He was a liberal nobleman and supported the reforms of the National Constituent Assembly, of which he was elected secretary in December and president for a standard two weeks term (27 March - 12 April 1790).

Commander of one of the sections of Paris on 1 Prairial III (20 May 1795), he forced the rebellious Faubourg Saint-Antoine to capitulate.

He married the daughter of a rich Egyptian, Zubaidah bint Muhammad El Bawwab, converted to Islam and was renamed Abdallah.

Menou was permitted to evacuate the remaining French forces, but handed over the Rosetta Stone in exchange, the discovery of which had been reported to him by Captain Pierre-François Bouchard; it was a vital key to understanding the lost language of hieroglyphics.

By his marriage to Zubaidah El Bawwab, he had a son Jacques Mourad Soliman (born 28 July 1800 in Rosetta, Egypt).