Table of Contents

• BĪD

  Wilhelm Eilers, Hūšang Aʿlam

  common desig­nation in modern Persian for the genus Salix L., willow. Willow trees are found in all the Iranian lands, mainly along streams and canals.

• BĪDĀD

  Hormoz Farhat

  a melody (gūša) in the modal system (dastgāh) Homāyūn, one of the twelve modal systems of the contemporary tradition of Persian classical music. An important and popular gūša, Bīdād is always included in the performance of Homāyūn, even when the performance is short and selective.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• BĪDAR

  S. H. Qasemi

  city in the state of Karnataka, India, about 80 miles northwest of Hyderabad, and also the surrounding district. In the 15th-16th centuries, under the Bahmanid dynasty, Bīdar was an important center of Persian cultural influence in the Deccan.

• BĪDĀR

  Nassereddin Parvin

  (lit. awake) the name of three Persian periodicals, two of which were published in Tehran in 1923 and 1951 and the other in Mazār-e Šarīf in 1925.

• BĪDĀRĪ

  Nassereddin Parvin

  (lit. wakefulness) the name of three Persian newspapers published in Tehran (1907), Rašt (1920), and Kermān (1923-53) and also the name of several other Persian-language periodicals.

• BĪDĀRĪ-E ĪRĀNĪĀN, TĀRĪḴ-E

  cross-reference

  See TĀRĪḴ-E BĪDĀRĪ-E ĪRĀNĪĀN.

• BĪDASTAR

  Cross-Reference

  See BEAVER.

• BIDAXŠ

  Werner Sundermann

  title of an official, a word of Iranian origin found in various languages from the first to the eighth century.

• BĪDEL, ʿABD-AL-QĀDER

  Moazzam Siddiqi

  (BĒDIL), the fore­most representative of the later phase of the “Indian style” (sabk-e hendī) of Persian poetry and the most difficult and challenging poet of that school (1644-1721).

• BĪDERAFŠ

  Aḥmad Tafażżolī

  in the traditional history, a Turanian hero of the army of Arjāsp.

• BĪDGOL

  Ehsan Yarshater

  and BĪDGOLI dialect. Bīdgol and Ārān, two practically contiguous townships in the province of Kāšān, are located some 10 km to the north and slightly to the east of the city of Kāšān.

• BĪDMEŠK

  Cross-Reference

  See BĪD.

• BIDOḴT

  Habib Borjian

  the center of a subdistrict (dehestān) in Gonābād šahrestān in central Khorasan and the seat of the Gonābādi Sufi order.

• BĪDPĀY

  Cross-Reference

  the narrator of the animal fables known as Kalila wa Demna. See KALĪLA WA DEMNA.

• BĪḠAMĪ

  William L. Hanaway

  MAWLĀNĀ SHAIKH ḤĀJĪ MOḤAMMAD, oral storyteller of the 8th/14th century, narrator of the romance Dārāb-nāma.

• BĪGĀR

  Yuri Bregel

  and BĪGĀRĪ, a term of taxation in Iran and Central Asia, generally meaning “corvıe,” the duty of supplying workers without pay, such as for the construction and repair of irrigation systems, roads, and public buildings.

• BĪGDELĪ

  Gerhard Doerfer

  (or Bēgdelī, also Bagdīlū), a former Turkish tribe; the name Bīgdelī appears to have survived only in personal names.

• BĪGDELĪ, ĀḎAR

  Cross-Reference

  See ĀẔAR BĪGDELĪ.

• BIHAR

  Syed Hasan Askari

  (Behār), a state in northeastern India, bounded by Nepal in the north, West Bengal in the east, Orissa in the south, and Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh in the west. This article treats the influence of Persian language and culture in Bihar.

• BĪJĀPŪR

  Muhammad Baqir

  capital city and domain of the ʿĀdelšāhī dynasty (1489-1686), located on the western Deccan plateau. The ʿĀdelšāhīs established Shiʿism in Bījāpūr and actively encouraged the immigration of Persian writers and religious figures.

• BĪJĀR

  Eckart Ehlers

  a town and a šahrestān (county) in the Kurdistan province of Iran. The town, which has the highest elevation in Iran (1,920 m), lies ca. 120 miles north-northwest of Hamadān.

• BĪLAQĀN(Ī)

  Cross-Reference

  See BAYLAQĀN.

