Bernard de Montfaucon e le inscriptiones arabicae

This paper brings to light Bernard de Montfaucon’s interest in Islamic epigraphy, so far unknown. Indeed, from the study of some unpublished documents contained in his papiers, it can be gathered that the father of Greek palaeography, whose contribution to the development of classical philology and classical and medieval archaeology is also widely acknowledged, was at the centre of an international network involved in deciphering, dating and contextualising some inscribed Islamic artefacts, including the famous crystal rock ewer from the treasury of Saint-Denis. Contrary to the narrative that sets the rise of a scientific interest in Islamic epigraphy – and Islamic archaeology in general – at the beginning of the 18th century in an exclusively Orientalist context, the involvement of Montfaucon and his circle to the discovery of the historical value of Islamic artefacts demonstrates that this interest has to be traced back to the late 17th century within the very intellectual movement which laid the foundations of classical and medieval archaeology. This acquisition allows us to re-construct a more complex and nuanced epistemological framework where Islamic material culture was understood as a fundamental part of the construction of an European identity.