses prolongements européens” (Demopolis, 2016).
Archaeology - Jane Dieulafoy

Marie-Geneviève Guesdon is a curator in charge of Arabic manuscripts in the Manuscript Department of the BnF. She drafts its catalogue and takes part in the codicology of those documents.
Emile Amelineau - Jean-Louis Asselin de Cherville - Seymour de Ricci

Laurent Héricher is curator in charge of Hebrew manuscripts and Head of the Oriental Manuscript Department at the Bibliothèque nationale de France. He holds a DEA (Diplôme d’Études Approfondies – Master of Advanced Studies) in Hebrew Language and Literature; his research has covered translations of the Hebrew Bible into Judæo-Spanish.
He is the author of several works and articles on the sacred books of the three great monotheist religions. He was one of the curators of “Livre de Paroles Torah Bible Coran” (BnF 2005) and of “Qumran le secret des manuscrits de la Mer morte” (BnF, 2010).
The Dead Sea Scrolls. Qumrān

Bernard Heyberger is a historian and an Arabist, and he is Director of Studies at the EHESS and the EPHE. He is an agrégé in history, a former member of the Ecole française de Rome, and he directed the Institut d’études de l’Islam et des Sociétés du Monde Musulman (IISMM – Institute for Studies on Islam and the Societies of the Muslim World) from 2010 to 2014. His research covers Christians in the Ottoman Empire.
After two reference works: “Les chrétiens du Proche-Orient au temps de la Réforme catholique” (Bibliothèque des Ecoles Françaises d'Athènes et de Rome, republished in 2014) and “Hindiyya (1720 – 1798), mystique et criminelle” (Aubier, 2001), he recently published “Hanna Dyâb, D’Alep à Paris. Les pérégrinations d’un jeune Syrien au temps de Louis XIV” (translated and edited with J. Lentin and P. Fahmé-Thiéry, Actes Sud, 2015). He is often called upon to deal with the subject of Christians in the Near East in general, and he produced introductions on the subject: “Les chrétiens au Proche-Orient. De la compassion à la comprehension” (Payot, 2013) and “Les chrétiens d’Orient” (Paris, PUF (Que sais-je?) 2017).
Eastern churches - Holy Places

Frédéric Hitzel is a doctor of History and Head of Research at the CNRS, as well as being Deputy Director of the Centre d’Études Turques, Ottomanes, Balkaniques et Centrasiatiques (CNRS-EHESS-PSL).
He is the author of “Couleurs de la Corne d’Or. Peintres voyageurs à la Sublime Porte” (ACR, 2002), “L’Empire ottoman, XVe-XVIIIe siècles” (Les Belles-Lettres, 2001), “Artisans et commerçants du Grand Turc” (Les Belles-Lettres, 2007), and “Le dernier siècle de l’Empire ottoman” (Les Belles-Lettres, 2014), as well as of the collective works “Istanbul et les langues orientales” (L’Harmattan, 1997), “Livres et lecture dans le monde ottoman”, Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée (Édisud, 1999, no. 87-88), and “Les Ottomans et le temps” (with François Georgeon, Brill, 2011).
Constantinople / Istanbul - Knowledge - Oriental studies - Oriental printing houses - Press - Libraries

Henry Laurens is a historian, a docteur d'État (roughly equivalent to a Ph.D. / D.Phil.), an agrégé in history, and a professor at the Collège de France (where he holds the chair in Contemporary History of the Arab World). He was also the director of the Centre d'études et de recherches sur le Moyen-Orient Contemporain (CERMOC – Centre for Studies and Research on the Contemporary Middle East) in Beirut, then scientific director of the Institut Français du Proche-Orient (French Institute of the Near East). In 2004, he was awarded the Joseph du Theil Prize by the Académie des Sciences morales et politiques (Academy of Moral and Political Sciences) and the Franco-Arab Friendship Prize by the Association de solidarité franco-arabe (Franco-Arab Solidarity Association).
Henry Laurens is the author of a number of works, including, recently, “L'Orient dans tous ses états- Orientales IV” (CNRS éditions, 2017), “Les crises d'Orient, 1768-1914” (Editions Fayard, 2017), “La question de Palestine Tome 5: 1982-2001, la paix impossible” (Editions Fayard, 2015), and “Le rêve méditerranéen” (CNRS éditions, 2010).
Editorial by Henry Laurens - The Palestinians

