Table of Contents

  • BĒṮ LAPAṬ

    Michael Morony

    the Syriac name for Vēh Antiōk Šāpūr (Gondēšāpūr), founded in ca. 260 by Šāpūr I in Ḵūzestān with the Roman captives from Valerian’s army.

  • BĒṮ SELŌḴ

    Michael Morony

    “house of Seleucos,” abbreviation of Karkā ḏe Bēṯ Selōḵ, “fortress of the house of Seleucos,” modern Kirkuk in Iraq.

  • BĒṬANĪ

    Daniel Balland

    a Pash­tun tribe on the eastern edge of the Solaymān moun­tains. The recent history of the Bēṭanī has been largely determined by the land that they now inhabit, adjacent to the plains of the middle Indus and the Wazīr uplands.

  • BETLĪS

    cross-reference

    See BEDLĪS.

  • BĒVARASP

    cross-reference

    See ŻAḤḤĀK.

  • BHADRA

    Ronald E. Emmerick

    a magician, who according to Buddhist legend tried to deceive the Buddha by means of his magic powers in order to disprove the Buddha’s claim to omniscience.

  • BHADRACARYĀDEŚANĀ

    Ronald E. Emmerick

    the name of a Buddhist text belonging to the Mahāyāna Tantric tradition of which a Khotanese translation is extant.

  • BHADRAKALPIKASŪTRA

    Ronald E. Emmerick

    the name of a Buddhist Mahayanist text (Sanskrit sutra) concerning the names of the Buddhas to appear in the good aeon (Sanskrit bhadrakalpa).

  • BHAGARIAS

    Mary Boyce and Firoze M. P. Kotwal

    lit. “Sharers,”  one of the five groups (panth) of Parsi Zoroastrian priests on the coast of Gujarat.

  • BHAGVĀN DĀS HENDĪ

    N. H. Ansari

    Indian poet and author writing in Persian. He belonged to the Hindu Srīvāstava Kāyastha community, which is known for its deep interest in Persian.

  • BHAIṢAJYAGURUVAIḌŪRYAPRABHARĀJASŪTRA

    Ronald E. Emmerick

    the name of a Buddhist Mahayanist text of which a number of fragments in Old Khotanese and Sogdian are extant.

  • BHANDĀRĪ

    N. H. Ansari

    putative author of Ḵolāṣat al-tawārīḵ, a general history of India written in Persian during the reign of Awrangzēb (r. 1658-1707), with special emphasis on the rulers of Delhi.

  • BHARUCHA, SHERIARJI DADABHAI

    Kaikhusroo M. JamaspAsa

    Parsi scholar (1843-1915). During the last years of his life he was criticized for his reformist views that the Zoroastrian religion was not meant for a particular fold but was open for all.

  • BHARUCHAS

    Mary Boyce and Firoze M. P. Kotwal

    the name of a group (panth) of Parsi Zoroastrian priests who had their headquarters at the ancient port of Bharuch (Broach) in Gujarat.

  • BHAVĀṄGA

    Ronald E. Emmerick

    the name assigned by H. W. Bailey to ten fragmentary Khotanese folios, a transcription of which he published.

  • BHOWNAGGREE, Mancherjee Merwanjee

    John McLeod

    (1851-1933), Sir, Parsi statesman; His ancestors were from the principality of Bhāvnagar in Gujarat, whence his surname originates.

  • BĪA-PAS, BĪA-PĪŠ

    Cross-Reference

    See GĪLĀN.

  • BĪĀBĀN

    Brian Spooner

    name of the coastal plain that extends south from the mouth of the Mīnāb river for 88 miles to the cape Raʾs al-Kūh, which is 30 miles west of the Jask promontory.

  • BĪĀBĀN

    Cross-Reference

    Persian word meaning “desert.” See DESERT.

  • BĪĀBĀNAK

    Eckart Ehlers

    a group of isolated oasis settlements in central Iran, stretching over an area of 70 by 90 miles of what is mostly desert.