ZTFE President pays tribute to Zartoshty Brothers and SOAS for impact on the study of Zoroastrianism

The President of the Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe, Malcolm M Deboo, has paid tribute to the Zartoshty Brothers for their vision and foresight in donating to SOAS to enhance the study of Zoroastrianism. 

Deboo acknowledged that the funding came through at a time when “the flame of Zoroastrian Studies in academia was flickering.”

He also paid tribute to the late Emeritus Professor Mary Boyce as the WH Boyce Khorshid Hemati Fund combined with the Zartoshty Brothers Fund ensured that the teaching of Zoroastrianism continued.  

He added that by establishing a separate Zartoshty Brothers Fund - an endowed fund within ZTFE for the specific purpose of assisting Zoroastrians, mainly from India and Iran - Parsis and Irani Zoroastrians are being awarded MAs, PhDs in Zoroastrianism from SOAS – which, he added “was totally unimaginable prior to the millennium.”

The Zartoshty Brothers Chair in Zoroastrianism Report 2021-2022, an update from the Chair, states: “This support makes a crucial difference to some of our brightest students, who otherwise might not have had the opportunity to benefit from a SOAS education. Providing funded Chairs, such as the Zartoshty Brothers Chair in Zoroastrianism, enables us to attract the best global doctoral candidates who can thrive in the intellectually vigorous and inspiring environment at SOAS.”

SOAS is the world leading centre for the teaching and research of Zoroastrianism that now benefits from two academic posts in the subject.  In 2018, the SOAS Shapoorji Pallonji Institute of Zoroastrian Studies was established through the generous donation of Shapoor Mistry expanding Zoroastrian studies to include, in perpetuity, a lectureship, a scholarship fund, an outreach fund and a part-time administrator.

Click here to read the full report.