In memory of Mitha & Sorab Hommie Mehta The Study of in Europe and North America

With at present only an estimated 120,000 Zoroastrians world wide, one might be tempted to think that Zoroastrianism is taught and studied at only a handful of universities around the world. When looking more closely, however, one discovers that there is a substantial number of academic institutions which cover at least some aspects of the religion. Many scholars working on the topic hold university positions in departments such as Near and Middle Eastern Studies, Indo- European philology and the Comparative Study of Religions. However, when they Wleave or retire, the new postholder would not necessarily have an interest in Zoroastrianism. Thus, while there have been generations of scholars working on Zoroastrianism, until recently there has been no university post exclusively dedicated to this religion. by almut hintze

In recent years the Zoroastrian willingness to succeeded by . The give charitably has benefited the academic post seems to have lapsed in 1947 when study of the religion at various universities, Henning was promoted to a Readership at including the School of Oriental and African SOAS. Since the background of this post is Studies in the (SOAS), not widely known, details, based on the Claremont Graduate University and Stanford. Annual Reports and the minutes of the Moreover, Zoroastrians have endowed Governing Body and Academic Board of lecture series at Oxford (Ratanbai Katrak SOAS, are provided in what follows.1 lectures), Paris (Katrak lectures, which have now lapsed) and SOAS (Dastur Dr Sohrab The Annual Report for the year ending 31 Hormasji Kutar Memorial Lecture; the funds July 1929, p.6 states that: were raised through the good offices of the World Zoroastrian Organisation). Such Thanks to the initiative of the veteran scholar, contributions from within the community have Dr Modi, funds for a lectureship in Iranian Studies been warmly welcomed and supported by have been provided for a period of five years by both academic institutions and individual the Parsee Community in Bombay. Its title will scholars. be “The Parsee Community’s Lectureship in Iranian Studies. The Governing Body welcomes 1. SOAS the establishment in the School of this important SOAS has a long-standing history of branch of Oriental Studies, for which provision benefactions by Iranian and Indian is made nowhere else in this country. Zoroastrians as well as non-Zoroastrians for the study of Zoroastrianism. The minutes confirm that Dr J J Modi “was instrumental in procuring a number of the 1.1. The Parsee Community’s lectureship at SOAS subscriptions promised” and that it was at From 1929 to 1947 the Bombay Zoroastrian his suggestion that the title of the community funded a post named the lectureship should be “The Parsee “Parsee Community’s Lectureship in Iranian Community’s Lectureship in Iranian Studies” at SOAS. Sir Studies.”2 The lectureship was first was the first postholder and, after taking up instituted for the academic session 1929–30 128 the Chair of at Cambridge, he was at a minimum salary of £440 per annum for HAMAZOR - ISSUE 2 2010 five years and the following benefactors had post, the account tables in each of the promised contributions for the teaching of Annual Reports showing the income from Avesta and Pahlavi: donations for the Lectureship as being £580. In the Annual Reports