drawn by
Thomas in 1852 Fresnel was appointed French consular agent in Cairo in 1837, and then consul 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 into 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. He was a prominent member of the
Société Asiatique and considered one of France's leading
Arabists of the period. The expedition suffered misfortunes from ill health, uncertainties due to the Arab unrest in the Ottoman Empire and ultimately critical financial issues. Nevertheless, it has been argued that the expedition discovered the true location of ancient
Babylon. 1867) Much of the mission's work was subsequently lost in May 1855 when the
rafts transporting it were attacked and sunk on the river
Tigris. Subsequent efforts to recover the over 200 cases of lost antiquities at
Al-Qurnah, including a Japanese expedition in 1971-2, have as yet been unsuccessful. Oppert and Thomas had already left the expedition in 1854, while Fresnel chose to remain in the Middle East. Further to
the Al-Qurnah Disaster noted above, he died of
consumption in
Baghdad on 30 November 1855. Perreymond his assistant, also died there in 1858, having been unable to return to France. 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. A detailed report by Maurice Pillet on the travails and eventual unravelling of Fresnel's mission to Babylon was published in 1922. == Personal life ==