Bi-/Multi-lingualism and the History of Language Learning and Teaching
R. Mairs and R. Smith eds... more Bi-/Multi-lingualism and the History of Language Learning and Teaching
Corpus of Ptolemaic Inscriptions Part I: Greek, Bilingual, and Trilingual Inscriptions from Egypt... more Corpus of Ptolemaic Inscriptions Part I: Greek, Bilingual, and Trilingual Inscriptions from Egypt. Volume 1. Alexandria and the Delta (Nos. 1–206)
A. K. Bowman, C. V. Crowther, S. Hornblower, R. Mairs and K. Savvopoulos eds.
Mairs, Rachel (2023) "‘Brief Conversations for Pilgrims’: Rasputin, Russian-speaking travellers a... more Mairs, Rachel (2023) "‘Brief Conversations for Pilgrims’: Rasputin, Russian-speaking travellers and the pilgrim experience in Jerusalem in 1911-1912," Language & History 67, 22-42.
In 1911, Grigorii Rasputin undertook a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. That same year, the Katanov brothers published a quadrilingual phrasebook in Jerusalem-in Russian, Greek, Turkish and Arabic-designed for Russian pilgrims. The Russian pilgrim market was a very different one to the western tourist and pilgrim market typically catered to by phrasebook and guidebook authors in Palestine. Russian pilgrims tended to be poorer, of lower socioeconomic status, to travel in large groups, and to have limited contact with people and places in Palestine outside the churches and religious sites which were their goal-all of which made their linguistic needs very different. Using Rasputin's own account of his pilgrimage, the Katanov brothers' phrasebook and another contemporary account by English journalist Stephan Graham, this paper explores the Russian pilgrim experience in Jerusalem and how it contrasted with that of the elite western tourists who are most prominent in our written sources.
At Sehwan in Sindh in 1845, the British soldier and Orientalist Richard Francis Burton planted a ... more At Sehwan in Sindh in 1845, the British soldier and Orientalist Richard Francis Burton planted a fake ancient jar for an antiquarian to discover. Burton's prank was designed to poke fun at British associations of Sehwan with Alexander the Great. This article examines the incident, Burton's motivations, and the broader question of British colonial fixation on Alexander's campaigns in Sindh. Mairs, Rachel (2023) "Legacies of Alexander in Colonial Sindh: Richard Francis Burton and a ‘Greek Pot’ at Sehwan," Journal of Sindhi Studies 3, 1-22.
The Nile Delta: Histories from Antiquity to the Modern Period, 2024
Mairs, Rachel (2024) "Just Passing Through? The Nile Delta, Colonial Modernity and the Egyptian T... more Mairs, Rachel (2024) "Just Passing Through? The Nile Delta, Colonial Modernity and the Egyptian Tourist Economy (c. 1870-1914)," in Katherine Blouin (eds.), The Nile Delta: Histories from Antiquity to the Modern Period, 569-. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Persian Cultures of Power and the Entanglement of the Afro-Eurasian World, 2024
Mairs, Rachel (2024) "Trilingual Inscriptions: Translating Language and Culture," in Matthew P. C... more Mairs, Rachel (2024) "Trilingual Inscriptions: Translating Language and Culture," in Matthew P. Canepa (eds.), Persian Cultures of Power and the Entanglement of the Afro-Eurasian World, 46-53. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute.
Handbook of Classics and Postcolonial Theory, 2024
Mairs, Rachel (2024) "“The Ancient Romans conquered all Syria and Egypt”: Encounters between Arab... more Mairs, Rachel (2024) "“The Ancient Romans conquered all Syria and Egypt”: Encounters between Arabic and the Classics in the Nineteenth Century," in Ben Akrigg and Katherine Blouin (eds.), Handbook of Classics and Postcolonial Theory, 607-630.
James Sanua (Ya‘qūb b. Rafā’īl Ṣanū‘) as Language Teacher
Al-‘Arabiyya 57, 2024
Mairs, Rachel (2024) "James Sanua (Ya‘qūb b. Rafā’īl Ṣanū‘) as Language Teacher," Al-‘Arabiyya 57... more Mairs, Rachel (2024) "James Sanua (Ya‘qūb b. Rafā’īl Ṣanū‘) as Language Teacher," Al-‘Arabiyya 57, 59-76.
