Table of Contents

• BĀZĀRGĀNĪ

  cross-reference

  See COMMERCE.

• BĀZDĀRĪ

  Hūšang Aʿlam

  (or bāzyārī, lit. “bāz keeping,” obs.), falconry, as a practical art and as a sport.

• BĀZGAŠT-E ADABĪ

  William L. Hanaway, Jr.

  “literary return,” a move­ment for a return to writing poetry in the Ḵorāsānī and ʿErāqī styles, which began in the mid-18th century and continued into the 20th century.

• BĀZĪ

  Fereydūn Vahman

  (games). The growing interest in Iranian folklore in recent decades has resulted in the publication of descriptions of many games played in various parts of Iran, often to be found in dialect glossaries.

• BĀZRANGĪ

  Richard N. Frye

  the family name of a dynasty of petty rulers in Fārs overthrown during the rise of the Sasanians.

• BĀZYĀR

  cross-reference

  See BĀZ.

• BĀZYĀRĪ

  Cross-Reference

  See BĀZDĀRĪ.

• BDEAXŠ

  Cross-Reference

  See BIDAXŠ.

• BE SŪ-YE ĀYANDA

  Nassereddin Parvin

  (Toward the future), Per­sian daily newspaper and unofficial organ of the Communist Ḥezb-e Tūda (Tudeh party, 1950-53.

• BEADS

  cross-reference

  See JEWELRY.

• BEANS

  Hūšang Aʿlam

  term applied to plants (and their seeds) of different genera of the vast family Leguminosae. In this article, discussion is confined to what is commonly called lūbīā in Persian.

• BEAR

  Paul Joslin

  (Pers. ḵers, Av. arša-). Two varieties of bears are found on the Iranian plateau: the Eurasian brown bear and the Baluchistan black bear. The Eurasian brown bear is the most common of all bears. 

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• BEAUSOBRE, ISAAC DE

  Werner Sundermann

  (1659-1738), Huguenot pastor, scholar and pioneer of modern studies of Manicheism.

• BEAVER

  Hūšang Aʿlam

  Castor fiber L., semiaquatic mammalian rodent, in Persian commonly sag-e ābī (lit. “aquatic dog”), no longer extant in Iran. There appear to be references to beavers in Avestan and Pahlavi literatures.

• Bečka, Jiři

  Manfred Lorenz

  (1915-2004), a noted Czech scholar of Iran, Afghanistan, and particularly, Tajikistan.

• BĒDIL

  cross-reference

  See BĪDEL.

• BEDIR KHAN

  Mehmed Uzun

  (Badr Khan; d. 1867), last ruler of the principality of Cizre-Botan, by extension, name of a Kurdish clan that has played important political, social, and cultural roles since the mid-19th century.

• BEDLĪS

  Robert Dankoff

  (Turk. Bitlis, Arm. Bałēš, Ar. Badlīs), town and province of Turkey, of Kurdish population, situated twenty km southwest of Lake Van, commanding the passes between the Armenian highlands and the Mesopotamian lowlands.

• BEDLĪSĪ, ḤAKĪM-AL-DĪN EDRĪS

  Cornell H. Fleischer

  B. ḤOSĀM-AL-DĪN ʿALĪ, MAWLĀNĀ (d. 1520), scholar, his­torian, poet, and statesman under the Ottoman Sultan Salīm I (r. 1512-20).

• BEDLĪSĪ, ŠARAF-AL-DĪN KHAN

  Erika Glassen

  (b. 1543, d. 1603-04?), chief of the Rūzagī tribe of Kurds, whose traditional center was the town of Bedlīs; author of the Šaraf-nāma, a history of the Kurds in Persian.

• BEDLĪSĪ, ŻĪĀʾ-AL-DĪN ʿAMMĀR

  Edward Badeen

  Sufi shaikh (d. between 1194 and 1207-08), teacher of Najm-al-Din Kobrā.

• BEDŽỊZATỊ ČERMEN

  Fridrik Thordarson

  (Russ.: Chermen Begizov; DAUỊTỊ FỊRT;  1899-1941), Ossetic writer and editor.

• BEECH

  Hūšang Aʿlam

  Fagus L. Modern Iranian botanists tend to refer to this tree as rāš. Its timber is used more than any other wood for making doors, windows, inexpensive furni­ture, and tools.

• BEET

  Hūšang Aʿlam

  Beta vulgaris L., PERS. čoḡondar. The present distinction of beet varieties into vegetable (or red) beet, sugar beet, and fodder beet was unknown to the early Islamic botanists-pharmacologists.

• BEG

  Peter Jackson

  (Pers. also beyg) a Turkish title meaning “lord” or “chief,” later “prince,” equivalent to the Arabic-Persian amīr, fem. BEGOM.

• BEGGING

  C. Edmund Bosworth, Hamid Algar, ʿAlī-Akbar Saʿīdī Sīrjānī

  (Pers. gadāʾī, takaddī, soʾāl).  i. In the early centuries of the Islamic period. ii. In Sufi literature and practice. iii. In later Iran.

