Table of Contents

  • BOLOD

    Bertold Spuler

    CHʿENG-HSIANG (Pers. Pūlād Čīnksāng; d. 1313), the representative of the Great Khan Qubilai at the court of the Il-khans of Iran.

  • BOLOḠĀN ḴĀTŪN

    Charles Melville

    (Būlūḡān Ḵātūn), the name of three of the royal wives of the Mongol Il-khans in Iran. Of Mongol origin, the word Boloḡān, variously spelled in the Persian sources, means “sable.”

  • BOLŪḠ

    cross-reference

    See BĀLEḠ.

  • BOLŪR

    cross-reference

    (Ar. ballūr, bellawr) “rock crystal.” See CRYSTAL.

  • BOMBAY

    John R. Hinnells, Momin Mohiuddin and Ismail K. Poonawala

    Persian communities of Bombay.

  • BOMBAY PARSI PANCHAYAT

    John R. Hinnells

    the largest Zoroastrian institution in modern history, originally founded in the 17th century in order to maintain Zoroastrian family and social values at a time of dramatic change, when Parsis were migrating from rural Gujarat to cosmopolitan Bombay.

  • BONDĀR RĀZĪ

    Zabihollah Safa

    (or Pendār), poet in the 10th-11th centuries, named as the author of a small number of surviving poems, some in literary (Darī) Persian, others in his local dialect.

  • BONDĀRĪ, FATḤ B. ʿALĪ

    Cross-Reference

    b. Moḥammad EṢFAHĀNĪ. See SUPPLEMENT.

  • BONGĀH-E ḤEMĀYAT-E MĀDARĀN O KŪDAKĀN

    EIr

    (Institute for the protection of mothers and infants), founded 16 December 1940 on the order of Reżā Shah, originally funded by charitable contributions.

  • BONGĀH-E MOSTAQELL-E ĀBYĀRĪ

    EIr

    (Inde­pendent irrigation agency), established by the Majles on 19 May 1943 to improve irrigation in Iran.

  • BONGĀH-E TARJOMA WA NAŠR-E KETĀB

    Edward Joseph

    “The [Royal] Institute for Translation and Publication,” founded 1953, since 1986 called the Scientific and Cultural Publication Company (Šerkat-e Entešārāt-e ʿElmī wa Farhangī).

  • BONĪČA

    Willem Floor

    a tax assessed on a group as a single unit and particularly the base on which the tax was calculated—in Iran: a tax on guilds, an agricultural tax on villages and tribes, and a military tax on villages.

  • BONYĀD-E FARHANG-E ĪRĀN

    Aḥmad Tafażżolī

    The "Iranian Culture Foundation" was established 16 September 1964.

  • BONYĀD-E MOSTAŻʿAFĀN

    cross-reference

    See MOSTAZ­AFAN FOUNDATION.

  • BONYĀD-E PAHLAVĪ

    cross-reference

    See PAHLAVI FOUNDATION.

  • BONYĀD-E ŠĀH-NĀMA-YE FERDOWSĪ

    Aḥmad Tafażżolī

    a research institute, 1971-78,  intended for preparation of a new critical edition of the Šāh-nāma.

  • BONYĀD-E ŠAHĪD

    EIr

    The Bonyād officially started work on 9 April 1980. A decision taken by the Revolutionary Council on 13 June 1980 attached the Martyrs’ Foundation to the National Health Organization (Sāzmān-e Behzīstī-e Keš­var), itself administered under the supervision of the prime minister.

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  • BOOK OF ZAMBASTA

    Ronald E. Emmerick

    a Khotanese poem on Buddhism. It is the longest indigenous literary compo­sition in the Khotanese language and played a crucial role in the decipherment of the Khotanese language.

  • BOOKBINDING (article 1)

    Duncan Haldane

    (tajlīd, ṣaḥḥāfī) in Iran at first followed the pattern of previous Near Eastern book covers, but subsequently Persian craftsmen developed new types.

  • BOOKBINDING (article 2)

    Iraj Afshar

    (ṣaḥḥāfi, jeld-sāzi), the traditional craft of binding new books and decorating the cover with embossed or painted designs, or of repairing worn out volumes by restoring their cover.

  • BOQʿA

    Hamid Algar

    the mausoleum of a sacred or revered personage, sometimes taken to include additional structures adjoining the tomb or the open space surrounding it.