• BILGETIGIN

  C. Edmund Bosworth

  Turkish name associated with personalities before and during the Ghaznavid period.

• BILIMORIA, NUSHERWANJI FRAMJI

  Kaikhusroo M. JamaspAsa

  (1852-1922), Zoroastrian journalist, editor, and publisher.

• BĪMA

  Willem Floor

  (bīme; Hindi bīmā), insurance. “Insurance” activities are re­ferred to for the first time in 1891, by Eʿtemād-­al-Salṭana in his diary entry of 13 Decem­ber.

• BĪMĀRESTĀN

  Ṣādeq Sajjādī

  "hospital." The oldest Iranian hospital about which we have some information was that at Jondīšāpūr (earlier Bēt Lapaṭ), which, with the attached school of medi­cine, was founded at an unknown date.

• BĪNĀLŪD, KŪH-E

  Eckart Ehlers

  mountain range in northeast­ern Iran between Mašhad in the east and Nīšāpūr in the west with elevations of up to 3,211 m.

• BĪNAMĀZĪ

  James R. Russell, Hamid Algar

  NPers. “the state of being without prayer,” term for the state of a menstruant woman. i. In Zoroastrianism. ii. In Islam. All bodily discharges are regarded by Zoroastrians as violations of the wholeness of the person.

• BĪNEŠ KAŠMĪRĪ, ESMĀʿĪL

  N. H. Ansari

  Persian poet of India in the 17th century. He left six maṯnawīs and a dīvān of ḡazals and qaṣīdas.

• BINYON, (ROBERT) LAURENCE

  Parvin Loloi

  (1869-1943), prolific English poet, translator, art historian and critic, notably of Oriental art.

• BIOGRAPHIES

  Cross-Reference

  See Supplement.

• BIRCH

  Hūšang Aʿlam

  (Pers.tūs), the genus Betula L., found in western Azer­baijan, along the Karaj river, and other locations on the southern slopes of the Alborz.

• BIRD, ISABELLA L

  C. Edmund Bosworth

  also known under her married surname of Bishop (1831-1904), British traveler in western Iran and Kurdistan during the late Victorian period.

• BIRDS

  Derek A. Scott

  Of 324 breeding species, 131 occur widely in the Palearctic region, 81 are Western Palearctic species, reaching the easternmost extremities of their ranges in Iran, while 19 are typically Eastern Palearctic species, reaching the westernmost tip of their ranges in Iran.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• BĪRĪ

  Cross-Reference

  or BĪRĪTEKĪN. See BÖRI.

• BĪRJAND

  Moḥammad-Ḥasan Ganjī

  town and district in the southeastern part of the province of Khorasan (lat 32°52′  N, long 59°13′ E).

• BIRJAND

  Multiple Authors

  the capital and a sub-province in Khorasan-e Jonubi Province.

• BIRJAND ii. Population, 1956-2011

  Mohammad Hossein Nejatian

  This article deals with the following population characteristics of Birjand: population growth from 1956 to 2011, age structure, average household size, literacy rate, and economic activity status.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• BĪRŪNĪ

  Mohammad Ali Djamalzadeh and Ḥasan Javādī

  the public or male quarters of wealthy households, used for the conduct of business, male religious ceremonies, and parties for men.

• BĪRŪNĪ, ABŪ RAYḤĀN

  Multiple Authors

  scholar and polymath of the period of the late Samanids and early Ghaznavids and one of the two greatest intellectual figures of his time in the eastern lands of the Muslim world (973-after 1050).

• BĪRŪNĪ, ABŪ RAYḤĀN i. Life

  C. Edmund Bosworth

  Bīrūnī was born in the outer suburb (bīrūn, hence his nesba) of Kāṯ, the capital of the Afrighid Ḵᵛārazmšāhs, and spent the first twenty-five years of his life in Ḵᵛārazm.

• BĪRŪNĪ, ABŪ RAYḤĀN ii. Bibliography

  David Pingree

  Ca. 1035-36 Bīrūnī wrote a Resāla fī fehrest kotob Moḥammad b. Zakarīyāʾ al-Rāzī in two parts, the first devoted to Rāzī and his works, the second to the books that he himself had authored up to that time.

• BĪRŪNĪ, ABŪ RAYḤĀN iii. Mathematics and Astronomy

  George Saliba

  Ninety-five of 146 books known to have been written by Bīrūnī were devoted to astronomy, mathematics, and related subjects like math­ematical geography.

