Table of Contents

  • BĀṬEN

    B. Radtke

    (inner, hidden), the opposite of ẓāher (outer, visible). Both terms can be predicated of living beings. Most frequently, however, they are associated with the concept ʿelm (knowledge).

  • BĀṬENĪYA

    H. Halm

    a generic term for all groups and sects which distinguished the bāṭen (inner, hidden) and the ẓāher (outer, visible) of the Koran and the Islamic law (Šarīʿa).

  • BATHHOUSES

    W. Floor, W. Kleiss

    In 1890 there were 72 bathhouses in Isfahan, which were of different quality and cleanliness; this is possibly an estimate, because only 31 public baths have been identified as remaining historical monuments. However, around 1920 there were some 85 bathhouse keepers.

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  • BĀTMAN

    Yu. Bregel

    a measure of weight, the same as mann but more common in Central Asia, especially in modern times. There was a great variety of bātmans in different regions and for weighing different goods.

  • BATRAKATAŠ

    H. Koch

    place name, apparently the same as Pasargadae, which appears on the Elamite fortification tablets found at Persepolis.

  • BATS

    A. F. DeBlase

    (Pers. šabpara, mūš(-e)kūr; Ar. ḵoffāš). All but two Iranian bat species fall into one of three geographic groups in Iran. Rousettus aegyptiacus is known from Baluchistan, Qešm island, and three sites near Jahrom in Fārs. Records indicate that it ranges across southern Iran wherever dates and other fruits are grown.

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  • BAṬṬAI YAZDĀNĪ

    W. Madelung

    the 5th-century founder or reformer of the Kantheans, a sect related to the Mandeans.

  • BATTLE-AXES in Eastern Iran

    Boris A. Litvinsky

    Battle-axes made of bronze appeared in Eastern Iran during the Bronze Age. One such object comes from a burial at the Sapalli-tepa settlement in southern Uzbekistan.

  • BAUR, FERDINAND CHRISTIAN

    W. Sundermann

    (1792-1860), German theologian and scholar of Manicheism. Most important was Baur’s view of Manicheism, as a religion born at the watershed of the ancient and Christian worlds.

  • BAUSANI, ALESSANDRO

    Biancamaria Scarcia Amoretti

    (1921-1988), prolific Italian orientalist in several fields: Persian literature, Islam, linguistics, the history of Islamic science, Urdu, Indonesian, and other Islamic literatures.