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

Iranian languages The Iranian languages, also called the 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 langu ...

and an authority on

Zoroastrianism Zoroastrianism ( ), also called Mazdayasnā () or Beh-dīn (), is an Iranian religions, Iranian religion centred on the Avesta and the teachings of Zoroaster, Zarathushtra Spitama, who is more commonly referred to by the Greek translation, ...

. She was Professor of

Iranian Studies Iranian studies ( '), 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 is a part of the wider field ...

at the

School of Oriental and African Studies The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS University of London; ) 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 area ...

(SOAS) of the University of London. The

Royal Asiatic Society The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, commonly known as the Royal Asiatic Society, was established, according to its royal charter of 11 August 1824, to further "the investigation of subjects connected with and for the encourag ...

's annual Boyce Prize for outstanding contributions to the study of religion is named after her.

Early years

She was born in

Darjeeling Darjeeling (, , ) is a city in the northernmost region of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of West Bengal. Located in the Eastern Himalayas, it has an average elevation of . To the west of Darjeeling lies the Koshi Pr ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

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, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies 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 Samuel Rawson Gardiner (4 March 1829 – 24 February 1902) was an English historian who specialized in 17th-century English history as a prominent foundational historian of the Puritan revolution and the English Civil War. Life The son of R ...

.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 Wimbledon High School is a Private schools in the United Kingdom, private girls' day school in Wimbledon, London, Wimbledon, South West (London sub region), South West London. It is a Girls' Day School Trust school and is a member of the Girls' ...

and then

Cheltenham Ladies' College Cheltenham Ladies' College (CLC) is a private schools in the United Kingdom, private boarding and day school for girls aged 11 or older in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. The school was established in 1853 to provide "a sound academic edu ...

. At

Newnham College, Cambridge Newnham College is a women's constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sidgwick and suffragist campaigner Millicen ...

she studied English,

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

and

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...

, graduating with a

double first The British undergraduate degree classification system is a Grading in education, grading structure used for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and Master's degree#Integrated Masters Degree, integrated master's degrees in the United Kingd ...

Academic career

In 1944, Boyce joined the faculty of the

Royal Holloway College Royal Holloway, University of London (RH), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public research university and a member institution of the federal University of London. It has six schools, 21 academic departmen ...

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

, 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 (; – 25 March 1966) was a White Russian academic, historian, and scholar of Oriental studies, best known for his contributions to the study of history of Iran and the Iranian peoples such as Persians, Lurs, and ...

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 Hennin ...

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

Manichaean Manichaeism (; in ; ) is an endangered former major world religion currently only practiced in China around Cao'an,R. van den Broek, Wouter J. Hanegraaff ''Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern Times''. SUNY Press, 1998 p. 37 found ...

, Zoroastrian

Middle Persian Middle Persian, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg ( Inscriptional Pahlavi script: , Manichaean script: , Avestan script: ) in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasania ...

and

Parthian Parthian may refer to: Historical * Parthian people * A demonym "of Parthia", a region of north-eastern of Greater Iran * Parthian Empire (247 BC – 224 AD) * Parthian language, a now-extinct Middle Iranian language * Parthian shot, an archery sk ...

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

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. 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 The Eastern Iranian languages are a subgroup of the Iranian languages, having emerged during the Iranian languages#Middle Iranian, Middle Iranian era (4th century BC to 9th century AD). The Avestan, Avestan language is often classified as early E ...

, in particular Manichaeanism and

Awards and recognition

Boyce was a recipient of the

'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 The American Oriental Society is a learned society that encourages basic research in the languages and literatures of the Near East and Asia. It was chartered under the laws of Massachusetts on September 7, 1842. It is one of the oldest learned ...

, member of the

Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters ({{Langx, da, Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab or ''Videnskabernes Selskab'') is a Danish academy of science. The Royal Danish Academy was established on 13 November 1742, and was create ...

, 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 An encyclopedia is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge, either general or special, in a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articles or entries that are arranged alphabetically by artic ...

'', the ''Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies'', and the ''

Journal of the American Oriental Society The ''Journal of the American Oriental Society'' is a quarterly academic journal published by the American Oriental Society since 1843. The editor in chief is Peri Bearman (Harvard University).Zoroastrianism Zoroastrianism ( ), also called Mazdayasnā () or Beh-dīn (), is an Iranian religions, Iranian religion centred on the Avesta and the teachings of Zoroaster, Zarathushtra Spitama, who is more commonly referred to by the Greek translation, ...

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

Sources

*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

* *,

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 British Iranologists British historians of religion British women academics British 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 British translators 20th-century British linguists British people in colonial India