• BĪRŪNĪ, ABŪ RAYḤĀN iv. Geography

  David Pingree

  Bīrūnī’s conceptions of the spherical shape of the earth and of the geographical features on its surface are those of Greek scientists, especially Ptolemy, as modified by earlier Muslim geographers.

• BĪRŪNĪ, ABŪ RAYḤĀN v. Pharmacology and Mineralogy

  Georges C. Anawati

  Bīrūnī, a traveler proficient in several Asian languages and an inquisitive and attentive ob­server, was interested all his life in gathering precise information on plants and their medicinal uses.

• BĪRŪNĪ, ABŪ RAYḤĀN vi. History and Chronology

  David Pingree

  Bīrūnī’s main essay on political history is now known only from quotations. Discussions of historical events and methodology are found in connection with the lists of kings in his al-Āṯār al-bāqīa and Qānūn, in India, and scattered throughout his other works.

• BĪRŪNĪ, ABŪ RAYḤĀN vii. History of Religions

  François de Blois

  In this article some of his remarks on pre-Islamic Iranian religions, on Christian­ity and Judaism, and on Muslim sects will be discussed.

• BĪRŪNĪ, ABŪ RAYḤĀN viii. Indology

  Bruce B. Lawrence

  Bīrūnī’s magnum opus in Indology is Ketāb taḥqīq mā le’l-Hend men maqūla maqbūla fi’l-ʿaql aw marḏūla (The book confirming what pertains to India, whether rational or despicable).

• BĪŠĀPŪR

  Edward J. Keall

  ancient and medieval town in Fārs, in the Sasanian period the administrative center of one of the five districts in the province of Fārs.

• BISHOP, ISABELLA L.

  cross-reference

  See BIRD, ISABELLA L.

• BISOTUN

  Multiple Authors

  (Bīsetūn, Bīstūn, Behistun), the modern name of a cliff rising on the north side of the age-old caravan trail and main military route from Babylon and Baghdad over the Zagros mountains to Hamadān).

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• BISOTUN i. Introduction

  R. Schmitt

  Bagistanon (óros). As shown by its name, Bisotun had been holy from time immemorial and Darius’s monument was well known to the ancients.

• BISOTUN ii. Archeology

  Heinz Luschey

  Although the relief and inscription of Darius on the cliff have made Bīsotūn famous, there are also various other remains in the neighborhood, including some that were discovered or identified only in 1962 and 1963. Some Paleolithic cave finds are the earliest evidence of human presence at the spring-fed pool of Bīsotūn.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• BISOTUN iii. Darius's Inscriptions

  R. Schmitt

  Over the millennia all the inscriptions on the rock at Bīsotūn, especially the Babylonian version, have suffered severe damage from erosion. Calcareous deposits on the engraved cuneiform characters caused by water seepage have obscured several passages, but have also preserved them from weathering.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• BĪSOTŪN, ABŪ MANṢŪR

  C. Edmund Bosworth

  b. Vošmgīr, ẒAHĪR-AL-DAWLA,  Ziyarid amir in Ṭabarestān and Gorgān (r. 967-78). Much of his reign was spent in fending off Samanid claims to sovereignty over the Caspian provinces.

• BĪSTGĀNĪ

  Ḡolām-Ḥosayn Yūsofī

  Persian term for pay and rations of troops used in classical texts, corresponding to Arabic ʿešrīnīya.

• BĪT BUNAKKI

  Louis D. Levine

  (or Bīt Burnakki/Purnakki), the name of an Elamite border city mentioned frequently in the eighth and seventh centuries in neo-Assyrian texts.

• BĪT HAMBAN

  Louis D. Levine

  (also Bīt Habban), a district on the Iranian-Iraqi frontier which appears in Akkadian cuneiform sources after the fall of the Kassite dynasty (1157 B.C.) and disappears with the fall of the Assyrian empire in 612 B.C.

• BĪT RAMATIYA

  Louis D. Levine

  a place name and personal name associated with Media in Asyrian sources.

• BĪTĀB, ʿABD-AL-ḤAQQ

  Nāṣer Amīrī

  b. Mollā ʿAbd-al-Aḥmad ʿAṭṭār, scholar and poet laureate (malek al-šoʿarāʾ) of Afghanistan (1883-1968).