for the years Sir Dorabji Jamsetji Tata (17/11/28) 5 years at ending 31 July 1935 and 1936 the income £100 for the Lectureship was £400. Moreover, the Per Dr Modi: composition of the group of donors has Ratan Tata Charities £100 changed. The Annual Report for the year Bai Ratanbai Edulji Bamji (conditional on the ending 31 July 1935, p.13 states: class working well) £ 80 Marwanji Muncherji Cama (if he lives for 5 The contributions for the Parsee Community’s years) £100 Lectureship in Iranian Studies are to be continued Nowroji Maneckji Wadia Charities £100 for a further period. The School is much pleased Sir Dhunjibhoy Bomanji £100 that the important work of Dr. H.W. Bailey is Total: £5803 thereby enabled to continue, and the School is grateful to the Trustees of the N.M. Wadia An Advisory Committee, responsible for the Charities, the Trustees of the Sir Dorabji Tata appointment, was formed, and its members Trust, the Trustees of the Sir Ratan Tata Charities, were The Director (Sir E Denison Ross), Dr and the Parsi Punchayat Trustees, for their L D Barnett, Sir Wolseley Haig and generous contributions towards the Lectureship. Professor R L Turner, and the post was In connection with these grants the School much advertised. Minute 117 of the Government appreciates the valuable assistance of His Body meeting of 11 July 1929 states: Excellency the Right Honourable Baron Brabourne, Governor of Bombay, Sir Phiroze (1) That in accordance with G(overning)B(ody) Sethna, and Mr R P Masani. M(inute) 68 of 31 May, an Advisory Committee When Bailey left SOAS in 1936 to take up of the Academic Board had been appointed to the Chair of Sanskrit in the University of consider and report on applications for the Cambridge, W B Henning, who was then lectureship in Iranian Studies for the session working as an editor of the Manichaean 1929–30 and to report to the Committee of Turfan fragments at the Preussische Management; (2) that the Committee of Akademie der Wissenschaften in Berlin, Management had decided that the title of the was appointed as his successor. The terms lectureship should be: – “The Parsee Community’s of the appointment were that the salary was Lectureship in Iranian Studies;” and (3) that st dependent on the “Parsee community in applications could be received up to 1 October, Bombay” and was “only guaranteed for one one having already been received from a very year more” with the prospect of another five 4 distinguished scholar. years of funding. 6 Like Bailey, Henning was re-appointed on an annual basis, but a The minutes of the Government Body document in his personnel file records that meeting held on 24 October 1929 record that: in July 1939 the Secretary of the School wrote to inform him of the following: the Academic Board had considered the Report of the Advisory Committee on the appointment - The Wadia Trust was to give £100 for the next to the Parsee Community’s Lectureship in Iranian session Studies and they resolved that the appointment - The Tata Trusts had refused of Mr H W Bailey, MA (Western Australia), BA - There had been no contact with the (Oxon.), as Lecturer in Iranian Studies for the representatives of the Parsee Punchayat Session 1929–30 provisionally, be approved at a - Lord Horlech was to approach the Parsee salary of £450, the duties to begin at the earliest community in general although there was not possible date.5 much hope for success.