  • BORAGE

    cross-reference

    See GĀV-ZABĀN.

  • BŌRĀN

    Marie Louise Chaumont

    (Pers. Pōrān, Pūrān), Sasanian queen ca. 630-31, daughter of Ḵosrow II (r. 590, 591-628). There are extant coins of Bōrān dated from the first, second, and third years of her reign.

  • BORĀQ (1)

    Bertold Spuler

    ruler of the Chaghatay khanate in Transoxiana (1266-71), a great-grandson of Jengiz Khan and a son of Yesün-Toʾa.

  • BORĀQ (2)

    Cross-Reference

    See MEʿRĀJ.

  • BORĀZJĀN

    ʿAlī-Akbar Saʿīdī Sīrjānī

    town and county (šahrestān) in Bushehr Province in southern Iran. The present town came into being in the late 12th/18th century.

  • BORHĀN BALḴĪ

    Zabihollah Safa

    BORHĀN-AL-DĪN MOẒAFFAR b. Šams b. ʿAlī b. Ḥamīd-al-Dīn, a poet of the 14th century from Balḵ. He was descended from Ebrāhīm b. Adham, the renowned Iranian Sufi of the 2nd/8th century. 

  • BORHĀN NAFĪS

    Zabihollah Safa

    BORHĀN-AL-DĪN NAFĪS b. ʿEważ b. Ḥakīm Kermānī, a physician of great renown in the 15th century.

  • BORHĀN, MOḤAMMAD-ḤOSAYN

    cross-reference

    See BORHĀN-E QĀṬEʿ.

  • BORHĀN-AL-DĪN MOḤAQQEQ TERMEḎĪ

    cross-reference

    See MOḤAQQEQ TERMEḎĪ.

  • BORHĀN-AL-DĪN NASAFĪ

    Wilferd Madelung

    (d. 1288), ABU’L-FAŻĀʾEL MOḤAMMAD b. Moḥammad b. Moḥammad b. ʿAbd-Allāh, Hanafite theologian, logician, and expert on legal points of disagreement (ḵelāf) and dialectic (jadal).

  • BORHĀN-AL-DĪN, ḴᵛĀJA ABŪ NAṢR FATḤ-ALLĀH

    F. R. C. Bagley

    a vizier (d. 1358) eulogized by Ḥāfeẓ in two ḡazals (nos. 374 and 478).

  • BORHĀN-AL-MAʾĀṮER

    Cross-Reference

    See Supplement.

  • BORHĀN-E JĀMEʿ

    Moḥammad Dabīrsīāqī

    (Comprehensive proof), title of a dictionary (completed 1833) by Moḥammad-Karīm b. Mahdīqolī Garmrūdī Šaqāqī.

  • BORHĀN-E QĀṬEʿ

    Moḥammad Dabīrsīāqī

    (Conclusive proof), the title of a Persian dictionary compiled in India in the 11th/17th century by Moḥammad-Ḥosayn b. Ḵalaf Tabrīzī, who used the pen-name Borhān.

  • BORHĀNIDS

    Cross-Reference

    See ĀL-E BORHĀN.

  • BORHĀNPŪRĪ, BORHĀN-AL-DĪN

    Richard M. Eaton

    Indo-Persian Sufi of the Šaṭṭārī order (d. 1089/1678).

  • BÖRI

    C. Edmund Bosworth

    or Böritigin,  name of a Turkish commander in Ḡazna and of the ruler of the western branch of the Qarakhanid dynasty of Transoxania.

  • BORJ

    Abbas Daneshvari, David Pingree

    The use of a word meaning “tower” in this special astronomical sense presumably arose from the conception of the zodiac as a barrier between heaven and earth through which access was gained by means of twelve zodiacal gates, each of which was assumed to be guarded by a tower.

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  • BORJ-E ṬOḠROL

    Bernard O’Kane

    name commonly applied to a large tomb tower of the Saljuq period situated near Ray.

  • BORJ-NĀMA

    Žāla Āmuzgār

    maṯnawi by Anuširavān b. Marzbān Rāvari (17th century), who wrote poems on several subjects relating to the Zoroastrian religion and uses several Zoroastrian terms here.

