Dossier RAS BHA/1/3/14 - Letter from James Barr to C.F. Beckingham

James Barr was born in Glasgow and went to Edinburgh University. He was ordained as a Church of Scotland minister and served for two years in Tiberias, Israel. He published “The Semantics of Biblical Language” in 1961 and became professor of Semitic languages at Manchester in 1965. He moved to Oxford in 1976 and thence to Vanderbilt University, Nashville in 1989, publishing further books on theology.

The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland was founded by the eminent Sanskrit scholar Sir Henry Thomas Colebrooke on the 15th March 1823. It received its Royal Charter from King George IV on the 11th August 1824 'for the investigation of subjects connected with and for the encouragement of science, literature and the arts in relation to Asia'. It continues as a forum for those who are interested in the languages, cultures and history of Asia to meet and exchange ideas.