It has become a truism that it is impossible to reconstruct a narrative history of Central Asia i... more It has become a truism that it is impossible to reconstruct a narrative history of Central Asia in the period after Alexander. Scant literary or epigraphic sources, and the pitfalls of reconstructing dynastic histories from coins, make scholars wary of writing 'history' in the traditional academic sense. It may therefore come as a surprise that Hellenistic-period Central Asia has emerged as the setting for a number of historical novels. This paper aims to deconstruct the research process that lies behind the crafting of narrative in several such pieces. It will identify the primary sources and works of scholarship used by authors, and explore how these have been used to construct visions of Hellenistic Central Asia which reflect not just on the ancient record, but on the modern authors' political and social context. The works discussed will include Rudyard Kipling's The Man Who Would Be King (on Alexander and his routes in Afghanistan), Teodor Parnicki's (1955) Koniec Zgody Narodów/The End of the Concord of Nations (which explores the resonances of cultural encounter in Hellenistic Central Asia for the postWar world), and Gillian Bradshaw's (1990) Horses of Heaven (which uses a hypothetical Graeco-Bactrian alliance with Ferghana as the backdrop for historical romance).
Maritime and overland routes The country inland from Barygaza is inhabited by numerous tribes, su... more Maritime and overland routes The country inland from Barygaza is inhabited by numerous tribes, such as the Arattii, the Arachosii, the Gandaraei and the people of Poclais, in which is Bucephalus Alexandria. Above these is the very warlike nation of the Bactrians, who are under their own king. And Alexander, setting out from these parts, penetrated to the Ganges, leaving aside Damirica and the southern part of India; and to the present day ancient drachma are current in Barygaza, coming from this country, bearing inscriptions in Greek letters, and the devices of those who reigned after Alexander, Apollodotus and Menander (Periplus of the Erythraean Sea 47; English transl., Casson 1989).
This volume provides a thorough conspectus of the feld of Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek studies,... more This volume provides a thorough conspectus of the feld of Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek studies, mixing theoretical and historical surveys with critical and thoughtprovoking case studies in archaeology, history, literature and art. The chapters from this international group of experts showcase innovative methodologies, such as archaeological GIS, as well as providing accessible explanations of specialist techniques such as die studies of coins, and important theoretical perspectives, including postcolonial approaches to the Greeks in India. Chapters cover the region's archaeology, written and numismatic sources, and a history of scholarship on the subject, as well as culture, identity and interactions with neighbouring empires, including India and China. The Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek World is the go-to reference work on the feld, and fulfls a serious need for an accessible, but also thorough and critically informed, volume on the Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek kingdoms. It provides an invaluable resource for anyone interested in the Hellenistic East.
Egypt of the Hellenistic and Roman periods remains the most thoroughly documented multilingual so... more Egypt of the Hellenistic and Roman periods remains the most thoroughly documented multilingual society in the ancient world, because of the wealth of texts preserved on papyrus in Egyptian, Greek, Latin and other languages. This makes the scarcity of interpreters in the papyrological record all the more curious. This study reviews all instances in the papyri of individuals referred to as hermēneus in Greek, or references to the process of translation/interpreting. It discusses the terminological ambiguity of hermēneus, which can also mean a commercial mediator; the position of language mediators in legal cases in Egyptian, Greek and Latin; the role of gender in language mediation; and concludes with a survey of interpreting in Egyptian monastic communities in Late Antiquity.
Excavations in 2013 at the site of Khirbat Hamra Ifdan in the Faynan revealed several pieces of a... more Excavations in 2013 at the site of Khirbat Hamra Ifdan in the Faynan revealed several pieces of an Arabic papyrus, the first pieces of Arabic papyrus found in Jordan. Although the papyrus is poorly preserved, a detailed analysis of the fragments based on parallels have suggested that the dates to the late seventh/early-mid eighth centuries CE. This article not only discusses the papyrus fragments but also places the fragments within their papyrological and archaeological contexts.
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Blogs by Rachel Mairs
Books by Rachel Mairs
R. Mairs and R. Smith eds.
Taylor and Francis 2019
A. K. Bowman, C. V. Crowther, S. Hornblower, R. Mairs and K. Savvopoulos eds.
Oxford University Press 2021
Papers by Rachel Mairs
In 1911, Grigorii Rasputin undertook a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. That same year, the Katanov brothers published a quadrilingual phrasebook in Jerusalem-in Russian, Greek, Turkish and Arabic-designed for Russian pilgrims. The Russian pilgrim market was a very different one to the western tourist and pilgrim market typically catered to by phrasebook and guidebook authors in Palestine. Russian pilgrims tended to be poorer, of lower socioeconomic status, to travel in large groups, and to have limited contact with people and places in Palestine outside the churches and religious sites which were their goal-all of which made their linguistic needs very different. Using Rasputin's own account of his pilgrimage, the Katanov brothers' phrasebook and another contemporary account by English journalist Stephan Graham, this paper explores the Russian pilgrim experience in Jerusalem and how it contrasted with that of the elite western tourists who are most prominent in our written sources.
Mairs, Rachel (2023) "Legacies of Alexander in Colonial Sindh: Richard Francis Burton and a ‘Greek Pot’ at Sehwan," Journal of Sindhi Studies 3, 1-22.