  • BOROUGH, Christopher

    Parvin Loloi

    (fl. 1579-1587), English merchant and linguist who traveled to Russia and Persia as an interpreter with the sixth voyage by the Muscovy Company to establish trade with these countries.

  • BOROWSKY, ISIDORE

    Bo Utas

    (ca. 1770-ca. 1838), Polish officer in the Persian army, said to have been fatally injured by a bullet in the abdomen during the second siege of Herat in 1837-38.

  • BORQAʿĪ

    Hamid Algar

    (Ar. Borqoʿī), AYATOLLAH ʿALĪ-AKBAR (b. 1900), religious leader of the postwar period to whom leftist tendencies were imputed and whose name became embroiled in a significant incident in Qom in January, 1953.

  • BORŪJ

    cross-reference

    See BORJ.

  • BORŪJERD

    Eckart Ehlers

    (or Barūjerd), town and šahrestān in the province of Lorestān in western Iran. It has always been a road and railway junction of great strategic importance.

  • BORUJERD

    Multiple Authors

    town and sub-province in Lorestan Province in western Iran.

  • BORUJERD ii. Population, 1956-2011

    Mohammad Hossein Nejatian

    This article deals with the following population characteristics of Borujerd: population growth from 1956 to 2011, age structure, average household size, literacy rate, and economic activity status.

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  • BORŪJERDĪ, ḤOSAYN

    Hamid Algar

    b. Moḥammad-Reżā Ḥosaynī, Shiʿite scholar of the Qajar period (d. ca. 1860); his main work was  a collection of chronograms on the deaths of famous transmitters of ḥadīṯ.

  • BORŪJERDĪ, ḤOSAYN ṬABĀṬABĀʾĪ

    Hamid Algar

    (1875-1961), AYATOLLAH ḤĀJJ ĀQĀ, director (zaʿīm) of the religious teaching institution (ḥawza) at Qom for seventeen years and sole marjaʿ-e taqlīd of the Shiʿite world for fifteen years.

  • Borumand - Daramads of šur

    music sample

  • BORŪMAND, NŪR-ʿALĪ

    Bruno Nettl

    (1905-1977), one of the foremost authorities on the performance and history of Persian classical music in the 20th century.

  • BORZMEHR

    Djalal Khaleghi-Motlagh

    (Pahlavi, lit. “deep affection”) one of the priests (mōbed) and scribes who served Ḵosrow I (r. 531-79).

  • BORZŪ-NĀMA (article 1)

    William L. Hanaway, Jr.

    an epic poem of ca. 65,000 lines recounting the exploits and adventures of the legendary hero Borzū, son of Sohrāb.

  • BORZU-NĀMA (article 2)

    Gabrielle van den Berg

    an epic poem named after its main hero, Borzu, son of Sohrāb and grandson of Rostam. The Borzu-nāma belongs to the cycle of epics dealing with the dynasty of the princes of Sistān.

  • BORZŪYA

    Djalal Khaleghi-Motlagh

    (also transcribed Burzōē), a physician of the time of Ḵosrow I (r. 531-79) and responsible for a translation of the Pañcatantra from Sanskrit to Pahlavi, the Persian translation of which is known as the Kalīla wa Demna.

  • BOSḤĀQ AṬʿEMA

    Heshmat Moayyad

    (d. 1420s), FAḴR-AL-DĪN ḤALLĀJ ŠĪRĀZĪ, satirical poet who used Persian culinary vocabulary and imagery and kitchen terminology to create a novel style of poetry.

  • BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

    Hamid Algar

    The Muslims of Bosnia-Herzegovina came to assimilate virtually all the cultural habits and interests of the Ottoman Turks; for the learned elite, this included an acquaintance with Persian language and literature.

  • BOŠRŪʾĪ, Mollā Moḥammad-Ḥosayn

    Denis M. MacEoin

    Shaikhi ʿālem who became the first convert to Babism, provincial Babi leader in Khorasan, and organizer of Babi resistance in Māzandarān (1814-49).

  • BOST

    Klaus Fischer, Xavier de Planhol

    archeological site and town located near the confluence of the Helmand and Arḡandāb rivers in southwest Afghanistan.

  • BOSTĀN AL-SĪĀḤA

    ʿAlī-Akbar Saʿīdī Šīrjānī

    a descriptive geography book by a mystic writer of the early 19th century, Mast-ʿAlīšāh, Ḥājī Zayn-al-ʿĀbedīn b. Mollā Eskandar Šīrvānī.

