Nora Elisabeth Mary Boyce (2 August 1920 – 4 April 2006) was a British scholar of

Iranian languages The Iranian languages or Iranic languages are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples, predominantly in the Iranian Plateau. The Iranian languages are groupe ...

, and an authority on

Zoroastrianism Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a monotheisti ...

. She was Professor of

Iranian Studies Iranian studies ( fa, ايران‌شناسی '), also referred to as Iranology and Iranistics, is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the research and study of the civilization, history, literature, art and culture of Iranian peoples. It ...

at the

School of Oriental and African Studies SOAS University of London (; the School of Oriental and African Studies) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury a ...

(SOAS) of the University of London. The Royal Asiatic Society's annual Boyce Prize for outstanding contributions to the study of religion is named after her.

Early years

She was born in Darjeeling where her parents were vacationing to escape the heat of the plains during the summer. Her father, William H. Boyce, was a Judge at the

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

high-court, then an institution of the British imperial government. Her mother Nora (née Gardiner) was a granddaughter of the historian Samuel Rawson Gardiner.John R. Hinnells, ‘Boyce, (Nora Elisabeth) Mary (1920–2006)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Jan 2010; online edn, Sept 201
accessed 8 Jan 2017
/ref> Boyce was educated at Wimbledon High School and then Cheltenham Ladies' College. At Newnham College, Cambridge she studied English, archaeology and anthropology, graduating with a double first.

Academic career

In 1944, Boyce joined the faculty of the Royal Holloway College,

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

, where she taught Anglo-Saxon literature and archaeology until 1946. Simultaneously she continued her studies, this time in Persian languages,John Hinnells, Mary Boyce, ''The Guardian'', 11 April 200
Obituary
Retrieved 8 January 2017 under the guidance of

Vladimir Minorsky Vladimir Fyodorovich Minorsky (russian: Владимир Фёдорович Минорский; – March 25, 1966) was a Russian Orientalist best known for his contributions to the study of Persian, Lurish and Kurdish history, geography, ...

at the

from 1945 to 1947. There she met her future mentor,

Walter Bruno Henning Walter Bruno Henning (August 26, 1908 – January 8, 1967) was a German scholar of Middle Iranian languages and literature, especially of the corpus discovered by the Turpan expeditions of the early 20th century. __TOC__ Biography Walter Henning ...

, under whose tutelage she began to study Middle Iranian languages. In 1948, Boyce was appointed lecturer of Iranian Studies at SOAS, specialising in Manichaean, Zoroastrian

Middle Persian Middle Persian or Pahlavi, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg () in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle ...

and Parthian texts. In 1952, she was awarded a doctorate in Oriental Studies from the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

. At SOAS, she was promoted to Reader (1958–1961) and subsequently awarded the University of London's professorship in

following Henning's transfer to the University of California at Berkeley. Boyce remained professor at SOAS until her retirement in 1982, continuing as Professor ''Emerita'' and a professorial research associate until her death in 2006. Her speciality remained the religions of speakers of Eastern Iranian languages, in particular Manichaeanism and

Awards and recognition

Boyce was a recipient of the Royal Asiatic Society's Burton Medal, and of the Sykes Medal of the Royal Society of Asian Affairs. She was a member of the Council of the Royal Asiatic Society, honorary member of the American Oriental Society, member of the

Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters {{Infobox organization , name = The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters , full_name = , native_name = Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab , native_name_lang = , logo = Royal ...

, and was the first secretary and treasurer of the ''Corpus Inscriptionum Iranicarum''. She served on the editorial board of numerous academic publications, including ''Asia Major'', the '' Encyclopaedia Iranica'', the ''Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies'', and the '' Journal of the American Oriental Society''.

