Table of Contents

  • BUKHARA i. In Pre-Islamic Times

    Richard N. Frye

    one of many settlements in the large oasis formed by the mouths of the Zarafshan (Zarafšān) river in ancient Sogdiana.

  • BUKHARA ii. From the Arab Invasions to the Mongols

    C. E. Bosworth

    The first appearance of Arab armies there is traditionally placed in Moʿāwīa’s caliphate when, according to Naršaḵī, ʿObayd-Allāh b. Zīād b. Abīhe crossed the Oxus and appeared at Bukhara (673-74).

  • BUKHARA iii. After the Mongol Invasion

    Yuri Bregel

    conquered by Chingiz Khan on 10 February 1220, and the citadel fell twelve days later. All the inhabitants were driven out, their property pillaged, and the city burned; the defenders of the citadel were slaughtered.

  • BUKHARA iv. Khanate of Bukhara and Khorasan

    Yuri Bregel

    The first distinctive political separation of Transoxania from Persia took place in 873/1469 when the Timurid empire was finally divided into two independent states, Transoxania and Khorasan, ruled by the descendants of Abū Saʿd and ʿOmar Shaikh, respectively.

  • BUKHARA v. Archeology and Monuments

    G. A. Pugachenkova and E. V. Rtveladze

    The earliest settlement levels at Bukhara can be dated to the 5th-2nd centuries B.C. During this period Bukhara consisted of a citadel on a hill and a large, sprawling settlement.

  • BUKHARA vi. Bukharan School of Miniature Painting

    Barbara Schmitz

    As far as is known, illustrated manuscripts were produced in Bukhara only under the Shaibanid (1500-98) and Janid (also known as Tughay -Timurid; 1599-1785) dynasties. Partly as a result of frequent raids on Herat by ʿObayd-Allāh Khan (918-46/1512-39) Persian manuscripts, artists, and calligraphers were brought to Bukhara.

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  • BUKHARA vii. Bukharan Jews

    Michael Zand

    “Bukharan Jews” is the common appellation for the Jews of Central Asia whose native language is the Jewish dialect of Tajik.

  • BUKHARA viii. Historiography of the Khanate, 1500-1920

    Anke von Kügelgen

    About 70 extant works of Persian historiography focus on the politics of the Shïbanid–Abulkhayrid (Shaybanid) dynasty (r. 1500-99), the Janids (also known as Toqay-Timurids or Ashtarkhanids, r. 1599-1747), and the Manḡïts (r. 1747-1920).

  • BULAYÏQ

    Nicholas Sims-Williams

    town in eastern Turkestan, modern Chinese Sinkiang, situated about ten km north of Turfan. At the nearby ruin of Shüī-pang, a library of fragmentary Christian manuscripts (thought to be of the 9th-10 cents.) was discovered in 1905, and the site is judged to be that of a Nestorian monastery.

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  • BULLAE

    Richard N. Frye

    the sealings, usually of clay or bitumen, on which were impressed the marks of seals showing ownership or witness to whatever was attached to the sealing.  

  • BULSARA, SOHRAB JAMSHEDJI

    Kaikhusroo M. JamaspAsa

    (1877-1945), Parsi scholar of Avestan, Pahlavi, Pazand, and Persian and Iranian history, born to a middle class family in Bulsar, Gujarat.  

  • BŪM

    cross-reference

    See BŪF.

  • BUN-XĀNAG

    Prods Oktor Skjærvø

    term in the inscriptions of Kirdīr at Naqš-e Rostam (KKZ and KNRm), variously interpreted.

  • BUNDAHIŠN

    D. Neil MacKenzie

    “Primal creation,” traditional name of a major Pahlavi work of compilation, mainly a detailed cosmogony and cosmography based on the Zoroastrian scriptures.

  • BUNTING, Basil Cheesman

    Parvin Loloi

    (1900-1985), British poet, linguist, translator, journalist, diplomat, and spy.

  • BŪQĀ

    Bertold Spuler

    (Būqāy, Boḡā), Mongolian Boḡa, Mongol general who took part in the fighting between the il-khans Aḥmad Takūdār (Tegüder) and Arḡūn in 1284 and then became the vizier.

  • BŪQALAMŪN

    Hūšanḡ Aʿlam

    term applied to a variety of objects or animals exhibiting changing colors, such as (silk) fabrics, the gemstone jasper, the chameleon, and the turkey. 

  • BŪRĀN

    Ihsan Abbas

    (Middle Pers. Bōrān) also called Ḵadīja (807-84), wife of al-Maʾmūn and daughter of Ḥasan b. Sahl, probably so named after the Sasanian queen Bōrān.

  • BŪRĀNĪ

    Mohammad R. Ghanoonparvar

    (rarely būlānī), generic term for a category of Iranian dishes, now usually prepared with yogurt and cooked vegetables and served either hot or cold.

  • BURBUR CASTLE

    Dariush Borbor

    The village has changed hands several times between Burbur family members, the Qajar aristocracy, and the central government in the last few centuries. In the 1840s, Esmāʿil Khan Burbur bought back the estate from ʿIsā Khan Biglarbegi Qajar, the governor of Malāyer, Nehāvand, and Tuyserkān, for 36,000 tomans.

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