Table of Contents

• BOZORG

  Jean During

  one of the modes in traditional Iranian and Arabic music, mentioned for the first time by Ṣafī-al-Dīn ʿOrmavī among the twelve šodūd, later on called maqāmāt.

• BOZORG, MĪRZĀ

  cross-reference

  See QĀʾEMMAQĀM, MĪRZĀ BOZORG.

• BOZORG-OMĪD, KĪĀ

  Wilferd Madelung

  the second Ismaʿili ruler of Alamūt (1124-38). He was of Deylami origin from the region of Rūdbār.

• BOZORGĀN

  Aḥmad Tafażżolī

  the third class-rank of the four or five divisions of the early Sasanian aristocracy, namely šahryār “landholders,” wispuhr “princes” or members of the royal house, wuzurg “grandees,” āzād “nobles,”  and kadag-xwadāy “householders.”

• BOZORGMEHR-E BOḴTAGĀN

  Djalal Khaleghi Motlagh

  identified in literature and legend as a vizier of Ḵosrow I Anōšīravān (r. 531-78). According to Persian and Arabic sources, he was characterized by ex­ceptional wisdom and sage counsels.

• BOZPĀR

  Louis Vanden Berghe

  a valley situated about 100 km southwest of Kāzerūn and 11 km by donkey path through the mountains from Sar Mašhad, Fārs. The most important ruin in the Bozpār valley is the building known locally as Gūr-e Doḵtar.

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• BOZPAYIT

  James R. Russell

  Middle Persian name, attested only in Armenian, of a Zoroastrian school or body of religious teaching in the Sasanian period.

• BRAHM

  Werner Sundermann

  “manner, fashion, costume,” Middle Persian word used in connection with human beings, referring either to mode of behavior or to outward appearance.

• BRĀHMĪ

  Douglas A. Hitch

  Indian script used for a variety of languages in Chinese Turkestan, including Iranian languages. From the Tarim Basin (Xinjiang, China) we have first-millennium documents in Brāhmī script in several Iranian languages.

• BRAHUI

  Josef Elfenbein

  (Brāhūī, Brāhōī), the name of a tribal group living principally in Pakistani Baluchistan and of a Dravidian language spoken mainly by Brahui tribesmen.

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• BRASS

  cross-reference

  See BERENJ.

• BRAZIER

  Asadullah Souren Melikian-Chirvani, Jaʿfar Šahrī

  two distinct types of utensil traditionally used in Iran. One type is a closed container on legs, a kind of stove that holds slowly burning coals for heating.

• BRAZMANIY(A)

  cross-reference

  See AŠA ii.

• BREAD

  Hélène Desmet-Grégoire

  Persian nān. In modern Iran bread is the dietary staple food for the population and accounts, on the average, for 70 percent of the daily caloric intake.

• BRĒLVĪ

  cross-reference

  See BARĒLVĪ.

• BREST-LITOVSK TREATY

  Joseph A. Kechichian

  treaty signed by the Central Powers and Soviet Russia on 3 March 1918 that was consequential in the history of modern Iran.

• BRETON, LE

  Cross-Reference

  See LE BRETON.

• BRICK

  Guitty Azarpay

  blocks of tempered mud, either sun-dried (ḵešt) or baked in a kiln (ājor), the traditional building material in most of Iran. It has customarily been made from a mixture of water-soaked earth (gel-čāl), straw, and chaff.

• BRICKS AND CERAMICS INDUSTRY

  Willem Floor

  IN IRAN Iran is rich in clay, marl, feldspar, silicate, limestone, gypsum, bentonite, talc, kaolin, quartz, and many other minerals, including a large variety of mineral oxides.

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• BRIDGES

  Dietrich Huff, Wolfram Kleiss

  (Pers. pol, Mid. Pers. pohl, Av. pərətu-). i. Pre-Islamic bridges. ii. Bridges in the Islamic period. Bridges may have existed in the Iranian highlands as monuments of vernacular architecture since prehistoric times.

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• BRITAIN

  cross-reference

  See ANGLO-IRANIAN RELATIONS; GREAT BRITAIN.

• BRỊTʾIATỊ (COPANỊ FỊRT) ELBỊZDỊQO

  Fridrik Thordarson

  (Russian: Elbyzdyko Britaev), playwright regarded as the founder of Ossetic drama(1881-1923). His first plays (two short comedies) were published in 1905.

• BRITISH COUNCIL

  EIr

  : activities in Iran 1942-79. The first British Council representative was appointed to Iran in 1942. The priority was English language teaching, and by 1944 the Council was teaching over 4,000 students.

• BRITISH MUSEUM and BRITISH LIBRARY

  Cross-Reference

  See Supplement.

• BRITISH PETROLEUM

  cross-reference

  See ANGLO-PERSIAN OIL COMPANY.

• BROACH

  cross-reference

  See BHARUCHAS.

