Table of Contents

• BARZĪN

  Dj. Khaleghi-Motlagh

  (from Pahlavi Burzēn), the name of several figures in the Šāh-nāma.

• BAŠĀKERD

  B. Spooner

  a roughly rectan­gular mountainous district (dehestān) east of Mīnāb and north of Jāsk. The topography and the natural conditions are similar to Makrān to the immediate east.

• BASAWAL

  Sh. Kuwayama

  the site of a Buddhist cave temple complex in eastern Afghanistan. The caves, 150 in all, are partly hewn out in two rows and arranged in seven groups, which presumably corre­spond to the seven monastic institutions of Buddhist times.

• BĀṢERĪ

  F. Barth

  a pastoral nomadic tribe of Fārs belonging to the Ḵamsa confederacy. The nomads keep sheep, intermingled with 10-20 percent goats, and use donkeys for transport.

• BĀŠGĀH-E AFSARĀN

  M. Ṣ¡āneʿī

  (Officers’ Club), an impressive building in Tehran, built in 1939.

• BĀŠGĀH-E ARĀMENA

  ʿA.-A. Saʿīdī Sīrjānī

  (the Armenian Club), a non-profit, non-political social club, founded 1 January 1918 by Armenians in Tehran.

• BĀŠGĀH-E MEHRAGĀN

  Ḥ. Maḥmūdī

  (Mehragān Club), an organization of the Iran Teachers Association open to teachers, students, and other in­tellectuals in Tehran and eventually in the provinces, 1952-62.

• BASIL

  Hušang Aʿlam

  Ocimum L. ssp. (fam. Labiatae), now commonly called rayḥān in Persian, an aromatic plant. Ocimum basilicum L., sweet basil or basil royal, is named šāh-esparam “the royal herb.”

• BASILIUS OF CAESAREA

  J. P. Asmussen

  or Basilius the Great (ca. A.D. 330-79), bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia from 370, after Eusebius, who wrote regarding the Magi.

• BAŠKARDI

  P. O. Skjærvø

  (Bašākerdī), collective designation for numerous dialects spoken in southeastern Iran from Bandar-e ʿAbbās eastward, forming a transition from the dialects spoken in Fārs and Lārestān to Baluchi.

• BASKERVILLE, HOWARD C.

  K. Ekbal

  a teacher at the American mission in Tabrīz, killed 19 April 1909 during the siege of Tabrīz by royalist troops.

• BĀSMA

  M. Dabīrsīāqī

   a Turkish word which originally referred to a design applied (e.g., with a wood block) in ink, silver, and gold to paper, cloth, and other materials.

• BASRA

  F. M. Donner

  (Ar. al-Baṣra), town located near the Šaṭṭ al-ʿArab river in southern Iraq, predominantly Arab, possessing a rich political, cultural, and economic history. This article concentrates mainly on describing the town’s many significant ties with Iran.

• BASSĀM-E KORD

  Z. Safa

  the Kharijite (fl. mid-9th century), one of the first poets in the New Persian language, active at the court of the Saffarids.

• BAŠŠĀR-E MARḠAZĪ

  Z. Safa

  a Persian poet of the 10th century, apparently from Marv in Khorasan.

• BAST

  J. Calmard

  (sanctuary, asylum), the designation of cer­tain sanctuaries in Iran that are considered inviolable and were often used by people seeking refuge from prosecution.

• BASṬĀM, BASṬĀMĪ

  cross-reference

  See BESṬĀM, BESṬĀMĪ FAMILY.

• BASTANEGĀR

  J. During

  a gūša in the instrumental repertory (radīf) of classical Persian music.

• BASTŪR

  A. Tafażżolī

  (Mid. Pers. Bastwar, Av. Bastauuairi), a hero of the Iranian national epic, son of Zarēr, King Goštāsp’s brother.

• BĀṬĀS

  R. M. Boehmer

  a village in Iraq, Arbīl province. The nearby rock relief, no longer in good preservation, may  depict Izates II, the king of Adiabene (ca. 36-62 A.D.), who was converted to Judaism. He is likely to have ordered the carving after the unexpected retreat of the Parthian king of kings, Vologases I.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• BĀṬEN

  B. Radtke

  (inner, hidden), the opposite of ẓāher (outer, visible). Both terms can be predicated of living beings. Most frequently, however, they are associated with the concept ʿelm (knowledge).

• BĀṬENĪYA

  H. Halm

  a generic term for all groups and sects which distinguished the bāṭen (inner, hidden) and the ẓāher (outer, visible) of the Koran and the Islamic law (Šarīʿa).

• BATHHOUSES

  W. Floor, W. Kleiss

  (ḥammām, garmāba).  i. General.  ii. The layout of rural bath structures. Bathhouses existed prior to the Islamic period in the Iranian cultural area. However, their number seems to have been limited due to the Zoroastrian religion’s reverence for the holy element of water.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• BĀTMAN

  Yu. Bregel

  a measure of weight, the same as mann but more common in Central Asia, especially in modern times. There was a great variety of bātmans in different regions and for weighing different goods.

