Strengthening SOAS

The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in UK, the first university in the world to boast an endowed professorship in Zoroastrianism, has received a fillip with a £ 1,000,000 donation from a charitable fund set up to advance research into and public understanding of Zoroastrianism. The Zoroastrian Professorship Fund is expected to be used along with the funds generously advanced by Faridoon and Mehraban Zartoshty 14 years earlier to ensure that the endowment will, in perpetuity, promote the study of Zoroastrianism at SOAS in the Department of the Study of Religions, as notes the SOAS website, reporting on this development.

The donation was celebrated at a special function at SOAS on February 9, 2011 which was attended by representatives and trustees of the private donors and the current and former presidents of the Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe. As commented SOAS director Prof Paul Webley, "London is home to the oldest Zoroastrian diaspora community outside India and Iran and SOAS is the world’s leading institution for the study of Asia, Africa and the Middle East. We are delighted to strengthen our relationship with the Zoroastrian community and our long-term commitment to the study and research of this fascinating and influential religion… There is perhaps no place better suited for this post than SOAS.”

From left: Zoroastrian Professorship Fund trustees Peter Borrie and Alex Ruffel, SOAS secretary Donald Beaton (rear) and Paul Liebley

Currently the two academics who specialize in Zoroastrianism at SOAS are Zartoshty Professor of Zoroastrianism Almut Hintze and Dr Sarah Stewart, a former student of the acclaimed academic Prof Mary Boyce who was Professor of Iranian Studies at SOAS from 1947 to 1982. It was Boyce who championed the founding of an endowed post and achieved significant recognition and support for her work from the Zoroastrian community.

A historical overview of this development refers to Zoroastrianism being studied at SOAS since 1929 "thanks to the Parsi community’s lectureship held by Sir Harold Walter Bailey and Walter Bruno Henning.” Besides Boyce, other academics associated with this renowned institute are Prof John Hinnells, Prof A. D. H. Bivar and Prof Nicholas Sims-Williams.