In the subsequent year1930–1934 H W Nevertheless at the Heads of Department Bailey was re-appointed annually to the committee meeting on 1 st May 1940 129 In memory of Mitha & Sorab Hommie Mehta

Henning’s reappointment to the Lectureship would be an endowed professorial Chair in was confirmed for three more years (1940– the subject. Meantime the Zartoshty 1943), although he was interned as an brothers made a generous donation which ‘enemy alien’ on 12th May 1940 and allowed teaching to begin in autumn 1998 released within a year. Henning was re- through a part-time lectureship to which appointed again as the Parsee Lecturer in Almut Hintze, then Research Fellow at Iranian Studies from 1 st October 1943 to Clare Hall College, Cambridge, was 30th September 1946, and was appointed. At the end of the first trial year subsequently re-appointed to the post on the Zartoshty Brothers made another very 13th December 1945 for the three sessions substantial donation to endow the part-time 1946–49. It appears that Henning’s post post in perpetuity and after a further year was funded by SOAS to a large extent from the School authorities decided to contribute 1940–41 and entirely after his promotion to additional funding to raise the Zartoshty a Readership in Central Asian Studies on 1st lectureship to being a full time one, so that October 1947. There are no further from October 2000 it became possible to indications in the records of what became of take Zoroastrianism at both undergraduate the Parsee Lectureship and whether funds and postgraduate levels. Subsequently Mr continued until the end of the 1948–49 Mehraban Zartoshty, whose brother session. Subsequently the Parsee Faridoon had passed away in 2001, made Lectureship lapsed. When Henning further substantial donations towards the accepted the professorship at the University post’s endowment, and after the death of of Berkeley in 1961, , who had Professor Mary Boyce in 2006 the proceeds been lecturer at SOAS since 1947, from the sale of her estate went into the succeeded him as Professor of Iranian endowment of this post, together with the Studies (retired 1982), and with the contribution of the Iranian benefactor. As a appointments of Nicholas Sims-Williams in result, SOAS prides itself in having the first 1976, Philip Kreyenbroek (at SOAS 1988– endowed position in any western university 96), John R Hinnells (at SOAS 1993–1998) to be permanently dedicated to the study of and A D H Bivar, SOAS continued to have a Zoroastrianism. very strong tradition of teaching and research in Iranian Studies and The endowment of the Chair in Zoroastrianism. Zoroastrianism at SOAS is a great example for the fruitful collaboration between an 1.2. The Zartoshty Chair in Zoroastrianism at SOAS academic institution and members of the In the 1990s, a group of scholars at SOAS, Zoroastrian community. Moreover, the especially the late Mary Boyce and John Zartoshty Brothers have gifted money to the Hinnells, undertook to find ways of Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe for endowing a chair in Zoroastrianism at grants to be made to Zoroastrians to SOAS in order to protect the study of this undertake postgraduate study at SOAS, religion from the vagaries of public funding and several Zoroastrian students have and economic pressures and thus ensure already benefited from the Zartoshty its teaching and research in perpetuity. scholarships. Excellent relations continue to Helped by members of the local Zoroastrian exist between SOAS and all sectors of the community of London, the SOAS scholars community. At undergraduate level joined efforts not only with the brothers Zoroastrianism can be studied as part of a Faridoon and Mehraban Zartoshty, the well- three-year BA Religions degree or as a known Iranian Zoroastrian philanthropists, “floater” as part of any other undergraduate but also with an anonymous Iranian degree at SOAS. At postgraduate level benefactor. courses on Zoroastrianism are available to students reading for the one-year MA Mary Boyce and the Iranian benefactor Religions degree as well as to PhD committed by legacy sums substantial research students. Moreover, students of all 130 enough to ensure that in due course there levels are encouraged to study at least HAMAZOR - ISSUE 2 2010 some of the languages of the Zoroastrian in January 2005 by the merging of Classics, tradition, especially and Pahlavi, Religion and History. With a view to but also New Persian and Gujarati, all of developing a cohesive History of Religions which are taught at SOAS. Some of the programme, Professor Tavakoli-Targhi other , in particular successfully argued that the History of Sogdian, Khotanese, Choresmian, Bactrian, Zoroastrianism provides the “missing link in which Professor Nicholas Sims-Williams the historical understanding of Judaism, used to teach, have been available Christianity, Islam, and South and Central occasionally since his retirement in 2004. Asian Religions.” The post was advertised His post remaining vacant, an endowed in 2006 and during the search process the lectureship in Iranian languages would University worked closely with the ideally complement the Zartoshty Chair in Zoroastrian community of Toronto, Zoroastrianism at SOAS and ensure a particularly with Ervad Dr Jehan Bagli. The brilliant future of Iranian Studies which have successful candidate, Dr Enrico Raffaelli, such an illustrious history at SOAS. was appointed to take up the post on 1 July 2007. He contributes to the undergraduate 2. Claremont Graduate University and doctoral programmes in the History of In recent years a lectureship in Religions and the Graduate Department of Zoroastrianism has also been established in Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations on perpetuity in the School of Religion at the Mississauga Campus and to the Claremont Graduate University, California. doctoral programme in the Graduate The endowment comes from gifts of various Department and Centre for the Study of donors and was arranged through the Religion at the St.George Campus of the Zoroastrian Council, one of eight councils University of Toronto. It is hoped that in due through which the School of Religion course the position in Zoroastrian History cultivates its relationships with religious will be supplemented with an externally communities in the region. Dr Jenny Rose funded position for the teaching of Avestan currently holds the post as Adjunct Professor and Pahlavi. With a very high concentration and teaches one class a year on Zoroastrian of Zoroastrians in Toronto, Professor Studies, there being two separate courses, Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi is confident that which alternate year by year. this remains a realistic goal.

