Table of Contents

• BAḴŠĪ

  P. Jackson

  a Buddhist lama or scholar, in particular during Mongol hegemony in Iran; subsequently, by extension, any kind of scribe or secretary.

• BAḴT

  W. Eilers, S. Shaked

  “fate, destiny,” often with the positive sense of “good luck” (ḵᵛošbaḵtī).  i. The term.  ii. The concept.

• BAḴTAGĀN LAKE

  E. Ehlers

  part of the Lake Nīrīz basin situated about 1,525 m above sea level in the province of Fārs, approximately 50 km east of Shiraz.  At present, it is common to divide the basin of the Nīrīz into a northern portion (daryāča-ye Ṭašk) and a larger southern part (daryāča-ye Baḵtagān).

• BAḴTAK

  F. Gaffary

  a folkloric she-creature of horrible shape, personifying a nightmare. Baḵtak resembles the Āl, another “female devil” of Iranian folklore.

• BĀḴTAR (1)

  A. Tafażżolī

  designation of the geographical “west” in Modern Persian, but its Pahlavi equivalent abāxtar means “north,” probably borrowed from Parthian.

• BĀḴTAR (2)

  N. Parvīn

  name of an educational magazine (Isfahan, 1933-35) and a political newspaper (Isfahan and Tehran, 1935-45).

• BĀḴTAR-E EMRŪZ

  ʿA. M. Š. Fāṭemī

  (Today’s West), daily evening newspaper published in Tehran, 1949-53. The editor-publisher Ḥosayn Fāṭemī (1917-1954) was one of the principal associates of Dr. Moḥammad Moṣaddeq in the National Front (Jebha-ye Mellī).

• BAḴTĀVAR KHAN, MOḤAMMAD

  S. S. Alvi

  (1620?-85), historian and official at the court of the Mughal emperor Awrangzēb (r. 1658-1707) and a patron of literature.

• BAḴTĪĀR, ABŪ ḤARB

  M. Dabīrsīāqī

  B. MOḤAMMAD, the patron of the poet Manūčehrī (d. 1040-41) who praised his bravery, nobility, magnanimity, learning, and eloquence.

• BAḴTĪĀR, TEYMŪR

  S. Zabih

  (1914-1970), Iranian general. His meteoric rise to power began after the fall of Moṣaddeq in August, 1953, when he was called to Tehran, promoted to brigadier general, and put in charge of Tehran’s military governorship.

• BAḴTĪĀR-NĀMA

  W. L. Hanaway, Jr.

  an example of early New Persian prose fiction in the form of a frame story and nine included tales, the earliest version of which seems to be from the late 12th-early 13th centuries.

• BAḴTĪĀRĪ (1)

  ʿA.-A. Saʿīdī Sīrjānī, J.-P. Digard, ʿA.-Ḥ. Navāʾī

  the nesba of a number of Baḵtīārī chiefs.

• BAḴTĪĀRĪ (2)

  cross-reference

  in music, a gūša. See HOMĀYŪN.

• BAḴTĪĀRĪ MOUNTAINS

  E. Ehlers

  central part of the Zagros mountain range, more or less identical to the settlement area of the Baḵtīārī nomads.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• BAḴTĪĀRĪ TRIBE

  J.-P. Digard, G. L. Windfuhr, A. Ittig

  The Baḵtīārī tribe (īl) is one of the two biggest in Iran, the other being the Qašqāʾī. In the 1970s, the Baḵtīārīs numbered in all approximately 600,000, and about one third of them were nomadic.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• BAḴTĪĀRĪS of AFGHANISTAN

  D. Balland

  two small Paṧtō-speaking groups in the eastern part of the Irano-Afghan area bearing the name Baḵtīārī or Baḵtīār.

• BAKTOḠDĪ

  cross-reference

  See BEKTOḠDĪ.

• BAKU

  S. Soucek, R. G. Suny

  (Pers. Bādkūba), capital city of the Republic of Azerbaijan and one of the chief ports on the Caspian sea.

• BAKWĀ, DAŠT-E

  D. Balland

  an extensive piedmont alluvial plain in the southwest of Afghanistan, drained by one of the Sīstān rivers, the Ḵospāsrūd. In past times it enjoyed a measure of prosperity based on qanāt irrigation.

• BĀLĀBĀN

  Ch. Albright

  a cylindrical-bore, double-reed wind instrument about 35 cm long with seven finger holes and one thumb hole, played in eastern Azerbaijan in Iran and in the Republic of Azerbaijan.