Ethel, Lady Drower (néeEthel May Stefana Stevens;[1] 1 December 1879 – 27 January 1972) was aBritishcultural anthropologist, orientalist and novelist who studied theMiddle East and its cultures.[2] She was and is still considered one of the primary specialists on theMandaeans, and was the dedicated collector of Mandaean manuscripts.[3]
In 1911, she marriedEdwin Drower and after his knighthood becameLady Drower. AsE. S. Stevens, she wrote a series of romantic novels forMills & Boon and other publishers. In 1921, she accompanied her husband to Iraq where Sir Edwin Drower was adviser to the Justice Minister from 1921 to 1947.[2] Among her grandchildren was the campaigning journalistRoly Drower.
Her works include the comprehensive description and display of the last practising gnosticMandaeans' rituals, rites, and customs inThe Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran: Their Cults, Customs, Magic, Legends, and Folklore,The Canonical Prayerbook of the Mandaeans (a translation of theQolasta),The Secret Adam: A Study of Nasoraean Gnosis, andThe Peacock Angel (novel about theYezidis),[4] editions of unique manuscripts such as astronomical divinations (omen) (The Book of the Zodiac) and magical texts (A Book of Black Magic;[5]A Phylactery for Rue),[6] and relevant translations ofMandaean religious works such asThe Haran Gawaita and the Baptism of Hibil-Ziwa andThe Coronation of the Great Šišlam.[2] Drower's final major work titledMass and Masiqta orMessiah, Mass and Masiqta remains unpublished to this day, and it is unclear if the full manuscript exists.[7]
Before her scholarly activity, "Already under her maiden name of Ethel Stefana Stevens, Lady Drower had been inspired by the Orient. Between 1909 and 1927, she published 13 novels, and she was the author of two delectable books of travel."[8][2]
Ethel, Lady Drower died on 27 January 1972, aged 92. She was survived by her children, including daughter,Margaret "Peggy" Hackforth-Jones, and other family members.[9]
The Drower Collection (DC), held at theBodleian Library inOxford University, is the most extensive collection of Mandaean manuscripts. The collection consists of 55 manuscripts, many of which Drower had obtained through the Mandaean priest SheikhNegm bar Zahroon.[11]
Drower donated MSS. Drower 1-53 to theBodleian Library in 1958. MS. Drower 54,The Coronation of the Great Šišlam, was given to the library by Lady Drower in 1961. MS. Drower 55, Lady Drower's personal notebook, was added in 1986.[1]
After her death, some of Drower's private notebooks were obtained byRudolf Macúch. These notebooks are not part of the Bodleian Library's Drower Collection.[9]
MS. DC 2, which was copied bySheikh Negm for Drower in 1933, mentions theMandaean baptismal name (i.e., spiritual name given by a Mandaean priest, as opposed to a birth name) of E. S. Drower asKlila pt Šušian (Classical Mandaic:ࡊࡋࡉࡋࡀ ࡐࡕ ࡔࡅࡔࡉࡀࡍ,lit. 'Wreath, daughter of Susan'), as her middle name Stefana means 'wreath' in Greek. MS. DC 26, a manuscript copied by copied by Sheikh Faraj for Drower in 1936, contains twoqmahas (exorcisms). MS. DC 26 is dedicated to Drower's daughter,Margaret ("Peggy"), who is given the Mandaean baptismal nameMarganita pt Klila ("Pearl, daughter of Wreath") in the text.[9]
Diwan Abatur or Progress Through the Purgatories, text with translation notes and Appendices, Città del Vaticano: Biblioteca apostolica vaticana, 1950.
TheHaran Gawaita and theBaptism of Hibil-Ziwa: the Mandaic text reproduced, together with translation, notes and commentary, Città del Vaticano: Biblioteca apostolica vaticana, 1953.
^abcdeChrista Müller-Kessler, Drower [née Stevens], Ethel May Stefana, Lady Drower, inNew Dictionary of National Biography, vol. 16 (Oxford, 2004), pp. 193–194.[1]
^Today stored as Drower Collection (DC) in theBodleian Library, Oxford. A comprehensive list is found in E. S. Drower, A Mandæan Bibliography,Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1953, pp. 34–39.
^Rudolf Macuch, Lady Ethel Stefana Drower,Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 124, 1974, pp. 6–12.
^E. S. Drower, A Mandæan Book of Black Magic,Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1943, pp. 149–181
^E. S. Drower, A Phylactery for Rue. (An Invocation of the Personified Herb),Orientalia N.S. 15, 1946, pp. 324–346.
