Table of Contents

• 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

  IN IRAN  Iran possesses a very rich and diverse bird fauna, due to the great range of habitats and Iran’s position at a crossroads between three major faunal regions.

  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).

• 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.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• BISOTUN iii. Darius's Inscriptions

  R. Schmitt

  The monumental relief of Darius I, King of Persia, representing the king’s victory over the usurper Gaumāta and the nine rebels, is surround­ed by a great trilingual inscription in Old Persian, Elamite, and Babylonian.

  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).

• 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.

• BOARD GAMES in pre-Islamic Persia

  Ulrich Schädler and Anne-Elizabeth Dunn-Vaturi

  include the games of chess and backgammon. our knowledge of other board games remains scanty. The study of ancient games relies on archeological material which is supplemented by data from epigraphic and iconographic sources, and direct evidence is lacking in most cases.

  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

  , b. ʿAmr b. Moḡīra Majnūn Kūfī (d. ca. 805), 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.