• BATRAKATAŠ

  H. Koch

  place name, apparently the same as Pasargadae, which appears on the Elamite fortification tablets found at Persepolis.

• BATS

  A. F. DeBlase

  (Pers. šabpara, mūš(-e)kūr; Ar. ḵoffāš). All but two Iranian bat species fall into one of three geographic groups in Iran. Rousettus aegyptiacus is known from Baluchistan, Qešm island, and three sites near Jahrom in Fārs. Records indicate that it ranges across southern Iran wherever dates and other fruits are grown.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• BAṬṬAI YAZDĀNĪ

  W. Madelung

  the 5th-century founder or reformer of the Kantheans, a sect related to the Mandeans.

• BATTLE-AXES in Eastern Iran

  Boris A. Litvinsky

  Battle-axes made of bronze appeared in Eastern Iran during the Bronze Age. One such object comes from a burial at the Sapalli-tepa settlement in southern Uzbekistan.

• BAUR, FERDINAND CHRISTIAN

  W. Sundermann

  (1792-1860), German theologian and scholar of Manicheism. Most important was Baur’s view of Manicheism, as a religion born at the watershed of the ancient and Christian worlds.

• BAUSANI, ALESSANDRO

  Biancamaria Scarcia Amoretti

  (1921-1988), prolific Italian orientalist in several fields: Persian literature, Islam, linguistics, the history of Islamic science, Urdu, Indonesian, and other Islamic literatures.

• BAVĀNĀTĪ

  Ī. Afšār

  , MĪRZĀ MOḤAMMAD-BĀQER, Persian man of letters, poet, instructor of Persian in London, and self-styled prophet (d. 1892-93).

• BĀVANDIDS

  Cross-Reference

  See ĀL-E BĀVAND.

• BĀVĪ

  P. Oberling

  (or Bābūʾī), a Luri-speaking tribe of the Kohgīlūya, in Fārs.

• BĀWĪYA

  J. Perry

  a Shiʿite tribe of Ḵūzestān. They range east and south of Ahvāz, between the Kārūn and Jarrāḥī rivers, to the south of Band-e Qīr and north of Māred.

• BÄX FÄLDISỊN

  F. Thordarson

  “horse dedication,” a funeral rite practiced by the Ossetes until recent times.

• BAY

  Cross-Reference

  See BARG-E BŪ.

• BAYĀN (1)

  J. T. P. de Bruijn

  term (lit. “statement,” “exposition,” “explanation”) from an early date encompassing the various arts of expression in speech and writing. Often ʿelm-e bayān merely denotes rhetoric as a whole.

• BAYĀN (2)

  D. M. MacEoin

  term applied to the writings of the Bāb in general and to two late works in particular, the Bayān-e fārsī and al-Bayān al-ʿarabī.

• BAYĀNI, JĀR-ALLĀH-ZĀDA

  Tahsin Yazici

  , Shaikh Moṣtafā (d. 1597), a Turkish poet who composed on the ḡazals of Hāfeẓ.

• BAYĀNĪ, MEHDĪ

  M. Dabīrsīāqī

  (1906-68), specialist in Persian manuscripts and calligraphy and pioneer in the field of Persian librarianship.

• BAYĀT

  G. Doerfer

  an important Turkish tribe. A substantial proportion of the Bayāt people must have entered Iran in the train of the Saljuq invaders in the first half of the 11th century.

• BAYĀT(Ī)

  J. During

  one of the old modes of the Irano-Arabic musical tradition, mentioned for the first time by Šayḵ Ṣafadī (15th century).

• BAYĀT-E EṢFAHĀN

  M. Caton

  or ĀVĀZ-e EṢFAHĀN, a musical system based on a specific collection of modal pieces (gūšahā) which are performed in a particular order.

• BAYĀT-E KORD

  M. Caton

  or KORD-e BAYĀT, a part of the modal system (dastgāh) of Šūr in Persian music.

• BAYĀT-E TORK

  M. Caton

  a musical system (āvāz, naḡma) and one of the branches of the modal system (dastgāh) of Šūr in traditional classical music.

• BAYATỊ, GAPPO

  F. Thordarson

  (Ger.: Georg-Gappo Baiew; 1869-1939), Ossetic man of letters.

• BAYĀŻ

  M.-T. Dānešpažūh

  literally “white,” usually a small paper notepad that opens lengthwise and was carried around in an inside pocket. Several such MS are found in various libraries.

• BAYAZIT

  R. W. Edwards

  (Bāyazīd; Osm. Bayezid), a stronghold located three kilometers southeast of the modern village of Doğubayazit, Turkey, and approximately twenty-five kilometers southwest of Mt. Ararat, important in the defense of Anatolia against invasion from Iran.

• BĀYBŪRTLŪ

  P. Oberling

  (also Bāybūrdlū), a Turkic tribe of northwestern Iran whose only vestiges seem to be the names of a few historical personalities.

• BĀYDŪ

  B. Spuler

  a son of Ṭaraḡāy and grandson of Hülegü (Hūlāgū), reigned as il-khan in Iran, 1295.