Two Prominent Zoroastrian Merchants - Ardeshir Mehraban and Arbab Jamshid

As a result of Parsi engagement in Persia, beginning in 1853, over two dozen Zoroastrian merchants mushroomed in the late 19th century. Ardeshir Mehraban was the most prominent Zoroastrian figure of that time. He was born in Yazd, around 1848, but was educated in Bombay, the Parsi stronghold of India. He lived there for about 20 years and became a naturalized British subject. Mehraban owned land in Bombay, Pune and Yazd. He appears to have been the wealthiest Zoroastrian merchant of late 19th century Persia and was affiliated to the New Oriental Bank Corporation.
The commercial and political leverage of Zoroastrians further increased in the early 20th century as can be seen by the rise of Arbab Jamshid (1850-1932). He was a Tehran-born Zoroastrian merchant, banker and landowner and became the most eminent Zoroastrian of his time. He not only founded one of the biggest Zoroastrian trade companies but also developed one of the greatest indigenous banking establishments of Persia in the late 19th and early 20th century. Arbab Jamshid epitomized the dawn of a new period when he became the first Zoroastrian and non-Muslim representative in the Persian Parliament in 1906.