Table of Contents

  • BAHMAN-ARDAŠĪR

    M. Morony

    (or Forāt Maysān), ancient and medieval town and subdistrict in Maysān in lower Iraq. The town of Forāt is known from the first century A.D. as a fortified terminus for caravan trade on the left bank of the lower Tigris, eleven or twelve miles downstream from Charax.

  • BAHMAN-NĀMA

    W. L. Hanaway, Jr.

    epic poem in Persian of about 9,500 lines recounting the adventures of Bahman son of Esfandīār.

  • BAHMANAGĀN

    cross-reference

    See BAHMANJANA.

  • BAHMANBEYGI, MOHAMMAD

    Ḥassan Mirʿābedini

    (1922-2010), educator, writer, founder of tribal education in Iran. He was born in the Bahmanbeyglu clan, Qašqāʾi  tribe, in Fars province, spent his childhood among the nomads, and graduated from the University of Tehran’s Faculty of Law and Political Sciences.

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  • BAHMANID DYNASTY

    N. H. Ansari

    dynasty (1347-1528) in the Deccan, the tableland region in India. The Bahmanid kingdom was not only the first independent Muslim kingdom in southern India, but it was also one of the greatest centers of Iranian culture in the subcontinent.

  • BAHMANJANA

    Z. Safa

    Arabicized form of Mid. Pers. Bahmanagān, one of the Zoroastrian festival days which Muslim Iranians observed down to the Mongol invasion in 1219.

  • BAHMANŠĪR

    X. de Planhol

    the name of the distributary which branches off the left bank of the Kārūn river in the Ḵūzestān plain a short distance above Ḵorramšahr, and of a dehestān near this town.

  • BAHMANYĀR, AḤMAD

    J. Matīnī

    scholar, educator, and man of letters (1884-1955). His written works are characterized by clarity and simplicity of language.

  • BAHMANYĀR, KĪĀ

    H. Daiber

    RAʾĪS ABU’L-ḤASAN B. MARZBĀN AʿJAMĪ ĀḎARBĀYJĀNĪ (d. 1066), one of Ebn Sīnā’s pupils and known mainly as a commentator and transmitter of Ebn Sīnā’s philosophy.

  • BAḤR

    cross-reference

    See BAḤR-E ṬAWĪL.

  • BAḤR-AL-ʿOLŪM

    H. Algar

    (1155/1742-1212/1797), a Shiʿite scholar who exercised great influence both in Iraq and in Iran through the numerous students he trained.  

  • BAḤR-E ḴAZAR

    cross-reference

    ḴAZAR. See CASPIAN SEA.

  • BAḤR-E ḴᵛĀRAZM

    cross-reference

    See ARAL SEA.

  • BAḤR-E ʿOMĀN

    Cross-Reference

    See OMAN, SEA OF.

  • BAḤR-E ṬAWĪL

    M. Dabīrsīāqī

    a type of Persian verse. generally the repetition of a whole foot (rokn) of the meter hazaj (ᴗ - - -) or of a whole foot of the meter ramal (- ᴗ - -) or a variation of the two.

  • BAHRA

    P. Clawson and W. Floor

    a term meaning “share,” “gain,” or “profit,” used within the economic context of Islamic Iran to mean “return on investment or production.”

  • BAHRAIN

    X. De Planhol, X. De Planhol, J. A. Kechichian

    Ar. Baḥrayn, lit. “two seas,” the name originally applied to the area of the northeastern Arabian peninsula now known as Ḥasā (Aḥsāʾ). i. Geography. ii. Shiʿite elements in Bahrain. iii. History of political relations with Iran.

  • BAHRĀM

    Multiple Authors

    name of six Sasanian kings and of several notables of the Sasanian and later periods. The name derives from Old Iranian Vṛθragna, Avestan Vərəθraγna, the god of victory.

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  • Bahrām I

    A. Sh. Shahbazi

    the fourth Sasanian king and son of Šāpūr I.

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  • Bahrām II

    A. Sh. Shahbazi

    the fifth Sasanian king (r. 274-291), succeeding his father Bahrām I. In his reign,  Sasanian art achieved a high degree of excellence especially in the representations of the king and his courtiers.

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  • Bahrām III

    O. Klíma

    the sixth Sasanian king, son of Bahrām II ruled for four months.