• BROAD BEANS

  Cross-Reference

  See BĀQELĀ.

• BROADBEAN

  cross-reference

  See BĀQELĀ.

• BROCHT

  cross-reference

  See QEŠM.

• BROCKELMANN, CARL

  Rudolph Sellheim

  German orientalist (1868-1956).During a long and serene life as a scholar Brock­elmann produced a wealth of fundamental publications. His monumental output represents the unity of Oriental studies in his time.

• BRONZE

  Vincent C. Pigott, James W. Allan

  an alloy of two metals, copper and tin. When tin is alloyed with copper, it decreases the temperature at which the two metals will melt, increases fluidity during casting, and acts as a deoxidant. Although copper deposits occur with reasonable frequency throughout the highland zones of south­western, sources of tin are far less common.

• BRONZE i. In pre-Islamic Iran

  Vincent C. Pigott

  i. In Pre-Islamic Iran. Current research supports the idea that copper deposits on the Iranian plateau were being mined for their arsenic-rich minerals and ores, and it is in these deposits that evidence of early workings must be sought.

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• BRONZE ii. In Islamic Iran

  James W. Allan

  ii. In Islamic Iran. The most important copper-tin alloy used in Islamic Iran was a high-tin bronze with a tin content of about 20 percent. The production of bronze alloys was depen­dent on the supply of components.

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• BRONZE AGE

  Robert H. Dyson, Jr., and Mary M. Voigt

  in Iranian archeology a term used informally for the period from the rise of trading towns in Iran, ca. 3400-3300 B.C., to the beginning of the Iron Age, ca. 1400-1300 B.C. It has long since lost any precise meaning in relation to technology.

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• BRONZES OF LURISTAN

  Oscar White Muscarella

  the accepted term for a distinct body of metalwork produced in the first half of the first millennium B.C. and characterized by a wide range of idiosyncratic forms and a highly stylized conception of human and animal representation.

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• BROWNE, EDWARD GRANVILLE

  G. Michael Wickens, Juan Cole, Kamran Ekbal

  eminent British Iranologist (1862-1926). i. Browne’s life and academic career. ii. Browne on Babism and Bahaism. iii. Browne and the Persian Constitutional movement.

• BRYDGES, HARFORD JONES

  John Perry

  , Sir (1764-1847), English diplomat and author, ambassador to the court of Fatḥ-ʿAlī Shah Qājār from 1807 to 1811.

• BŪ DOLAF

  cross-reference

  See ABŪ DOLAF.

• BŪ ḤALĪM ŠAYBĀNĪ FAMILY

  C. Edmund Bosworth

  (or Bāhalīm),  military commanders and governors in northern India under the later Ghaznavid sultans in the late 5th/11th and early 6th/12th centuries.

• BŪ KORD DYNASTY

  Cross-Reference

  See ĀL-E BŪ KORD.

• BŪ NAṢR MOŠKĀN

  cross-reference

  See ABŪ NAṢR MOŠKĀN.

• BŪ ŠOʿAYB HERAVĪ

  cross-reference

  See ABŪ ŠOʿAYB HERAVĪ.

• BŪDAG

  Mansour Shaki

  Middle Persian term, in Mazdean theological and philosophical texts as “material becoming, genesis,” the counterpart of āfrīdag “spiritually/ideally created."

• BŪDANA

  cross-reference

  See BELDERČĪN.

• BŪḎARJOMEHR

  cross-reference

  See BOZORGMEHR.

• BŪḎARJOMEHRĪ, Karīm Āqā

  Bāqer ʿĀqelī

  , Major General (sar-laškar) (1886-1951), military officer, mayor of Tehran, and minister of Public Welfare. 

• BUDDHISM

  Multiple Authors

  Among Iranian peoples. This series of articles covers Buddhism in Iran and Iranian lands: i.  In pre-Islamic times. ii.  InIslamic times. iii. Buddhist Literature in Khotanese and Tumshuqese. iv. Buddhist Sites in Afghanistan and Central Asia.

• BUDDHISM i. In Pre-Islamic Times

  Ronald E. Emmerick

  Origin and early spread of Buddhism. Buddhism arose in northeast India in the sixth century b.c. as the result of the teaching of the historical Buddha Śākyamuni, who died about 483 b.c.

• BUDDHISM ii. In Islamic Times

  Asadullah Souren Melikian-Chirvani

  The Muslim conquerors of eastern Iran, Afghanistan, and Transoxania in the mid-8th century found Buddhism flourishing in a series of prosperous trading communities along the old caravan routes to India and China.

• BUDDHISM iii. Buddhist Literature in Khotanese and Tumshuqese

  Ronald F. Emmerick and Prods Oktor Skjærvø

  Khotan played an important role in the transmission of Buddhism during the period represented by the extant material (probably from around 700 to the end of the kingdom of Khotan ca. 1000).