Table of Contents

• BĪĀBĀN

  Brian Spooner

  name of the coastal plain that extends south from the mouth of the Mīnāb river for 88 miles to the cape Raʾs al-Kūh, which is 30 miles west of the Jask promontory.

• BĪĀBĀN

  Cross-Reference

  Persian word meaning “desert.” See DESERT.

• BĪĀBĀNAK

  Eckart Ehlers

  a group of isolated oasis settlements in central Iran, stretching over an area of 70 by 90 miles of what is mostly desert.

• BĪĀR

  C. Edmund Bosworth

  (from Ar. plur. of beʾr “well, spring”), a small settlement of medieval Islamic times on the northern fringe or the Dašt-e Kavīr, modern Bīārjomand.

• BĪBĪ KHANOM MOSQUE

  Bernard O’Kane

  named after Bībī Khanom, otherwise known as Sarāy-Molk Khanom, chief wife of Tīmūr (r. 7/1370-1405).

• BĪBĪ ŠAHRBĀNŪ

  Mary Boyce

  the dedication of a Moslem shrine on a hillside by Ray to the south of Tehran. The legend attached to it is that of Šahrbānū, a daughter of the last Sasanian king, Yazdegerd III (r. 632-51).

• BĪBĪ ZAYNAB, MAUSOLEUM OF

  Bernard O’Kane

  named after Bībī Zaynab, its legendary occupant, together with her mother Oljā Aīm, the wet nurse of Tīmūr (r. 1370-1405). It is in the Šāh-e Zenda necropolis in Samarkand.

• BIBLE

  Multiple Authors

  This series of articles covers various aspects of the Bible, as pertaining to Iran and Iranian lands.

• BIBLE i. As a Source for Median and Achaemenid History

  M. A. Dandamayev

  The old biblical texts arose in various historic periods. Except for some parts of the books of Ezra and Daniel, composed in Aramaic, all these texts are written in Hebrew.

• BIBLE ii. Persian Elements in the Bible

  Morton Smith

  Identification of Persian elements in the Bible is difficult because: (1) nobody knows just what was “Persian” when the biblical books were being written. (2) many things then “Persian” were also elements of other cultures.

• BIBLE iii. Chronology of Translations

  Kenneth J. Thomas

  1. Middle Iranian translations. 4th century. Statement by John Chrysostom (Homily on John) that doctrines of Christ had been translated into the languages of the Persians. 5th century. Statement by Theodoret (Graecarum affect­ionum curatio IX.936) that Persians regarded the Gospels as divine revelation. ...

• BIBLE iv. Middle Persian Translations

  Shaul Shaked

  The only extant Middle Persian Bible version is represented by fragments of a translation of the Psalms found at the ruin of the Nestorian monastery at Bulayïq near Turfan.

• BIBLE v. Sogdian Translations

  Nicholas Sims-Williams

  The following manuscripts containing biblical texts in Sogdian have been made known. None of them survives in anything like complete form, and some are mere fragments.

• BIBLE vi. Judeo-Persian Translations

  Jes P. Asmussen

  Judeo-Persian or Jewish-Persian is the common designation for, Persian written with Hebrew characters. Among the earliest and most important Judeo-Persian texts are the Bible translations.

• BIBLE vii. Persian Translations

  Kenneth J. Thomas and Fereydun Vahman

  The Pentateuch, the books of the prophets, and the writings (Heb. ketūbīm), including the Psalms, from the Hebrew scriptures, collectively known as the Old Testament, and the Gospels and other writings in Greek, collectively known as the New Testament, have all been translated into Persian.

• BIBLE viii. Translations into other Modern Iranian Languages

  Kenneth J. Thomas

  John Leyden, a gifted Scottish linguist and poet who went to Calcutta in 1803 as a surgeon’s assistant for the East India Company and subsequently became a professor at the College of Fort William, was involved in translating the Gospels into a number of languages, including both Pashto and Bal­uchi.

• BIBLIOGRAPHIES AND CATALOGUES

  Multiple Authors

  i. In the West. ii. In Iran. This series of articles covers the catalogues of manuscripts and bibliographies of printed works on Iran compiled by scholars in Iran, Europe (including Russia) and North America.

• BIBLIOGRAPHIES AND CATALOGUES i. In the West

  J. T. P. de Bruijn

  European interest in Iranian bibliography was awakened in the 16th and early 17th centuries, when manuscripts were brought to the West in ever-increasing numbers and became much sought after by humanists engaged in Oriental studies.

• BIBLIOGRAPHIES AND CATALOGUES ii. In Iran

  Aḥmad Monzawī and ʿAlī Naqī Monzawī

  Persian-language catalogues of manuscripts preserved in libraries in Iran and elsewhere range from detailed works in book form to articles in journals and short lists published separately or as supplements to other publications.

• BIBLIOGRAPHIES AND CATALOGUES ii. In Iran (continued)

  Aḥmad Monzawī and ʿAlī Naqī Monzawī

  fehrest (lit. list, index).  The word has now generally been superseded in Persian by ketāb-šenāsī.

• BĪČAGĀN LAKE

  cross-reference

  See BAḴTAGĀN LAKE.

• BICKERMAN, ELIAS JOSEPH

  Muhammed A. Dandamayev

  (1897-1981), a leading scholar of Greco-Roman history and the Hellenistic world, whose research interests extended to Judaism and some aspects of Iranian history.

• BICKNELL, HERMAN

  Michael C. Hillmann

  (1830-1875), a translator of Ḥāfeẓ. Some of his metered and rhymed translations replicate, or at least giving the impression of, Persian monorhyme patterns.

• 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.

  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.