It was not until the 17th century that Eastern literary texts, fables or tales – often presented in anthologies – were finally available in French.

The “journey to the Orient” in the literary sense of the term is a 19th-century invention. To measure this metamorphosis, it needs to be compared with the past.

The Orient of musicians is no less vast than that of painters and writers, to which it is closely linked, and, of course, of scholars who, via writers, were often the first sources of inspiration. It could be near or far, ancient or modern. It is thus too vast for a real overview of it to be made here.

Be it artistic, archaeological or ethnographic, photography accompanied travellers as of the mid-19th century.

In the 18th century, Egyptian monuments and then the Holy Land caught the fascination of scholars in Europe.