Doaa Elalfy

I am Doaa Elalfy, with an academic background that bridges pharmacy, classical languages, and translation. I hold a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy and a bachelor’s degree in Ancient Greek and Latin, providing me with a strong foundation in both medical sciences and classical philology. Additionally, I earned a Diploma in Arabic Christian Heritage, further expanding my expertise in historical and linguistic studies. I have worked as a pharmacist, university teaching assistant, and Arabic-English translator, gaining experience in both practical and academic fields. My research focuses on the intersection of medicine, ancient languages, and intercultural transmission. I completed a master’s degree in medical Papyrology, where I examined medical knowledge preserved in papyri and ostraca. Currently, as part of the MECANO project, my PhD research investigates the lexical evolution of medical terminology from Greek to Arabic, tracing semantic shifts in medical texts and their impact on translation and medical practice.


Syntax, formulaic structures, and canon-marking in Greek and Arabic: documentary texts and Galen

Galen’s vast Greek corpus of medical treatises, many also translated into Arabic, offers perfect territory for exploring language structures in the canonical writer’s toolbox. How original or common were they? Can the impacts of such canon markers be traced in non-Galenic attestations of contemporary and other germane language material? Galen’s works spread widely already during his time; there is also contemporary language material in the form of documentary and (semi)literary papyri of similar text types (prescriptive passages in recipes and instructions in medical and magical papyri; stipulations in legal documents; dialogic, narrative, polemical or politeness mechanisms in private letters and petitions).