Publications

In 1963–64, Boyce spent a research year among orthodox Zoroastrians of the 24 villages of Yazd, Iran. The results of her research there were formative to her understanding of

and she discovered that much of the previously established scholarship on the ancient faith was terribly misguided. In 1975, Boyce presented the results of her research at her Ratanbai Katrak lecture series at Oxford University. In the same year she published the first volume of her magnum opus, ''The History of Zoroastrianism'', which appeared in the monograph series ''Handbuch der Orientalistik'' (Leiden:Brill). Her Ratanbai Katrak lecture series were published in 1977 as ''A Persian Stronghold of Zoroastrianism''. In 1979, Boyce published ''Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices'', which not only summarised her previous publications (in particular volume 1 of ''History''), but anthologised the role of Zoroastrianism during subsequent eras as well. This was followed by volume 2 of ''History of Zoroastrianism'' in 1982 (also as a part of the ''Orientalistik'' monograph series), and volume 3 in 1991 which she co-authored with Frantz Grenet. In 1992, she published ''Zoroastrianism: Its Antiquity and Constant Vigour'' as part of the Columbia Lectures on Iranian Studies which she had delivered there in 1985.

Selected works

* 1954, ''The Manichaean hymn-cycles in Parthian'' (London Oriental Series, Vol. 3). London: Oxford University Press. * 1975, ''A History of Zoroastrianism, Vol. 1'' (Handbuch der Orientalistik Series). Leiden: Brill; Repr. 1996 as
A History of Zoroastrianism: Vol 1, The Early Period
'. * 1977, ''Zoroastrianism: The rediscovery of missing chapters in man's religious history'' (Teaching aids for the study of Inner Asia). Asian Studies Research Institute: Indiana University Press. * 1977, ''A Persian Stronghold of Zoroastrianism''. London: Oxford University Press; Repr. 2001 * 1978, ''A Reader in Manichaean Middle Persian and Parthian'' (Acta Iranica Monograph Series). Leiden: Brill. * 1979,
Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices
' (Library of religious beliefs and practices). London:Routledge/Kegan Paul; Corrected repr. 1984; repr. with new foreword 2001. * 1982, ''A History of Zoroastrianism, Vol. 2'' (Handbuch der Orientalistik Series). Leiden: Brill. Repr. 1996 as "A History of Zoroastrianism: Vol 2, Under the Achaemenians". * 1984,
Textual Sources for the Study of Zoroastrianism
' (Textual Sources for the Study of Religion). London:Rowman & Littlefield. Repr. 1990 * 1987, ''Zoroastrianism: A Shadowy but Powerful Presence in the Judaeo-Christian World''. Friends of Dr. Williams: London. * 1988, "The religion of Cyrus the Great", in A. Kuhrt and H. Sancisi-Weerdenburg ''Achaemenid History III: Method and Theory'', Leiden: Brill. * 1991,
A History of Zoroastrianism: Vol. 3, Zoroastrianism Under Macedonian and Roman Rule
' (Handbuch der Orientalistik Series). With Frantz Grenet, Leiden: Brill. * 1992, ''Zoroastrianism: Its Antiquity and Constant Vigour'' (Columbia Lectures on Iranian Studies, No 7). Costa Mesa: Mazda. * Forthcoming: ''A History of Zoroastrianism: Vols 4–7'', under the editorship of Albert de Jong.

References

Notes

*A. D. H. Bivar, Professor Mary Boyce, ''The Times'', 13 April 200

*Albert de Jong, Professor Mary Boyce, ''The Independent'', 28 April 200

*Almut Hintze, Professor Mary Boyce, ''Daily Telegraph'', 28 April 200

*
International Committee: Mary Boyce

Encyclopædia Iranica ''Encyclopædia Iranica'' is a project whose goal is to create a comprehensive and authoritative English language encyclopedia about the history, culture, and civilization of Iranian peoples from prehistory to modern times. Scope The ''Encyc ...

. *

External links

Mary Boyce article
at ''

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Boyce, Mary 1920 births 2006 deaths Iranologists British historians of religion British women academics Linguists from the United Kingdom Women linguists People from Darjeeling Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge Alumni of SOAS University of London Academics of Royal Holloway, University of London Academics of SOAS University of London Fellows of the Royal Asiatic Society People educated at Wimbledon High School British women historians 20th-century British historians Zoroastrian studies scholars 20th-century British women writers 20th-century translators 20th-century linguists British people in colonial India