Mary Boyce

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'Nora Elisabeth Mary Boyce'
Born	August 2, 1920(1920-08-02) Darjeeling, India
Died	April 4, 2006 (aged 85)
Occupation	Philologist
Known for	Authority on Zoroastrianism
Parents	William H. Boyce, Nora Boyce

Nora Elisabeth Mary Boyce (August 2, 1920(1920-08-02) – April 4, 2006) was a British scholar of Iranian languages, and a recognized authority on Zoroastrianism.

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

Contents 1 Early years 2 Academic career 3 Awards and recognition 4 Publications 5 References

[edit] Early years

Mary Boyce was born on August 2, 1920 in Darjeeling, India where her parents were vacationing to escape the heat of the plains during the summer. Her father, William H. Boyce, was a Judge at Calcutta high-court, then an institution of the British imperial government. Her mother Nora (née Gardiner) was granddaughter of the historian Samuel Rawson Gardiner.

Mary received her elementary education at Wimbledon High School in south-west London. Later and until the age of 18 she attended Cheltenham Ladies College in the Cotswolds. At the University of Cambridge, Newnham College, she studied English, archaeology and anthropology, graduating with a double first.

[edit] Academic career

In 1944, Mary Boyce joined the faculty of the Royal Holloway College, University of London, where she taught Anglo-Saxon literature and archaeology until 1946. Simultaneously she continued her studies, this time in Persian languages, under the guidance of Vladimir Minorsky at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS, also at the University of London) between 1945-47. There she met her future mentor, Walter Bruno Henning, under whose tutelage she began to study Middle Iranian languages.

In 1948, Boyce was appointed lecturer of Iranian Studies at SOAS, specialising in Manichaen, Zoroastrian Middle Persian and Parthian texts. Five years later, in 1952, she was awarded a doctorate in Oriental Studies from the University of Cambridge. At SOAS, she was promoted to Reader (1958-1961) and subsequently awarded the University of London's professorship in Iranian Studies 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. Mary Boyce's scholarship was highly respected, gaining her an international reputation and fellowship at numerous academic societies and institutions. Her speciality remained the religions of speakers of Eastern Iranian languages, in particular Manichaenism and Zoroastrianism.

[edit] 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, 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.

[edit] 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 Zoroastrianism 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 summarized her previous publications (in particular volume 1 of History), but anthologized 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.

Select Publications:

[edit] References