Zardushtīyān: Persian 1401

The book "Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices" traces the continuous history of the faith from the time Zoroaster preached it to the present day - some 3,500 years. Zoroastrianism, which first developed among nomads in the Asian steppes, had a significant influence on other world religions: in the East on Northern Buddhism, in the West on Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. With the conquest of Iran by Muslim Arabs, the Zoroastrian religion lost its secular power but continued to exist. Zoroastrianism, despite its age, is still a living religion. Nora Elizabeth Mary Boyce was an English scholar of Iranian languages and an expert on Zoroastrian religion. He was a professor of Iranian studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. The Royal Asiatic Society's annual Boyce Prize for outstanding contributions to the study of religion is named after him. He was born in Darjeeling, where his parents vacationed in the summer to escape the heat of the plains. His father, William H. Boyce was a judge of the Calcutta High Court, which at that time was one of the institutions of the British Empire. His mother Nora (Gardiner's sister's name) was the granddaughter of the historian Samuel Rawson Gardiner.