Table of Contents

  • BARDAŠĪR

    cross-reference

    old name of the city of Kermān.

  • BARDESANES

    P. O. Skjærvø

    (Syr. Bar Dayṣān, Ar. Ebn Dayṣān), gnostic thinker (154-222) who occupies a position between the Syriac gnostic systems of the first two centuries A.D. and the Iranian gnostic system of Mani of the third century.

  • BARDIYA

    M. A. Dandamayev

    the younger son of Cyrus the Great. Tarius in his Behistun inscription (DB 1.30-33) says that Cambyses, after becoming king, but before his departure to Egypt, slew Bardiya and that the assassination was kept a secret from the people.

  • BAṚĒC(Ī)

    D. Balland

    a Pashtun tribe in southern Afghanistan. Location of the Baṛēc at the southern extremity of Pashtun territory and at the limits of the Baluch has allowed multiple contacts with the latter and Brahui, including intermarriages, as well as linguistic or even genealogical assimilation.

  • BARĒLVĪ, AḤMAD ŠAHĪD

    Q. Ahmad

    Indo­-Muslim saint, author of Persian works, known for his reformist ideas, military ventures, and eventual martyr­dom (1786-1831).

  • BARƎSMAN

    Cross-Reference

    See BARSOM.

  • BĀREZĀNĪ

    Cross-Reference

    See BĀRZĀNĪ.

  • BARF “SNOW”

    D. Balland, B. Hourcade, and C. M. Kieffer

    On the tropical margins of the Irano-Afghan plateau, snow is in fact exceptional below an altitude of 1,000 meters. Not that it cannot fall in abundance there, but then it is a memorable event. In the remaining two-thirds of the territory of Iran and Afghanistan snow is a common occurrence.

    This Article Has Images/Tables.
  • BĀRFORŪŠĪ, MOḤAMMAD-ʿALĪ

    D. M. MacEoin

    (1823-49), MOLLĀ, important figure in early Babism.

  • BARG-E BŪ

    A. Parsa

    (or deraḵt-e ḡār; Eng. laurel and sweet bay), Laurus nobilis, the most popular species of the family Lauraceae, the one used for laurel wreaths. The tree is common in Persian gardens.

  • BARḠAŠI, ABU’L MOẒAFFAR MOḤAMMAD b. EBRAHIM

    C. E. Bosworth

    vizier to two of the last Samanid Amirs of Transoxiana and Khorasan. 

  • BARGOSTVĀN

    A. S. Melikian-Chirvani

    horse armor, a distinctive feature of Iranian warfare from very early times on. The earliest known helmet (chamfron) has been excavated at Ḥasanlū from a 9th-century B.C. stratum.

  • BĀRHANG

    Hakim M. Said

    (also bārtang), plantain, general name for about 27 species of Plantago L. (family Plantaginaceae) in Iran, particularly the greater plantain,  the lesser plantain, and fleawort.

  • BARĪD

    C. E. Bosworth

    the official postal and intelligence service of the early Islamic caliphate and its successor states. The service operated by means of couriers mounted on mules or horses or camels or traveling on foot.

  • BARĪDŠĀHĪ DYNASTY

    R. M. Eaton

    The Barīdšāhī dynasty achieved its cultural apex in the mid-16th century, under the thirty-seven-year rule of ʿAlī Barīd. The first Barīdšāhī to adopt the title “king,” ʿAlī presided over the apogee of Barīdšāhī architecture, the most important specimens of which were his tomb and the Rangīn Maḥal, a palace adorned with wood carving and mother-of-pearl.

    This Article Has Images/Tables.
  • BARIKĀNU

    M. A. Dandamayev

    a town in Media, which was conquered and forced to pay a tribute by the Assyrian king Sargon II ca. 716 B.C.

  • BARIŠ NASK

    P. O. Skjærvø

    one of the lost nasks of the Haδamąθra group of the Avesta, analyzed in Dēnkard 8.9.

  • BARKĪĀROQ

    C. E. Bosworth

    ROKN-AL-DĪN ABU’L-MOẒAFFAR B. MALEKŠĀH, Great Saljuq sultan (r. 1092-1105); his reign convention­ally marks the opening stages of the decline of Great Saljuq unity.

  • BARḴᵛARDĀR TORKMĀN

    R. D. McChesney

    MĪRZĀ, author of Aḥsan al-sīar, a history of Shah Esmāʿīl Ṣafawī, completed 1523-24 or 1530-31.

  • BARLAAM AND IOSAPH

    J. P. Asmussen

    Persian Belawhar o Būdāsaf, a Greek Christian or Christianized novel of Buddhist origins. All the manuscripts are later than 1500. Being extremely popular it received various accretions and was often translated.