Table of Contents

• BALUCHISTAN i. Geography, History and Ethnography

  Brian Spooner

  Baluchistan is generally understood by the Baluch and their neighbors to comprise an area of over half a million square kilometers in the southeastern part of the Iranian plateau, south of the central deserts and the Helmand river.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• BALUCHISTAN i. Geography, History and Ethnography (cont.)

  Brian Spooner

  appears to have been divided throughout history between Iranian (highland) and Indian (lowland) spheres of influence, and since 1870 it has been formally divided among Afghanistan, Iran, and India (later Pakistan). Parts 8-11.

• BALUCHISTAN ii. Archeology

  J. G. Shaffer

  may have been inhabited first during the Pleistocene as proposed by Hume (1976), based on Paleolithic sites found in the Ladiz valley.

• BALUCHISTAN iii. Baluchi Language and Literature

  J. Elfenbein

  Baluchi is the principal language of an area extending from the Marv (Mary) oasis in Soviet Turkmenistan southward to the Persian Gulf, from Persian Sīstān eastward along the Helmand valley in Afghanistan, throughout Pakistani Makrān eastward nearly to the Indus river, including in the south the city of Karachi.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• BALUCHISTAN iiia. Baluchi Poetry

  Joseph Elfenbein

  divided into 4 periods: (1) classical, from ca. 1550-1700; (2) post-classical, from 1700-1800; (3) 19th century to early 20th century; (4) modern, after ca. 1930.

• BALUCHISTAN iv. Music of Baluchistan

  M. T. Massoudieh

  usually connected with particular ceremonies (marāsem), religious rites, festivals, or holidays. The relationships between melodies and particular ceremonies are reflected in their names.

• BALUCHISTAN v. Baluch Carpets

  S. Azadi

  a distinct group of carpets, woven by Baluch tribes in the northeastern Iranian province of Khorasan and the Sīstān area. These were not made in Makrān, where the main body of the Baluch tribes live.

• BALŪHAR O BŪDĀSAF

  cross-reference

  See BARLAAM AND IOSAPH.

• BALŪṬ

  H. Aʿlam

  common designation in New Persian both for acorn and oak, Quercus L. In west and southwest Iran, where well-defined stands of oak exist, their total surface area has been estimated at 3,448,000 hectares, divided into two main areas: west Kurdistan and the Sardašt region, and on the southwestern slopes of the Zagros.

• BALYĀNI, AMIN-AL-DIN

  Denise Aigle

  (d. 1345), a famous Sufi who lived at the time of the Inju dynasty in Fars. The principle source for his life is Meftāḥ al-hedāyat va meṣbāḥ al-ʿenāyat, written in 1346 by his disciple Maḥmud b. ʿOṯmān.