  • Bahrām IV

    O. Klíma

    succeeded Šāpūr III; Prior to his accession, Bahrām was governor of Kermān and bore the title Kermān Šāh.

  • Bahrām V Gōr

    O. Klíma

    son and successor of Yazdegerd I, reigned for 18 years; indulged in pleasure-loving activities, particularly hunting and his memorable shooting of a wonderful onager, gōr, is said to have given origin to his nickname Gōr.

  • Bahrām V Gōr in Persian Legend and Literature

    W. L. Hanaway, Jr.

    The relatively colorless and straightforward accounts by the early historians which emphasize Bahrām’s military prowess and his efforts to rule well, turn into legendary and adventurous figure in Persian literature.

  • Bahrām VI Čōbīn

    A. Sh. Shahbazi

    chief commander under the Sasanian Hormozd IV and king of Iran, was a son of Bahrāmgošnasp, of the family of Mehrān, one of the seven great houses of the Sasanian period.

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  • BAHRĀM (Vərəθraγna)

    G. Gnoli, P. Jamzadeh

    the Old Iranian god of victory, Avestan Vərəθraγna (“smiting of resistance”);  Middle Persian Warahrān, frequently used as a male proper name.

  • BAHRĀM B. MARDĀNŠĀH

    Dj. Khaleghi-Motlagh

    a Zoroastrian priest (mōbed) of the town of Šāpūr in Fārs, mentioned in several Arabic and Persian sources as a translator of the Xwadāy-nāmag from Pahlavi into Arabic.

  • BAHRĀM MĪRZĀ

    P. Soucek

    (1517-49), youngest son of Shah Esmāʿīl, full brother of Shah Ṭahmāsb, who relied on his loyalty and military valor for assistance against both his internal and external enemies.

  • BAHRĀM MĪRZĀ, MOʿEZZ-AL-DAWLA

    ʿA. Navāʾī

    (d. 1882), second son of the crown prince ʿAbbās Mīrzā, minor figure in military affairs and administration.

  • BAHRĀM newspaper

    L. P. Elwell-Sutton

    newspaper in Tehran, 1943-47.

  • BAHRĀM O GOLANDĀM

    cross-reference

    See KĀTEBĪ.

  • BAHRĀM PAŽDŪ

    Ž. Āmūzgār

    Zoroastrian poet of the 13th century. His only surviving poem celebrates spring, Nowrūz and those who had propagated the Zoroastrian religion.

  • BAHRĀM SĪĀVOŠĀN

    Dj. Khaleghi-Motlagh

    (Bahrām son of Sīāvoš), in the Šāh-nāma a supporter of Bahrām Čōbīn in the power struggle during the reigns of Hormozd IV (578-90) and Ḵosrow II Parvēz (590-628).

  • BAHRĀM-E GŌDARZ

    Dj. Khaleghi-Motlagh

    son of GŌDARZ, in the Šāh-nāma a hero in the reigns of Kay Kāōs and Kay Ḵosrow, renowned for his valiant service in all the wars.

  • BAHRĀMĪ SARAḴSĪ

    Z. Safa

    ABU’L-ḤASAN ʿALĪ, Persian poet and literary scholar, one of the many at the court at Ḡazna in the reigns of Sultan Maḥmūd (r. 998-1030) and his sons.

  • BAHRĀMĪ, FARAJ-ALLĀH

    M. Amānat

    (1878/79?-1951), DABĪR AʿẒAM, Reżā Shah’s personal secretary and an early supporter who played a key role in Reżā Shah’s control of absolute power.

  • BAHRĀMŠĀH B. MASʿŪD (III)

    C. E. Bosworth

    B. EBRĀHĪM, ABU’L-MOẒAFFAR, Ghaznavid sultan in eastern Afghanistan and northwestern India (r. 1117-1157?).

  • BAHRĀMŠĀH B. ṬOḠRELŠĀH

    Cross-Reference

    See SALJUQS OF KERMĀN.

  • BAHRĀMŠĀH SHROFF

    cross-reference

    See BEHRAMSHAH NAOROJI SHROFF.

  • BAḤRĀNĪ, AḤMAD

    E. Kohlberg

    B. MOḤAMMAD B. YŪSOF B. ṢĀLEḤ (d. 1690-91), described as the leading representative in his generation of Imami Shiʿite scholarship in Bahrain.

