Sir Dinshaw Maneckji Petit. Bart. (1823-1901), Parsi entrepreur and founder of the first textile mills in India. A baronet (traditional abbreviation Bart, modern abbreviation Bt) is the holder of a British title, known as a baronetcy. ... A Parsi is: A person from Pars (the middle-Persian word for Fars), a region now within the geographical boundaries of Iran, and is roughly the original homeland of the Persian people. ...

As broker to European firms he amassed a large fortune during the period of speculation in Bombay at the time of the American Civil War. A satellite composite image of Europe // Etymology Picture of Europa, carried away by bull-shaped Zeus. ... This article or section should be merged with Mumbai Mumbai (previously known as Bombay) is the worlds most populous conurbation, and is the sixth most populous agglomeration in the world. ... The American Civil War (1861–1865) was fought in North America within the United States of America, between twenty-four mostly northern states of the Union and the Confederate States of America, a coalition of eleven southern states that declared their independence and claimed the right of secession from the...

In 1886 he became a member of the governor-general's legislative council. He devoted his wealth to philanthropic objects, among the public and private charities which he endowed being the Towers of Silence and fire temples of the Parsi, a hospital for animals, a college for women, and the Petit hospital. He was knighted in 1887, created a baronet in 1890, and died in February 1901. A statue of an armoured knight of the Middle Ages For the chess piece, see knight (chess). ...

The Petit surname is not traditionally Parsi and had come about in Sir Dinshaw's great grand-father's time in the 1700s. He had worked as a shipping clerk and interpreter for the British East India Company. French merchants who dealt with the lively, short Parsi clerk called him 'le petit Parsi'. The British East India Company, sometimes referred to as John Company, was a joint-stock company of investors, which was granted a Royal Charter by Elizabeth I on December 31, 1600, with the intent to favour trade privileges in India. ...

References

• This article incorporates text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, which is in the public domain.