• BEGLERBEGĪ

  Peter Jackson

  a Turkish title meaning “beg of begs,” “commander of commanders,” In the Il-khanid period sometimes employed to designate the leading amir in the state.

• BEGRĀM

  Martha L. Carter

  the site of ancient Kāpiśa, located 80.5 km north of Kabul overlooking the Panjšīr valley at the confluence of the Panjšīr and Ḡorband rivers.

• BEGTOḠDÏ

  C. Edmund Bosworth

  Turkish slave com­mander of the Ghaznavid sultans Maḥmūd and Masʿūd (d. 1040).

• BEGTUZUN

  C. Edmund Bosworth

  (Pers. Baktūzūn), a Turkish slave general of the Samanids prominent in the confused struggles for power during the closing years of the Samanid amirate (end of the 10th century).

• BEH

  Wilhelm Eilers, Hūšang Aʿlam, Nesta Ramazani

  “quince, Cydonia.”  i. The word.  ii. The tree.  iii. Culinary uses of the fruit. Wild quince trees are found in the Caucasus, and the cultivated variety may have originated there.

• BEH-ARDAŠĪR

  Michael Morony

  (Mid. Pers. Vēh-Ardaxšēr, Ar. Bahorasīr), name of two cities founded by the first Sasanian king of kings, Ardašīr I (r. 226-41).

• BEH-QOBĀD

  Michael Morony

  (Mid. Pers. Vēh-Kavāt), an administrative district created by the Sasanian king Qobād I in the early sixth century along the Babylon branch of the Euphrates.

• BEHĀFARĪD

  Ḡolām-Ḥosayn Yūsofī

  Zoroastrian heresiarch and self-styled prophet, killed 748-49.

• BEḤĀR AL-ANWĀR

  Etan Kohlberg

  (Oceans of light) by Mollā Moḥammad-Bāqer b. Moḥammad-Taqī Majlesī (d. 1699 or 1700), an encyclopedic compilation in Arabic of Imamite traditions.

• BEHBAHĀN

  Aḥmad Eqtedārī

  Iranian city and county (šahrestān) in the province of Ḵūzestān.

• BEHBAHAN

  Multiple Authors

  a city and sub-province in Khuzestan province.

• BEHBAHAN ii. Population, 1956-2011

  Mohammad Hossein Nejatian

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

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• BEHBAHĀNĪ, ʿABD-ALLĀH

  cross-reference

  See ʿABD-ALLĀH BEHBAHĀNĪ.

• BEHBAHĀNĪ, MOḤAMMAD

  Hamid Algar

  (1874-1963), AYATOLLAH, a leading mojtahed of Tehran who played a role of some importance in the events of the first two postwar decades.

• BEHBAHĀNĪ, MOḤAMMAD-ʿALĪ

  Hamid Algar

  (1731-1801) B. MOḤAMMAD-BĀQER, ĀQĀ, Shiʿite mojtahed celebrated primarily for his ferocious hatred of Sufis.

• BEHBAHĀNĪ, MOḤAMMAD-BĀQER

  Hamid Algar

  ĀQĀ SAYYED, Shiʿite mojtahed and champion of the Oṣūlī school in Shiʿite law (feqh).

• BEHBAHANI, SIMIN

  Multiple Authors

  (1927-2014), eminent Iranian poet and human rights activist noted for her innovative treatment of the traditional genre of ghazal.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• BEHBAHANI, SIMIN i. Life

  Saeid Rezvani

  (1927-2014), was introduced to Persian poetry since early childhood; her poems were tinged with shades of social commitment and with the onset of the 1979 revolution took on unprecedented dimensions of social consciousness which won her numerous awards and prizes.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• BEHBAHANI, SIMIN ii. Poetry

  Saeid Rezvani

  Behbahani enjoyed a studied familiarity with Iran’s literary past. Over the course of several decades, she devoted her efforts toward the reinterpretation of the ghazal, and gave expression to new subject matters with new meanings not heretofore encountered in the classical tradition of the genre.

• BEHBAHANI, SIMIN iii. Prose

  Houra Yavari

  Although more noted for her poems, Behbahani has also written extensively in prose, and her stories are characterized by experimentations with time and space, and reflect an imaginative approach to the remembrance of bygone days.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• BEHBAHANI, SIMIN iv. Selected Bibliography

  Saeid Rezvani and Houra Yavari

  This article contains a selected bibliography of the works of Simin Behbahani.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• BEHBŪDĪ

  Yuri Bregel

  (1875-1919), MOLLĀ MAḤMŪD ḴᵛĀJA, one of the leaders of the Jadīd movement in Central Asia in the 1900s-1910s, journalist and playwright.

• BEHDĀRĪ

  Mohammad Ali Faghih

  (maintaining health), term applied to the entire organization and services provided either by government or by various other agencies to secure the health of the people, hospitals, clinics, centers and other supporting services.

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• BEHDĀŠT BARĀ-YE HAMA

  Akbar Moarefi

  (“Health for All”), a magazine published by the Division of Public Health Education in Tehran, 1953-56.