  • BAḤRĀNĪ, HĀŠEM

    W. Madelung

    B. SOLAYMĀN (d. 1695-96), Imami Shiʿite scholar and author. The number of his books and treatises is said to have approached seventy-five.

  • BAḤRĀNĪ, JAMĀL-AL-DĪN

    W. Madelung

    (also KAMĀL-AL-DĪN) ʿALĪ B. SOLAYMĀN SETRAWĪ, Imami Shiʿite scholar and philosopher inclining to mysticism (13th century).

  • BAḤRĀNĪ, YŪSOF

    E. Kohlberg

    B. AḤMAD B. EBRĀHĪM DERĀZĪ (b. 1695-96, d. 1772), Imami Shiʿite author and jurisprudent.

  • BAḤRAYN

    cross-reference

    See BAHRAIN.

  • BAḤRĪ, MAḤMŪD

    R. M. Eaton

    Sufi and poet of the Deccan (fl. late 17th century).

  • BAIDU

    Cross-Reference

    See BĀYDŪ.

  • BAIEV, GAPPO

    cross-reference

    See BAYATI, GAPPO.

  • BAILEY, HAROLD WALTER

    John Sheldon

    (1899-1996), one of the greatest scholars in the field of the comparative study of Iranian languages, especially notable for much ground-breaking work on the Middle Iranian Saka language of Khotan.

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  • BĀJ (1)

    A. V. Williams

    a principal Zoroastrian observance meaning primarily “utterance of consecration;” reference to bāj has been current in Mazdean literature since at least Sasanian times,

  • BĀJ (2)

    W. Floor

    a term denoting tribute to be paid by vassals to their overlord, in which sense it is also used as a generic term “tax,” or as referring to road tolls.

  • BĀJALĀN

    P. Oberling

    a Kurdish tribe in the dehestāns of Qūratū, Ḏohāb and Jagarlū in the šahrestān of Qaṣr-e Šīrīn, on the Iraqi border.

  • BĀJARVĀN

    C. E. Bosworth

    a town in the medieval Islamic province of Mūḡān, the area southwest of the Caspian Sea and south of the Kor (Kura) and Aras (Araxes) rivers.

  • BĀḴARZ

    C. E. Bosworth

    or Govāḵarz, a district of the medieval Islamic province of Qūhestān/Qohestān in Khorasan.

  • BĀḴARZĪ, ABU’L-QĀSEM ʿALĪ

    Z. Safa

    Iranian littérateur of the 11th century who composed poems in both Persian and Arabic, notable in the art of letter-writing (tarassol).

  • BAKHSHIEV MISHI

    M. Zand

    (1910-1972), Judeo-Tat author.

  • BAḴŠĪ

    P. Jackson

    a Buddhist lama or scholar, in particular during Mongol hegemony in Iran; subsequently, by extension, any kind of scribe or secretary.

  • BAḴT

    W. Eilers, S. Shaked

    “fate, destiny,” often with the positive sense of “good luck” (ḵᵛošbaḵtī).  i. The term.  ii. The concept.

  • BAḴTAGĀN LAKE

    E. Ehlers

    part of the Lake Nīrīz basin situated about 1,525 m above sea level in the province of Fārs, approximately 50 km east of Shiraz.  At present, it is common to divide the basin of the Nīrīz into a northern portion (daryāča-ye Ṭašk) and a larger southern part (daryāča-ye Baḵtagān).

  • BAḴTAK

    F. Gaffary

    a folkloric she-creature of horrible shape, personifying a nightmare. Baḵtak resembles the Āl, another “female devil” of Iranian folklore.

  • BĀḴTAR (1)

    A. Tafażżolī

    designation of the geographical “west” in Modern Persian, but its Pahlavi equivalent abāxtar means “north,” probably borrowed from Parthian.

  • BĀḴTAR (2)

    N. Parvīn

    name of an educational magazine (Isfahan, 1933-35) and a political newspaper (Isfahan and Tehran, 1935-45).

  • BĀḴTAR-E EMRŪZ

    ʿA. M. Š. Fāṭemī

    (Today’s West), daily evening newspaper published in Tehran, 1949-53. The editor-publisher Ḥosayn Fāṭemī (1917-1954) was one of the principal associates of Dr. Moḥammad Moṣaddeq in the National Front (Jebha-ye Mellī).