Franck Laurent is an agrégé in Literature, a Doctor of Literature, and a Professor of French Literature of the 19th and 20th centuries (University of Le Mans, the 3L.AM (Langues, littératures, et linguistique des universités d'Angers et du Maine – Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics of the Universities of Angers and Maine) Laboratory - EA 4335), as well as a specialist in Victor Hugo, relationships between literature, history, and politics, and colonial cultures. He directed the “Victor Hugo et l’Orient” collection at Maisonneuve et Larose, and as part of that, he published “Victor Hugo face à la conquête de l’Algérie” (Maisonneuve et Larose, 2001).
He is also the author of “Victor Hugo, espace et politique” (Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2008), and, in the Livre de poche “Classiques” series, he edited “Les Orientales et les Feuilles d’automne” (1998), “Choses vues” (2013), and an anthology of Hugo’s “Ecrits politiques” (Le Livre de poche “Références”, 2002). To the “Bouquins” collection (Robert Laffont), he contributed “Le Voyage en Algérie. Anthologie de voyageurs français dans l’Algérie colonial” (2008).
Victor Hugo

Christian Lochon was trained in French literature and as an Arabist. For 25 years, he served in seven Eastern countries, either as a professor or as a cultural attaché. He teaches at the Institut Ghazali de Formation des Imams (Ghazali Institute for Imam Training), and as part of the Master’s degree in Arab Commercial Law at the University of Paris II.
He has been a counsellor to the Chairperson of the Institut du Monde arabe (Institute for the Arab World), Director of Studies at the Centre des Hautes Etudes Afro-asiatiques modernes (Centre for Advanced Modern Afro-Asian Studies), and professor at the Institut Catholique de Lille (Catholic Institute of Lille) and at the University of Paris IV.
"L'Œuvre d'Orient"

Marie-Delphine Martellière is a Research Officer in charge of documentary resources. She has been head of the digitisation unit of the Centre d’Études Alexandrines (USR 3134-CNRS) since 2013, and of the archives department since March 2015. She is in charge of the digitisation programme “Presse francophone d’Égypte”; with J.-Y. Empereur, she co-edited the work “Presses allophones de Méditerranée” (Études Alexandrines 41, Alexandrie, 2017).
In parallel with studies on the press in Egypt, she uses archives collected and conserved by the CEAlex to document various subjects relating to the history of the city and its heritage.
Alexandria : the “Tram” symbol of modernity

Guillaume Métayer is a former student of the École Normale Supérieure, an agrégé in classical literature, and a Doctor of French Literature. He is head of research at the CNRS within the Centre d’Étude de la Langue et des Littératures Françaises (Centre for the study of French Language and Literatures) (University of Paris-Sorbonne).
He is the author of “Nietzsche et Voltaire” (Flammarion, 2011), “Anatole France et le nationalisme littéraire” (Le Félin, 2011), and several articles on the posterity of the Enlightenment in the 19th and 20th centuries, as well being a literary translator of German and Hungarian.
Anatole France - Voltaire.

Ian Monk is a British poet and translator. He has translated several authors, in particular Georges Perec, Raymond Roussel, Jacques Roubaud, and Hugo Pratt.
He was awarded the 2004 Scott Moncrieff Prize for his translation of “Monsieur Malaussène” by Daniel Pennac.

He is head of translating articles into English.

Marie-Dominique Nenna is director of research at the CNRS.
She is a former student of the École Normale Supérieure and an agrégée in classical literature. She was first a scientific member, then director, of the library of the École française d’Athènes (French School of Athens) (1987-1994).
She undertook research into glass and faience craftsmanship in the ancient world, as well as into the funerary practices of Græco-Roman Egypt. She is currently director of the Centre d’Études Alexandrines.
Alexandria

Domenico Paone holds a doctorate awarded by the EPHE, where he defended a thesis on the philosophical, scientific, and literary production of the final years of Ernest Renan. His work was based on a considerable number of notes and fragments of unpublished manuscripts held at the Bibliothèque nationale de France and at the Musée de la Vie Romantique (Museum of Romantic Life) in Paris.
He is head of the Renan Group at the ITEM (Institut des textes et manuscrits modernes (Institute of Moderns Texts and Manuscripts) - UMR 8132 CNRS / ENS). Within that laboratory, he directs the “Renan Source” project, an online digital edition of Renan’s manuscripts.
Amongst his publications, he directed the special issue of the magazine Études Renaniennes, “Lire Renan aujourd’hui” (no. 116, 2015).
Ernest Renan : The origins of Christianity - Mission to Phoenicia - The general history and comparative system of the Semitic languages

