The seventh child of a poor family, Galland was taught Hebrew, Latin, and Greek by canons and attended the College of Noyon and the Collège de France in Paris. He accompanied the French ambassador to Constantinople during 1670–75, learned Arabic, Persian, and Turkish, and wrote a journal of his travels.

In 1679 he was appointed antiquary to Louis XIV, for whom he collected ancient coins and manuscripts. In addition to his work on dictionaries and academic writings, he translated the Qurʾān and in 1694 wrote Les Paroles remarquables, les bons mots et les maximes des Orientaux (The Remarkable Sayings, Apothegms, and Maxims of the Eastern Nations), a compendium of Eastern wisdom, and Les Contes et fables indiennes de Bidpai et de Lokmam (1724; “Indian Fables and Tales of Bidpai and Lokmam”). His major work, Les Mille et une nuits, was a popular version freely translated from Syrian manuscripts.