• BĪṬARAF

  Nassereddin Parvin

  (The impartial), a news and political affairs journal published in Persian and French in Tehran (1913-14).

• BĪŽAN

  Djalal Khaleghi-Motlagh

  in the traditional history, son of Gīv by Rostam’s daughter Bānū Gošasp; he figures prominently in the Šāh-nāma as a hero in Kay Ḵosrow’s reign.

• BĪŽAN-NAMA

  William Hanaway, Jr.

  an epic poem of about 1,900 lines relating the adventures of the legendary hero Bīžan son of Gīv.

• BLACK SEA

  Rüdiger Schmitt

  an almost entirely landlocked sea (lat 40°55’ to 46°32’ N, long 27°27’ to 41°42’ E). Its surface is more than 423,000 km², and its maximum depth is 2,244 m. In this article only the Achaemenid period is considered.

• BLACK SHEEP DYNASTY

  Forthcoming

  Forthcoming online.

• BLEEDING

  Cross-Reference

  See BLOODLETTING.

• BLOCHET (Gabriel Joseph) EDGARD

  Francis Richard

  French orientalist (1870-1937). His published works include editions and catalogues of manuscripts in Arabic and Turkish, but his main focus was the Iranian world.

• BLOCHMANN, HEINRICH FERDINAND

  J. T. P. de Bruijn

  (also Henry), a German orientalist and scholar of Persian language and literature who spent most of his career in India (1838-1878).

• BLOOD TRANSFUSION SERVICES IN IRAN

  Ali Ameri

  A centralized, state-funded organization was established in 1974 for the recruitment of safe, voluntary, non-remunerated blood donors and the subsequent collection, testing, processing, and distribution of blood and blood products to hospitals.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• BLOODLETTING

  Willem Floor

  (Ar.-Pers. ḥejāmat, faṣd; Pers. ragzanī, ḵūn gereftan), a common medical treatment throughout Iranian history, though applied only in exceptional circumstances by modern medical practi­tioners.

• BOAR

  Paul Joslin

  (Sus scrofa, Pers. gorāz). The wild boar is found in a broad cross-section of habitats and has a range that extends over much of Europe and Asia.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• BOARD GAMES in pre-Islamic Persia

  Ulrich Schädler and Anne-Elizabeth Dunn-Vaturi

  Aside from chess and backgammon, due to the perishable material such as textile, leather, and wood used in making the artifacts, as well as because often the games were simply drawn on the ground, evidence is lacking in most cases, but many of them are still played nowadays.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• BOČĀQČĪ

  Pierre Oberling

  a Turkic tribe of Sīrjān in Kermān province.

• BODHISATTVA

  Werner Sundermann

  in the Middle Iranian languages. The Sanskrit word Bodhisat(t)va, literally a being (blessed with) understanding, designates someone des­tined for Buddhahood later in life or in a future existence.

• BŌĒ

  Marie Louise Chaumont

  (Gk. Boēs), the name of two of Kavād’s (r. 488-­96 and 498-531) generals.

• BOḠĀ

  Cross-Reference

  See BŪQĀ.

• BOḠRĀ KHAN

  C. Edmund Bosworth

  ABŪ MŪSĀ HĀRŪN, the first Qarakhanid khan to invade the Samanid emirate from the steppes to the north in the 990s.

• BOHLŪL

  L. P. Elwell-Sutton

  a weekly comic illustrated paper, published in Tehran from 1911.

• BOHLŪL, ABŪ WOHAYB

  Ulrich Marzolph

  (d. ca. 805), b. ʿAmr b. Moḡīra Majnūn Kūfī, variously cited in later Persian literature as Bohlūl-e majnūn (Bohlūl the fool) or Bohlūl-e dānā (Bohlūl the wise), the archetype of the "wise fool"  genre.

• BOHRĀS

  cross-reference

   See ISMAʿILISM xvi. MODERN ISMAʿILI COMMUNITIES.

• BOḤŪR AL-ALḤĀN

  Taqī Bīneš, Jean During

  (Meters of melodies), a treatise on Persian music and prosody by Sayyed Mīrzā Moḥammad-Naṣīr Forṣat Šīrāzī (1855-1920).