Christine Peltre is an agrégée in classical literature, and Professor of the History of Art at the University of Strasbourg. In particular, her work covers travel and Orientalism, by associating their literary and artistic expressions.
She has contributed to the catalogues of several exhibitions and published several works, including “Les Orientalistes” (Hazan, 1997), “Théodore Chassériau” (Gallimard, 2001), “Les arts de l’Islam. Itinéraire d’une redécouverte” (Gallimard, 2006), “Le Voyage de Grèce. Un atelier en Méditerranée” (Citadelles & Mazenod, 2011), and “Femmes ottomanes et Dames turques. Une collection de cartes postales (1880-1930)” (Bleu autour, 2014). Awaiting publication are “Le voyage en Afrique du Nord. Images et mirages d’un tourisme” (Bleu autour, end of 2017) and “Les Orientalistes” (Hazan, new expanded edition, 2018).
Costumes

Jean-François Pérouse is a former student of the ENS of Fontenay-St Cloud, a university professor, a doctor of geography, and a graduate in Turkish from INALCO. He is a teacher-researcher attached to the University of Toulouse - Jean Jaurès. After having taught at the Universities of Marmara and Galatasaray (Istanbul), and after having been involved in developing Istanbul Urban Observatory and in creating the Cartographic Workshop within the Institut Français d'Etudes Anatoliennes (IFEA (French Institute of Anatolian Studies), Istanbul), he has been head of that institute from September 2012 until August 2017 (IFEA / USR 3131).
His publications include, inter alia, “La Turquie en Marche” (La Martinière, 2004), “Villes et Risques” (Economica / Anthropos, 2006), “Constantinople 1900. Voyage photographique de T. Wild” (Kallimages, 2010), “İstanbul’la Yüzleşme Denemeleri. Çeperler, Hareketlilik ve Kentsel Bellek” (İletişim, 2011). and “Istanbul. Ville-Planète” (La Découverte, 2017). In collaboration with Ms. Feza Günergun, he also edited “Between Three Seas: Ottoman and French Cartography from the Dardanelles to the Bosphorus”, İzmir: Arkas Art Center, May 2016 (exhibition catalogue).
The fire insurance maps of Istanbul by Ch. E. Goad and J. Pervititch

Catherine Pinguet is a docteur ès lettres and an associate researcher at the Centre d’Études Turques, Ottomanes, Balkaniques et Centrasiatiques (CNRS-EHESS).
She is the author of “La Folle sagesse” (Le Cerf, 1996), “Istanbul, photographes et sultans 1840-1900” (CNRS, 2011), “Les îles des Princes” (Empreinte temps présent, 2013), and “Felice Beato (1832-1909). Aux origines de la photographie de guerre” (CNRS, 2013), and she is the editor of exhibition books / catalogues entitled “100 Years of Travellers in Istanbul from the Pierre de Gigord Collection” and “Street Dogs of Istanbul” (Istanbul Research Institute, 2015-2016).
Journeys - Guides for the traveler in Orient - Expositions universelles - Maxime du Camp - Girault de Prangey

Caroline Piquet is an agrégée and doctor of history, as well as being a professor in contemporary history at the University of Paris-Sorbonne. She specialises in the economic and social history of the Mediterranean and the Middle East, and has published “Histoire du canal de Suez” (Perrin, 2009) and “Les pays du Golfe, de la perle à l’économie de la connaissance. Les nouvelles terres du libéralisme” (Armand Colin, 2013).
The Suez canal

Pierre-Louis Rey is Emeritus Professor of French Literature at the New Sorbonne University.

He published “L’Univers romanesque de Gobineau” (Gallimard, “Bibliothèque des idées”, 1981). He also edited “Gobineau, Mademoiselle Irnois, Adélaïde et autres nouvelles” (Gallimard, “Folio”, 1985), “Les Pléiades” (Gallimard, “Folio Classique”, 1997), and “Nouvelles asiatiques” (Gallimard, “Folio Classique”, 2012).

