Fulgence Fresnel (April 15, 1795 – November 30, 1855) was a French Orientalist who was a native of Mathieu, Calvados. He was brother to physicist Augustin Fresnel (1788–1827).
As a young man he studied sciences, literature and languages, and translated a few works of Berzelius, stories by German novelist Johann Ludwig Tieck and fragments of a Chinese novel (Fragments chinois- 1822-23). He was a pupil of Sylvestre de Sacy (1768–1838) in Paris, and in 1826 undertook studies of Arabic at Maronite College in Rome.
Later he was appointed consular agent in Jeddah. In Arabia, he became a proficient speaker of local dialects, and came in contact with descendants of the Himyarites. Fresnel is credited as the first European to translate ancient Himyarite inscriptions.
In 1851 he was put in charge of a scientific expedition to Mesopotamia, where he was accompanied by Assyriologist Jules Oppert (1825–1905). When the expedition members were recalled in 1854, Fresnel chose to remain, and died in Baghdad on November 30, 1855. His notes on the journey were included in Oppert's work- Expedition en Mesopotamie (1858, 1863).