Constantin-François Volney

Constantin-François Chassebœuf de La Giraudais (French: [kɔ̃stɑ̃tɛ̃ fʁɑ̃sua ʃasəbœf də la ʒiʁodɛ]), comte de Volney (3 February 1757 – 25 April 1820), was a French philosopher, historian, orientalist, abolitionist and politician. In his youth, he attended Madame Helvétius's salon in Paris, where he met Benjamin Franklin during the American War of Independence. He became famous in 1787 with a book about his journey to Ottoman Egypt and Syria. At the beginning of the French Revolution, Volney repr…