Joseph-Arthur de Gobineau

Gaultier Roux is a docteur ès Lettres (University of Paris-Sorbonne). He specialises in Orientalism and in accounts of journeys in the second half of the 19th century.
He is the author of research on Pierre Loti (“Pierre Loti, le Temps à l'œuvre”, Thesis Award of the Académie de marine (Naval Academy)), and he currently teaches French literature of the 19th and 21st centuries at Fudan University (Shanghai).

Pierre Loti

Annie Sartre-Fauriat is Emeritus Professor of Roman History at the University of Artois (Arras). She has worked on architecture and on funerary practices in Græco-Roman Syria, especially in the south: “Des tombeaux et des morts”, 2 vols. (Ifpo, 2001).
For a number of years, she has collaborated on publishing Greek and Latin inscriptions found in Syria (volumes 14 and 15, appeared in 2014 and 2016, with M. Sartre). She has also published the original archives of an English traveller discovered 20 years ago, “Les voyages de William John Bankes dans le Hawran (Syrie du Sud) en 1816 et 1818” (Bordeaux-Beyrouth, 2004), and she is preparing a work on the archaeological discovery of Syria from the 18th to the 21st centuries.
With her husband, she has published “Palmyre, la cité des caravanes” (Gallimard découvertes, 2008), “Zénobie, de Palmyre à Rome” (Perrin, 2014), and “Palmyre, vérités et légendes” (Perrin, 2016).
Archeology in Palmyra

Maurice Sartre is Emeritus Professor of Ancient History at the University of Tours. He has published several works on the Eastern Mediterranean during the Græco-Roman period, university textbooks: “L’Orient romain” (Le Seuil, 1991) and “L'Anatolie hellénistique” (Armand-Colin, 2nd edition, 2004), and works aimed at an educated public: “Histoires grecques” (Le Seuil, 2006).
He is the author of a synopsis on the history of Syria, “D'Alexandre à Zénobie”, 2nd edition (Fayard, 2003), several volumes of “Inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie” (volumes 13, 14, and 15, the last two with A. Sartre-Fauriat), and volume 4 of “Inscriptions grecques et latines de la Jordanie” (Beyrouth, 1993).
With his wife, he published “Palmyre, la cité des caravanes” (Gallimard découvertes, 2008), “Zénobie, de Palmyre à Rome” (Perrin, 2014), and “Palmyre, vérités et légendes” (Perrin, 2016).
Archeology in Palmyra

Évanghélia Stead is a member of the Institut Universitaire de France, Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Versailles Saint-Quentin, and a polyglot literary translator.
She has published widely on the culture of printed matter, ancient myths in modern literature, fin-de-siècle literature, and the literary tradition of the “Thousand and Second Night” related to the “Thousand and One Nights”.
Her works on the subject include “Contes de la mille et deuxième nuit” (Grenoble, Jérôme Millon, 2011), a cross-referenced edition of three literary tales with the original text on the facing page, plus many articles.
The Thousand and One Nights

Cécile Shalaan is a graduate of the École Supérieure des Géomètres-Topographes (Advanced School of Geometers-Topographers), and a Research Officer at the Centre d'Études Alexandrines (CEAlex), USR 3134 of the CNRS.
She is Head of the Topography and Cartography Department.
As part of establishing the corpus of maps and plans of Alexandria, she takes a particular interest in the period from the 19th century to the mid-20th century, and she has carried out several strands of research: plans sponsored by the government (1840-1940); plans with a commercial purpose (1860-1940), such as tourist guides, directories, and encyclopædias; the Nicohosoff family’s plans of the start of the 20th century; insurance plans of the Minet el-Bassal business district; and Alexandria during the First World War.
Maps and plans of Alexandria

Lorans Tanatar Baruh is a doctor of history and the Associate Director of Research and Programs at SALT since its foundation in 2011.
In 1997, she was involved in setting up the Ottoman Bank Archive and Research Centre, one of the institutions that underpins SALT. She takes an interest in the history of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Her research and publications mainly cover the economic, social, and urban history of the city of Istanbul.
Francophone press in the Ottoman Empire - Ottoman Bank