  • BAḴTĀVAR KHAN, MOḤAMMAD

    S. S. Alvi

    (1620?-85), historian and official at the court of the Mughal emperor Awrangzēb (r. 1658-1707) and a patron of literature.

  • BAḴTĪĀR, ABŪ ḤARB

    M. Dabīrsīāqī

    B. MOḤAMMAD, the patron of the poet Manūčehrī (d. 1040-41) who praised his bravery, nobility, magnanimity, learning, and eloquence.

  • BAḴTĪĀR, TEYMŪR

    S. Zabih

    (1914-1970), Iranian general. His meteoric rise to power began after the fall of Moṣaddeq in August, 1953, when he was called to Tehran, promoted to brigadier general, and put in charge of Tehran’s military governorship.

  • BAḴTĪĀR-NĀMA

    W. L. Hanaway, Jr.

    an example of early New Persian prose fiction in the form of a frame story and nine included tales, the earliest version of which seems to be from the late 12th-early 13th centuries.

  • BAḴTĪĀRĪ (1)

    ʿA.-A. Saʿīdī Sīrjānī, J.-P. Digard, ʿA.-Ḥ. Navāʾī

    the nesba of a number of Baḵtīārī chiefs in the 18th-20th centuries.

  • BAḴTĪĀRĪ (2)

    cross-reference

    in music, a gūša. See HOMĀYŪN.

  • BAḴTĪĀRĪ MOUNTAINS

    E. Ehlers

    The impressive basin-range-structure of the Baḵtīārī mountains, a result of the geological development of the Zagros system since late Cretaceous time and culminating in the orogenesis of Tertiary upfolding, is accentuated by the complicated and unique drainage system, which itself is the result of geology and topography.

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  • BAḴTĪĀRĪ TRIBE

    J.-P. Digard, G. L. Windfuhr, A. Ittig

    The traditional Baḵtīārī way of life is typical of the long-distance nomadism which evolved in the Zagros highlands from the thirteenth century onward, at first under the impact of the Mongol invasions, in a defensive reaction against increasing fiscal and administrative pressures experienced under successive Iranian régimes.

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  • BAḴTĪĀRĪS of AFGHANISTAN

    D. Balland

    two small Paṧtō-speaking groups in the eastern part of the Irano-Afghan area bearing the name Baḵtīārī or Baḵtīār.

  • BAKTOḠDĪ

    cross-reference

    See BEKTOḠDĪ.

  • BAKU

    S. Soucek, R. G. Suny

    (Pers. Bādkūba), capital city of the Republic of Azerbaijan and one of the chief ports on the Caspian sea.

  • BAKWĀ, DAŠT-E

    D. Balland

    an extensive piedmont alluvial plain in the southwest of Afghanistan, drained by one of the Sīstān rivers, the Ḵospāsrūd. In past times it enjoyed a measure of prosperity based on qanāt irrigation.

  • BĀLĀBĀN

    Ch. Albright

    a cylindrical-bore, double-reed wind instrument about 35 cm long with seven finger holes and one thumb hole, played in eastern Azerbaijan in Iran and in the Republic of Azerbaijan.

  • BALADĪYA

    N. Parvīn

    (Municipality), the name or part of the name of several newspapers and journals published in Iran and Afghanistan ca. 1907-39.

  • BALĀḎORĪ

    C. E. Bosworth

    ABU’L-ḤASAN or ABŪ BAKR AḤMAD B. YAḤYĀ B. JĀBER, leading Arab historian of the 9th century, whose Ketāb fotūḥ al-boldān, in particular, contains much original information on the Arab conquests of Iran.

  • BALĀḠAT

    J. T. P. de Bruijn

    (Ar. balāḡa), one of the most general terms to denote eloquence in speech and writing. The branches of literary criticism which developed within Muslim civilization became known collectively as the science (ʿelm) or art (ṣenāʿa) of balāḡat.

  • BALĀḠĪ, MOḤAMMAD-JAWĀD

    E. Kohlberg

    B. ḤASAN B. ṬĀLEB B. ʿABBĀS RABAʿĪ NAJAFĪ (d. 1933), Imami author, poet, and polemicist.

  • BALʿAMĪ, ABŪ ʿALĪ MOḤAMMAD

    cross-reference

    B. MOḤAMMAD. See AMĪRAK BALʿAMĪ.

  • BALʿAMĪ, ABU’L-FAŻL MOḤAMMAD

    C. E. Bosworth

    B. ʿOBAYD-ALLĀH B. MOḤAMMAD BALʿAMĪ TAMĪMĪ, vizier to the Samanid amir Naṣr b. Aḥmad (r. 913-42), father of the vizier and historian Amirak Baḷʿamī.

