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Sascha Kronburg, ‘(May) the name of the Life and the name of Knowledge-of-Life be upon you.’, Watercolour, 1933 (MS. Drower adds.)
Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
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Diwan Abathur (Scroll of Abathur), c. 1743–53. An account of the life of the soul in the purgatories and the worlds of light. (MS. Drower 8 (R))
Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
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Front row, left to right: Stefana Drower, Morag Tainsh, and Colonel J. Ramsey Tainsh, Director of the Railway, Iraq, c. 1920s. (MS. Or. Drower)
Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
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Stefana and Edwin Drower in the ruins of the Temple of Bacchus in Baalbek (Lebanon), c. 1920s (MS. Or. Drower)
Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
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Stefana Drower with a Bedawi Sheikh, probably Shammar. Iraq, c. 1920s (MS. Or. Drower)
Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
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Ethel Stefana Drower. The Veil (London, 1909) (2561 e.6864)
Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
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Ethel Stefana Drower. The Mountain of God (London, 1911) (25611 e.11)
Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Ethel Stefana Drower (1879–1972)
Ethel Stefana Drower (née Stevens) began her career as a novelist, travel writer and freelance journalist. Between 1909 and 1927 she published thirteen novels; many of them, like these, were based in the Middle East in which she developed a scholarly interest and expertise. Though untrained as a scholar, she learned Arabic while stationed with her husband in Iraq, and would later teach herself Aramaic as well. While in Iraq, Drower began to develop what would become a lifelong fascination with the Mandaeans, the only surviving gnostic group from antiquity. Drower worked closely with the Mandaeans, earning their trust to the degree that some members made copies for her of manuscripts which were usually reserved for study and reading by their own priests. These copies of scrolls formed the basis of a large number of important publications, many of which remain the standard texts to this day, and to the recognition of Drower as a pioneering expert in Mandaean language, history, religion and culture.