Aline Tenu is a doctor of Oriental archaeology at the University of Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne. She is head of research in the Histoire et archéologie de l'Orient cunéiforme (History and Archaeology of the Cuneiform Orient) team within the Archéologies et Sciences de l'Antiquité (Archaeology and Sciences of Antiquity) Laboratory of the CNRS.
Her work mainly covers the Assyrians and funerary practices. She has taken part in many excavations in Syria and Iraq. Since 2015, she has directed the Mission archéologique française du Peramagron (French Archaeological Mission to Piramagrun) in Iraqi Kurdistan, exploring Kunara, a town occupied at the end of the 3rd millennium.
She is the author of “L’expansion médio-assyrienne: approche archéologique” (J. and E. Hedges, 2009), and “Mésopotamie - De Gilgamesh à Artaban (3000 av. J.-C. à 224 apr. J.-C.)” (BELIN, 2017) with Francis Joannès, Bertrand Lafont, and Philippe Clancier.
Archeology in Iraq

Laurent Tholbecq is a professor at the Free University of Brussels and holder of a chair in the archaeology of Roman provinces.
A former researcher at the Institut français du Proche-Orient (Amman (1995-1998)), he has taken part in several archaeological projects in the Near East. Since 2013, he has directed the French archaeological mission of Petra.His work mainly covers Nabatæan religious areas.
His work mainly covers Nabatæan religious areas.
Archeology in Jordan

Dominique Versavel was trained as an archivist palaeographer. Since 2003, she has been curator at the Prints and Photograph Department of the BNF, where she is head of the modern-photography and press fund and, since, 2014, head of the department of photography.
She has contributed to the curatorships and catalogues of the following exhibitions: “Objets dans l'objectif” (2005), “Sebastião Salgado. Territoires et vies” (2005-2006), “La Photographie humaniste (1945-1968): autour d'Izis, Boubat, Brassaï, Doisneau, Ronis” (2006), “La Presse à la Une: de la Gazette à Internet” (2012), and “Alix Cléo Roubaud. Photographies” (2014-2015).
Photo: J. Lacharmoise ©.
Agence Rol

Charles-Éloi Vial is curator at the Manuscript Department of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. He is an archivist palaeographer, a doctor of history, and a specialist of the First Empire in France. His publications include “Les derniers feux de la monarchie: la cour de France au siècle des Révolutions, 1789-1870” (Perrin, 2016) and a biography of Empress Marie-Louise of France (Perrin, 2017).
He has collaborated on several exhibitions, and studied the manuscript of the Mémoires sur la campagne d’Egypte (Memoirs of the Campaign in Egypt) written by Napoleon on Saint Helena, presented to the public at the Musée de l’Armée (Army Museum) in 2016.
The Egyptian Campaign

Mercedes Volait is a doctor of history and director of research at the CNRS (InVisu (Information visuelle et textuelle en histoire de l’art – Visual and Textual Information in History of Art) Laboratory of the INHA (Institut National de l’Histoire de l’Art – National Institute of the History of Art)). Her work covers architectural and antiquarian Orientalism born of the contact with monuments in Cairo and through figurative representations given by drawing, photography, and moulding in the 19th century. She is currently studying large acquisitions of Egyptian and Syrian Islamic art made in 1860-1880 by the Victoria and Albert Museum, where she has been an associate researcher since 2015. Her work won her the 1991 Michel Seurat Prize from the CNRS, the 2009 Jean-Edouard Goby Prize from the Institut de France, the 2013 Hubert Lyautey Prize from the Académie des Sciences d’Outre-mer (Academy of Overseas Sciences), and the 2014 Fontainebleau Festival d’histoire de l’art Prize.
She is the author of several publications, including “Fous du Caire: excentriques, architectes et amateurs d'art en Egypte (1867-1914)” (L'Archange Minotaure, 2009) and “Le Caire dessiné et photographié au XIXe siècle” (D'une rive, l'autre, 2013).
Beniamino Facchinelli - Emile Prisse d'Avennes - Arthur-Ali Rhoné - The Rue du Caire - Hammam - The new Cairo pictured by Emile Bechard

Jean-Baptiste Yon is director of research at the CNRS (HiSoMA Laboratory, Lyon).
A former student of the École Normale supérieure (Ulm) and an agrégé in history, he was scientific resident at the Institut français d'archéologie du Proche-Orient (French Institute of the Archaeology of the Near East) (Damascus, 1999-2002).
His research covers the populations and societies of the Near East from the Hellenistic period to the period of Late Antiquity, mainly based on epigraphic sources.
He has worked on various sites in the Near East: Palmyra, Dura-Europos, Zeugma, Tyre, Byblos, etc.
Archeology in Lebanon

Sara Yontan is a curator, head of Turkish collections at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and Chairperson of MELCom International, the European Association of Middle East Librarians.
Francophone press in the Ottoman Empire