Jivanji Jamshedji Modi

Sir Ervad Jivanji Jamshedji Modi (1854–1933), who also carried the title of Shams-ul-Ulama, was a prominent Zoroastrian Parsi-Indian priest, scholar and community leader in Bombay. One of "the most decorated priests in history",^[1] he wrote over 70 books, produced over 120 scholarly papers on Zoroastrian history, traveled and researched into Zoroastrian affairs extensively and was instrumental in organizing the Parsi community in India.^[1][2] During his lifetime he had been called "the greatest living authority on the ancient history and customs of the Parsis."^[1] He created a facsimile edition of the Middle Persian legal treatise, Mādayān ī Hazār Dādestān in 1901.^[3][4]

Books

• The Religious Ceremonies and Customs of the Parsees (1922)
• My Travels Outside Bombay (written in Gujarati (1926)

Honors and awards

• B.A. (Bombay University, 1876)
• Fellow of the University of Bombay (1887)
• Dip. Litteris et Artibus (Sweden, 1889)
• Shams-ul-Ulama (Government of British India, 1893)
• Officier d'Academie (France, 1898)
• Officier de l'Instruction Publique (France, 1903)
• Ph.D. (Honoris Causa, Heidelberg, 1912)
• Honorary Correspondent of the Archaeological Department of the Government of India (1914)
• C.I.E. (1917); Campbell Medalist, B.B., Royal Asiatic Society (1918)
• Honorary Member of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (1923)
• Chevalier de Légion d'honneur (France, 1925)
• Officier de Croix de Merit (Hungary, 1925)
• British Knighthood (1930)
• LL.D. (Honoris Causa, Bombay University 1931)