  • BOSTĀNAFRŪZ

    Ahmad Parsa

    amaranth, a medicinal and ornamental plant of the family Amaranthaceae.

  • BOSTĪ, ABU’L-FATḤ

    Zabihollah Safa

    NEẒĀM-AL-DĪN ʿAMĪD ʿALĪ b. Moḥammad b. Ḥosayn b. Yūsof Kāteb, a notable bilingual secretary and poet of the 10th century.

  • BOSTĪ, ABU’L-QĀSEM

    Wilferd Madelung

    ESMĀʿĪL b. Aḥmad JĪLĪ, Muʿtazilite and Zaydī author of the late 10th and early 11th century.

  • BOT

    William L. Hanaway, Jr.

    a term frequent in poetry with meanings ranging from an idol in the literal sense to a metaphor for ideal human beauty. These senses have been used since the earliest surviving Persian poetry.

  • BOTANICAL JOURNAL OF IRAN

    Valiolla Mozaffarian

    (Žurnāl-e giāhšenāsi-e Irān), begun in 1976 as an outcome of the National Botanical Garden of Iran. The contributions are in English with brief abstracts in Persian.

  • BOTANICAL STUDIES

    Hūšang Aʿlam, S.-W. Breckle, Hūšang Aʿlam and Aḥmad Qahramān

    ON IRAN i. The Greco-Islamic tradition. ii. The Western tradition. iii. Persian Studies in the Western tradition. In the Islamic period, generally speaking, botany was an ancillary branch of medicine or, more precisely, pharmacology.

  • BOUNDARIES

    Multiple Authors

    i. With the Ottoman empire. ii. With Russia. iii. Boundaries of Afghanistan. iv. With Iraq. v. With Turkey.

  • BOUNDARIES i. With the Ottoman Empire

    Keith McLachlan

    shaped by conflict over an ill-defined strip of territory with constantly shifting outlines extending from the Caucasus to the Persian Gulf.

  • BOUNDARIES ii. With Russia

    Xavier de Planhol

    West of the Caspian. The problem of drawing a stable territorial boundary between the Russian and Iranian powers must have arisen with the first arrival of the Russians in the Caspian area, after the conquest of Astrakhan in 1556.

  • BOUNDARIES iii. Boundaries of Afghanistan

    Daniel Balland

    None of these boundaries was established before the last third of the 19th century. It was the “great game,” the rivalry between Britain and Russia in Central Asia, that led the latter two states to contemplate creating a buffer state between their dependencies, a kind of defensive barrier.

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  • BOUNDARIES iv. With Iraq

    Joseph A. Kechichian

    Efforts by Algeria to mediate during the summit meeting of OPEC on 6 March 1975 brought the shah together with Ṣaddām Ḥosayn, then vice-president of the Iraqi Revolutionary Council, to redefine their common frontier. In the resulting settlement 593 new border points were designated.

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  • BOUNDARIES v. With Turkey

    Richard N. Schofield

    The Mixed Commission of 1914, on which Britain and Russia were vested with powers to arbitrate, had settled the line of the Perso-Ottoman frontier in detail for almost its whole length from the Persian Gulf to Mount Ararat.

  • BOWAYH

    cross-reference

    See BŌĒ; BUYIDS.

  • BOWAYHIDS

    cross-reference

    See BUYIDS.

  • BOXTREE

    Hūšang Aʿlam

    Buxus L. spp., šemšād, common name for numerous species of evergreen shrubs or trees of the family Buxaceae. The species B. sempervirens grows wild in lowland or plain forests of the Caspian provinces.

  • BOYCE, MARY

    John Hinnells

    (1920-2006), scholar of Zoroastrianism and its relevant languages, and Professor of Iranian Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of the University of London. In addition to her own contribution, Boyce was an outstanding teacher and supervised the research of many who went on to hold professorships.

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  • BOYEKAN

    Marie Louise Chaumont

    the name of a mec naxarar “great satrap,” defeated and killed at Ṭʿawrēš (Tabrīz) by the Armenian general Vasak under Šāpūr II (r. 309-79).

  • BOYLE, JOHN ANDREW

    Peter Jackson

    (1916-78), British orientalist, will perhaps best remembered for his work on the Mongol period of Iranian history.