  • BĀLANG

    W. Eilers

    citron, the fruit of a species of citrus tree (Citrus medica cedrata). This article discusses the history of the word.

  • BALĀŠ

    M. L. Chaumont, K. Schippmann

    the name of a number of kings and several dignitaries and notables during the Parthian and Sasanian periods. The Parthian form of the name, the oldest, is Walagaš. In Middle Persian it is Wardāxš, in Pahlavi Walāxš.

  • BALĀSAGĀN

    M. L. Chaumont, C. E. Bosworth

     “country of the Balās,” designating a region located for the most part south of the lower course of the rivers Kor (Kura) and the Aras (Araxes), bordered on the south by Atropatene and on the east by the Caspian Sea.  i. In pre-Islamic times.  ii. In Islamic times.

  • BALĀSĀḠŪN

    C. E. Bosworth

    a town of Central Asia, in early Islamic times the main settlement of the region known as Yeti-su or Semirechye “the land of the seven rivers,” now mainly within the eastern part of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

  • BALĀSĀNĪ, MAJD-AL-MOLK ABU’L-FAŻL ASʿAD

    C. E. Bosworth

    B. MOḤAMMAD QOMĪ (d. 1099), mostawfī or financial intendant to the Saljuq sultan Berk-yaruq (Barkīāroq) b. Malekšāh and then vizier.

  • BĀLĀSARĪ

    D. M. MacEoin

    term used by the Shaikhis to distinguish ordinary Shiʿites from members of their own sect. The history of conflicts between the Shaikhi and Shiʿite communities is reviewed.

  • BĀLAVĪ

    cross-reference

    See BĀLAWĪ FAMILY.

  • BALAWASTE

    G. Gropp

    a ruin site in the eastern part of the Khotan oasis, near the village of Domoko. Fragments of manuscripts, pottery, and plaster were found at this site by Sir Mark Aurel Stein on his first and second expeditions in 1900.

  • BĀLAWĪ FAMILY

    R. W. Bulliet

    prominent scholars in Nīšāpūr in the 10th-11th centuries.

  • BĀLAYBALAN LANGUAGE

    C. G. Häberl

    an a priori constructed language combining elements of the grammar of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish, and known principally from a single text, a dictionary.

  • BALDARČĪN

    cross-reference

    See BELDERČĪN.

  • BĀLEḠ

    S. H. Amin

    Ar. “of full age, adult, mature,” in contrast to the term ṣaḡīr (minor): coming of age in Islamic law.

  • BALḴ

    X. de Planhol, C. E. Bosworth, V. Fourniau, D. Balland, F. Grenet

    Within this area and on the irrigated alluvial fan, at a distance of about 12 km from the mountains, the city was built on a site (the Bālā Ḥeṣār of today) which was probably coextensive with a slight rise in the plain and perhaps adjacent to an old arm of the river.

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  • BALḴĀB

    D. Balland

    (Bactros of the classical authors), the river of Balḵ. This perennial river is a major feature of the geography of northern Afghanistan.

  • BALḴĪ, ABŪ ʿALĪ ABD-ALLĀH

    H. Schützinger

    B. MOḤAMMAD B. ʿALĪ (d. 907-08), a traditionist (moḥaddeṯ) and author.

  • BALḴĪ, ABŪ ʿALĪ-MOḤAMMAD

    cross-reference

    B. AḤMAD. See ʿALĪ B. AḤMAD BALḴĪ.

  • BALḴI, ABU’L-MOʾAYYAD

    Cross-Reference

    See ABU’l-MOʾAYYAD BALḴI.

  • BALḴĪ, ABU’L-QĀSEM ʿABD-ALLĀH AḤMAD

    cross-reference

    B. AḤMAD. See ABU’L-QĀSEM KAʿBĪ.

  • BALUCHISTAN

    Multiple Authors

    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, and in the arid coastal lowlands between the Iranian plateau and the Gulf of Oman.