Table of Contents

• BĀQELĀ

  H. Aʿlam

  broad beans, the grains of Vicia faba L. In Iran, this crop is grown rather extensively in the Caspian provinces and, to a lesser extent, in the south and southwest.

• BĀQER KHAN SĀLĀR-E MELLI

  A. Amanat

  one of the popular heroes of the Constitutional Revolution during the defense of Tabrīz in the period of the Lesser Autocracy (June, 1908-July, 1909).

• BĀQER, ABŪ JAʿFAR MOḤAMMAD

  W. Madelung

  The fifth imam of the Twelver Shiʿites (7th-8th century).

• BĀQĪBELLĀH NAQŠBANDĪ

  J. G. J. Ter Haar

  , ḴᵛĀJA ABU’L-MOʾAYYAD RAŻĪ-AL-DĪN OWAYSĪ (d. 1603). As a Naqšbandi, he represents the sober type of Sufi, adhering to the Islamic law (šarīʿa) and averse to ecstatic mystical experiences.

• BĀQLAVĀ

  W. Eilers, N. Ramazani

  i. The word. ii. The sweet. Bāqlavā is a sweet pastry known throughout the Middle East, in Iran commonly made with almonds (bādām), less frequently with pistachios (pesta).

• BAQLĪ, RŪZBEHĀN

  cross-reference

  , ShAIKH. See RŪZBEHĀN.

• BAQQĀL-BĀZĪ

  F. Gaffary

  (lit. grocer play), a form of improvised, popular slapstick comedy; it is distinguished among the various forms of popular comedy in Iran by its own set of rules.

• BĀR

  Dj. Khaleghi-Motlagh, Ḥ. Farhūdī

  “audience.” The royal audience was one of the most important and enduring of the court ceremonies practiced in Iran.  i. From the Achaemenid through the Safavid period.  ii. The Qajar and Pahlavi periods.

• BAR HEBRAEUS

  Cross-Reference

  (b. Malaṭīa, 1225; d. Marāḡa, 1286), Syriac historian and polymath. See EBN AL-ʿEBRĪ, ABU’L-FARAJ.

• BAR KŌNAY, THEODORE

  J. P. Asmussen

  8th-9th-century Nestorian teacher and writer from Kaškar in Mesopotamia. His The Book of Scholiais notable for its sections on Zarathustra and Mani.

• BAR-E MEHR

  cross-reference

  a fire temple in Yazd. See DAR-E MEHR.

• BARĀDŪST

  A. Hassanpour

  name of a Kurdish tribe, region, mountain range, river, and amirate. The tribespeople, mostly settled now, are Shafeʿite Sunnis and speak the Kurmanji dialect of Kurdish mixed with the neighboring Sorani dialects.

• BARAḠĀNĪ, MOḤAMMAD-TAQĪ

  D. M. MacEoin

  QAZVĪNĪ, ŠAHĪD-E ṮĀLEṮ, MOLLĀ, an important Shiʿite ʿālem of Qazvīn (d. 1847).

• BARAK

  T. Bīneš

  a kind of firm and durable woven cloth used for coats, overcoats (labbāda), shawls (in Afghanistan), čūḵas (surcoats for shepherds) and leggings.

• BARAKĪ BARAK

  C. M. Kieffer

  locality in the province of Lōgar, Afghanistan,  the abode of the country’s last Ōrmuṛī speakers.

• BĀRAKZAY DYNASTY

  cross-reference

  See AFGHANISTAN x. Political History ; and DORRĀNĪ.

• BĀRAKZĪ

  D. Balland

  (singular Bārakzay), an ethnic name common among the Pashtun of Afghanistan and Pakistan and the Baluch of southeastern Iran. The oldest settlement area is between Herat and the approaches to the Helmand valley.

• BARĀMEKA

  Cross-Reference

  See BARMAKIDS.

• BĀRĀN

  D. Balland

  “rain.” The presence of the oblique Zagros and Hindu Kush ranges at the western and eastern extremes of Irano-Afghan territory introduces great contrasts between the relatively humid slopes exposed to the winds and the much more arid slopes of the sheltered sides.

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• BARANĪ, ŻĪĀʾ-AL-DĪN

  P. Hardy

  Indian-born Muslim historian who wrote in the period of the Delhi sultanate (ca. 1285-1357).