MILLS, Lawrence Heyworth. New York City 1837 — Oxford 29.1.1918. U.S. Priest and Iranian Scholar in the U.K. Professor in Oxford. Son of Philo L. Mills and Elizabeth Kane. Studies at New York University and Fairfax Theological seminary. D.D. New York. Ordained, in 1861-72 in ecclesiastic work, then moved to Europe living in Florence until 1877. Further studies under Roth at Tübingen. Invited by Max Müller to succeed Darmesteter in 1887 he settled in Oxford in order to be able to work on the S.B.E. From 1897 Professor of Zend Philology at Oxford (the first Professor of Iranian philology in the U.K.). Married Maria Bowen Swann (1841–1920), one son.
Mills was mainly an Avestan scholar who concentrated on the Yasna, but here he also took the Pahlavi and Sanskrit versions fully in account. As a theologian he was interested in the relationship between the Avesta and the New Testament (and Philo of Alexandria).
Publications: Translated: The Zend-Avesta. 3. The Yasna, Visparad, Âfrînagân, Gâhs, and Miscellaneous Fragments. 48+400 p. S.B.E. 31. Oxford 1887.
– A Study of the Five Zarathustrian (Zoroastrian) Gâthâs, with the Zend, Pahlavi, Sanskrit, and Persian translations. 1-4. 30+622 p. Lp. 1892-94.
– The Ancient Manuscript of the Yasna, with its Pahlavi translation (A.D. 1323), generally called J2. 8+770 p. Oxford 1893 (facsimile edition of the manuscript J2 of the Bodleian Library).
– The Gâthâs of Zarathustra (Zoroaster) in metre and rhythm, being a second edition of the metrical versions in the author’s edition of 1892-94; to which is added a second edition (now in English) of the author’s Latin version also of 1892-94, of the Five Zarathushtrian Gâthas. 20+196 p. Lp. 1900.
– A Dictionary of the Gâthic Language of the Zend Avesta. 1. a to č. 199 p. 1902.
– Zarathushtra (Zoroaster), Philo, the Achaemenids and Israel. 1-2. 13+14+460 p. Lp. 1904-06 (1. with subtitle Zarathushtra and the Greeks); Avesta eschatology compared with the books of Daniel and Revelations. 7+85 p. Chicago 1908.
– A Study of Yasna I. The Avestan Text in a reconstructed edition. 21+156 p. Lp. 1910.
– An Exposition of the Lore of the Avesta in Catechetical Dialogue. 11+176 p. 1916.
– A number of articles containing critical text of a Yasna in Avestan or in Pahlavi or Sanskrit translation edited, translated and annotated, in JRAS, ZDMG, JAOS, Le Muséon, JBRAS (1917), various felicitation volumes, etc.; articles on Avestan language and religion in JRAS, ZDMG and JAOS.
Sources: Casartelli, JRAS 1919, 109-113; brief note in JAOS 34, 1918 and in Buckland, Dictionary; *P. Carus, Open Court 19, 1905, 505-509 & *21, 1907, 189f. (both with portrait), and, on base of his information, in *28, 1918, 314-316; briefly Wikipedia
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