  • BOYŪTĀT-E SALṬANATĪ

    Birgitt Hoffmann

    (lit. royal houses), in the Safavid period (1501-1732) departments and production workshops within the royal household serving primarily the needs of the court.

  • BOZ

    Jean-Pierre Digard

    the domestic goat. The earliest evidence for domestication of the goat has been found in Iran (ca. 10,000 B.C.), as have the largest number of prehistoric sites (ca. 7000 B.C.) showing traces of the systematic breeding of this animal.

  • BOZBĀŠ

    Mohammad R. Ghanoonparvar

    Azeri Turkish name for an Iranian dish usually called ābgūšt-e sabzī (green vegetable stew).

  • BOZGŪŠ

    Djalal Khaleghi-Motlagh

    the traditional reading of the name of a mythical tribe in Māzandarān mentioned in the Šāh-nāma.

  • BOZKAŠĪ

    G. Whitney Azoy

    (lit. “goat-dragging”), an equestrian folk game played by Turkic groups in Central Asia. Its origins are obscure; quite probably the game first developed as a recreational extension of livestock raiding.

  • BOZORG

    Jean During

    one of the modes in traditional Iranian and Arabic music, mentioned for the first time by Ṣafī-al-Dīn ʿOrmavī among the twelve šodūd, later on called maqāmāt.

  • BOZORG, MĪRZĀ

    cross-reference

    See QĀʾEMMAQĀM, MĪRZĀ BOZORG.

  • BOZORG-OMĪD, KĪĀ

    Wilferd Madelung

    the second Ismaʿili ruler of Alamūt (1124-38). He was of Deylami origin from the region of Rūdbār.

  • BOZORGĀN

    Aḥmad Tafażżolī

    the third class-rank of the four or five divisions of the early Sasanian aristocracy, namely šahryār “landholders,” wispuhr “princes” or members of the royal house, wuzurg “grandees,” āzād “nobles,”  and kadag-xwadāy “householders.”

  • BOZORGMEHR-E BOḴTAGĀN

    Djalal Khaleghi Motlagh

    identified in literature and legend as a vizier of Ḵosrow I Anōšīravān (r. 531-78). According to Persian and Arabic sources, he was characterized by ex­ceptional wisdom and sage counsels.

  • BOZPAR

    Louis Vanden Berghe

    a valley situated about 100 km southwest of Kāzerūn and 11 km by donkey path through the mountains from Sar Mašhad, Fārs. The most important ruin in the Bozpār valley is the building known locally as Gūr-e Doḵtar.

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  • BOZPAYIT

    James R. Russell

    Middle Persian name, attested only in Armenian, of a Zoroastrian school or body of religious teaching in the Sasanian period.

  • BRAHM

    Werner Sundermann

    “manner, fashion, costume,” Middle Persian word used in connection with human beings, referring either to mode of behavior or to outward appearance.

  • BRĀHMĪ

    Douglas A. Hitch

    Indian script used for a variety of languages in Chinese Turkestan, including Iranian languages. From the Tarim Basin (Xinjiang, China) we have first-millennium documents in Brāhmī script in several Iranian languages.

  • BRAHUI

    Josef Elfenbein

    As “long-distance cattle-herders” in 1880 no fewer than 80 percent of these tribesmen were tent-dwelling nomads; fewer than 20 percent were described as settled. In 1975 the proportions were almost exactly the reverse, and Brahui settlement in large towns has been increas­ing ever more rapidly.

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  • BRASS

    cross-reference

    See BERENJ.

  • BRAZIER

    Asadullah Souren Melikian-Chirvani, Jaʿfar Šahrī

    two distinct types of utensil traditionally used in Iran. One type is a closed container on legs, a kind of stove that holds slowly burning coals for heating.

  • BRAZMANIY(A)

    cross-reference

    See AŠA ii.

  • BREAD

    Hélène Desmet-Grégoire

    Persian nān. In modern Iran bread is the dietary staple food for the population and accounts, on the average, for 70 percent of the daily caloric intake.

  • BRĒLVĪ

    cross-reference

    See BARĒLVĪ.

  • BREST-LITOVSK TREATY

    Joseph A. Kechichian

    treaty signed by the Central Powers and Soviet Russia on 3 March 1918 that was consequential in the history of modern Iran.