3. Stanford University 5. Other universities where In addition, Dr Rose is also a Visiting Zoroastrianism can be studied Associate Professor at Stanford University, In addition, there are several other teaching one class on Zoroastrian Studies universities where Zoroastrianism is taught to undergraduates through the Department by virtue of the post holders’ research of Religious Studies. There is also a interests. They include in North America Stanford University Zoroastrian Group that Berkeley (Martin Schwartz), the University sponsors a Zoroastrian Lecture series, of California, Irvine (history and culture of consisting of lectures by individual scholars Ancient Persia, Touraj Daryaee), Harvard from different universities around the world. (Prods Oktor Skjaervo), (Center for Iranian Studies), 4. Toronto Concordia University, Montreal (Richard A Chair in Zoroastrian History was Foltz and Mark Hale); in Europe established in 2006 at the University of Manchester (Alan Williams), Bergen Toronto at Mississauga. The post, which is (Michael Stausberg), Berlin (Maria Macuch), fully funded by the University of Toronto, Gottingen (Philip Kreyenbroek), Leiden was created at a time when Professor (Albert de Jong), Paris (Jean Kellens, Philip Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi was Chair of the Huyse, Frantz Grenet and others), Liege Department of Historical Studies, a (Eric Pirart), Salamanca (Alberto Cantera), transdisciplinary department newly formed Ravenna/Bologna (Antonio Panaino), Rome 131 In memory of Mitha & Sorab Hommie Mehta

(Carlo Cereti, Mauro Maggi), Jerusalem confirmation of continuation of the Lectureship for (Shaul Shaked), and other places. three further sessions, 1936–39 (p.98) and a report on the session’s work including details of income, 6. The Ancient and Trust, subjects taught, and numbers of students (p.173). Cambridge q In 1979 a group of five scholars (Sir Harold Walter Bailey, Raymond and Bridget Allchin, Jan and Joanna van Lohuizen) put together Almut Hintze is Zartoshty Reader in their own private funds to purchase 23 Zoroastrianism at the School of Brooklands Avenue in Cambridge, , Oriental and African Studies, a splendid Victorian residence which became University of London. Holding the home of the Ancient India and Iran Trust. degrees from the universities of The Trust, a registered charity, houses a Heidelberg, Oxford, Erlangen and library covering all aspects of ancient India Berlin, her field is Indo-Iranian and Iran and includes the collections of H W Studies with special emphasis on the Bailey and Mary Boyce. It hosts conferences Zoroastrian Literature. Her major publications include commentaries and lectures, offers scholarships to and annotated editions of Zoroastrian researchers wishing to consult its collections, sacred texts, such as the Avestan and is open to anyone interested in the Zamyad Yast (1994) and the Yasna subject areas it covers. Haptanghaiti (2007). She has also published a study of the semantics of words for ‘reward’ in Vedic and Avestan (2000). Her current This survey does not lay any claim to being projects are an Introduction to Zoroastrianism and an edition, exhaustive. More places where translation, commentary and dictionary of the Avestan Yasna. Zoroastrianism is studied could be added and much more could be said about those mentioned above, but I had to be selective due to space limitations. However, I hope it has become clear that Zoroastrianism Wires were crossed - remains an academic subject that continues to fascinate a vibrant group of students of the Apologies are due to Farrokh Vajifdar finest calibre and that has enjoyed vital financial support from both private and public, for inventing a new version of the Zoroastrian and non-Zoroastrian sources. Avestan dictionary on his behalf, though unintentionally!

Notes: 1. I would like to thank Kate Harvey, Clerical I refer to Hamazor Issue 3/2009, p14, Assistant to the Directorate at SOAS for her help in “Of Gathalogues and Gathalogistics”. accessing and collecting the details provided here. 2. SOAS Government Body Minutes vol.XIII, Oct. 1928–July 1929, p.120 (11 July 1929). The Yasna 29.4c should have read: 3. SOAS Government Body Minutes vol.XIII, Oct. 1928–July 1929, p.53, Minute 68 (Friday, 31 May hvo vichiro ahuro 1919). 4. The Governing Body Minutes, vol. XIII, Oct. 1928–July 1929, p.112, Minute 117 (11 July 1929). atha na anhat 5. The Governing Body Minutes, vol.XIV, Oct. 1929 – July 1930, p.6, Minute 17. 6. This is stated in W B Henning’s personnel file. The yatha hvo vasat Government Body Minutes of the year 1936–37 record details about the appointment of W B Henning to the Parsee Community’s Lectureship in Iranian Thank goodness for British humour & Studies (pp. 9–10), details of the benefactors Farrokh who has taken this faux pas donating to the Lectureship for that session (p.21), 132 in his stride! - Ed.