• BOIR AḤMADĪ

  Reinhold Loeffler, Gernot L. Windfuhr

  the largest of the six tribal groups of Kūhgīlūya, inhabiting the mountainous territory from east of Behbahān and north of Dogonbadān to the Kūh-e Denā range in the northeast, an area of some 2,500 sq miles.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• BOJNŪRD

  Eckart Ehlers, C. Edmund Bosworth

  a town and district in Khorasan. i. The town and district. ii. History. The town (1976: 47,719 inhabitants; lat  37°29’ N, long 57°17’ E)  is situated at the foot of the Ālādāḡ.

• BOJNURD iii. Basic Population Data, 1956-2011

  Mohammad Hossein Nejatian

  Bojnurd has experienced a high rate of population growth, increasing more than tenfold from 1956 to 2011. During the period 1956-76, the average annual growth rate was approximately 4.5 percent. From 1976 to 1986, the population growth rate almost doubled. After the war with Iraq ended, the population growth started to decline. Since 1996, it has continued to decrease, falling to 2.48 percent in the years 2006-2011.

• BOḴĀRĀ

  cross-reference

  See BUKHARA.

• BOḴĀRĀ-YE ŠARĪF

  Michael Zand

  “Boḵārā the noble,” the first Central Asian newspaper published in Persian, 1912 to 1913.

• BOḴĀRĪ, ʿABD-AL-KARĪM

  Cross-Reference

  See ʿABD-AL-­KARĪM BOḴĀRĪ.

• BOḴĀRĪ, ʿALĀʾ-AL-DĪN

  Wilferd Madelung

  ABŪ ʿABD-ALLĀH MOḤAMMAD b. ʿAbd-al-Raḥmān b. Aḥmad, Hanafite scholar of feqh, legal method, kalām theology, and preacher and moftī in Bukhara (d. 1151).

• BOḴĀRĪ, ʿALĀʾ-AL-DĪN MOḤAMMAD

  Hamid Algar

  b. Moḥammad (d. 1400), close associate and primary successor of Bahāʾ-al-Dīn Naqš­band, the eponym of the Naqšbandī Sufi order.

• BOḴĀRĪ, AMĪR AḤMAD

  Hamid Algar

  (d. 1516), a Sufi instrumental in establishing the Naqšbandī order in Turkey.

• BOḴĀRĪ, JALĀL-AL-DĪN

  Richard M. Eaton

  (1308-84), SHAIKH, popularly known as Maḵdūm-e Jahānīān and Jahāngašt, a celebrated Indo-Persian Sufi of Uch in the southern Punjab.

• BOḴĀRĪ, MOḤAMMAD-ŠARĪF

  Robert D. McChesney

  ĀḴŪND MOLLĀ, also known as Šarīf-e Boḵārī and Mollā Šarīf, the leading Koran exegete and traditionist in Transoxiana (late 17th century).

• BOKĀVOL

  David O. Morgan

  (büke’ül), a term used in the Il-khanid period and after for a royal food taster or, later and more commonly, a military commissariat officer.

• BOKAYR B. MĀHĀN

  ʿAbbās Zaryāb

  MARVAZĪ, ABŪ HĀŠEM (d. 745-46), a leading ʿAbbasid propagandist (dāʿī).

• BOḴT-ARDAŠĪR

  Jes P. Asmussen

  name of a town (Mid. Pers. rōstāg) that Ardašīr I is said to have founded as an expression of his gratitude to God during his flight from the court of the last Parthian king, Ardawān.

• BOḴT-NARSA

  cross-reference

  See NEBUCHADNEZZAR.

• BOḴTĪŠŪʿ

  Lutz Richter-Bernburg

  the name of the eponymous ancestor of a Syro-Persian Nestorian family of physicians from Gondēšāpūr, Ḵūzestān, 8th-11th centuries, and of several of its members.

• BOLANDMĀZŪ

  cross-reference

  See BALŪṬ.

• BOLBOL “nightingale”

  Hūšang Aʿlam, Jerome W. Clinton

  “nightingale.” i. The bird. ii. In Persian literature. The term bolbol is applied to at least three species of the genus Luscinia (fam. Turdidae). To Persian poets, however, all refer to a single bird, characterized by its sweet  or plaintive song, supposedly sung for its beloved, the rose.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• BOLBOL, AŠRAF DAYRĪ

  Giri L. Tikku

  Persian poet of Kashmir (1682-1775-6).