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BAḠDĀDĪ, ʿABD-AL-QĀHER B. ṬĀHER ŠĀFEʿĪ TAMĪMĪ (ca. 350/961-429/1038), mathematician, Shafeʿite jurist and Asḥʿarite theologian. He was born in Baghdad, the son of a wealthy merchant by the name of Ṭāher b. Moḥammad b. ʿAbd-Allāh b. Ebrāhīm (cf. Taʾrīḵ Baḡdād IX, p. 358 n. 4923; Sobkī, Ṭabaqāt2 V, pp. 51ff.). Early…

BAGHDAD i. The Iranian Connection: Before the Mongol Invasion Baghdad, whose official name was originally Madīnat-al-Salām, the City of Peace, was founded in 145/762 by the second ʿAbbasid caliph, Abū Jaʿfar al-Manṣūr as his official capital. From this time until the sack of the city in 656/1258 by the Mongols,…

BAGHDAD ii. From the Mongol Invasion to the Ottoman Occupation. Baghdad on the eve of the Mongol invasion. The Mongol capture of Baghdad in 1258 came at a time when Persian influence was on the rise but the city as a whole in decline. The Persian influence had increased in…

BAGHDAD PACT, popular name for the 1955 pro-Western defense alliance between Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, and the United Kingdom. At the height of the Cold War, the Middle East, with strategic bases bordering the Soviet Union, vital communications links, and significant oil wealth, represented a valuable region for Western interests….

BAGINA, BAGINAPATI, reconstructed Old Iranian words. The first designates a temple housing a cult image (from baga- “god,” “image of a god” + suffix -ina- “belonging to”); the second, the master of such a temple. The form and meaning of both words are obvious from their descendants in various Middle…

BAḠLĀN, place name in northeastern Afghanistan. i. Kushan period. ii. Modern province. iii. Modern town.   i. Kushan Period The name originally derives from the Bactrian bagolango “image-temple” (< OIr. *baga-dānaka-), a term used in the inscription of Nokonzoko (SK4) from the archeological site of Surkh (Sorḵ) Kotal in Afghanistan....

BAGLEY, FRANK RONALD CHARLES (b. 15 October 1915, Cheshire, England/d. 7 August 1997, Kent, England; Figure 1), British diplomat, translator, and professor of Persian and Arabic at Durham University and McGill University. Bagley was born into an affluent and highly educated family in Cheshire, England. Late in the 1910s, he…

BAGŌAS, the Greek name of two eunuchs from the Achaemenid period. 1. The chief eunuch and general under Artaxerxes III. He played a prominent role in court affairs, being the most trusted friend of Artaxerxes III (Diodorus Siculus, 16.47.4). During the reconquest of the rebellious Egypt in 343 B.C. Bagōas…

BAGRATIDS, possibly the most important princely dynasty of Caucasia (Bagratuni in Armenia, Bagrationi in Georgia), attaining to the kingly status in the ninth century and retaining it in Georgia to the nineteenth. Like the House of Artsruni they were an offshoot of the Orontids, Achaemenian satraps and, later, kings of…

BAHĀDOR, a Turco-Mongol honorific title, attached to a personal name, signifying “hero, valiant warrior.” In the form baḡatur (from which bahādor derives) the term was in use among the steppe peoples to the north and west of China as early as the seventh century, according to the history of the…

BAHĀDOR JANG, AMIR,  ḤOSAYN PASHA KHAN, the head of the royal guards (kešīkčībāšī) and minister of court under Moẓaffar-al-Dīn Shah (r. 1313-24/1896-1907) and the head of the royal guards and minister of war (sepahsālār-e aʿẓam) under Moḥammad-ʿAlī Shah Qājār (r. 1324-27/1907-09). Born (ca. 1271/1855) into a family of military tradition…

Search terms:  بهادرخان bahador khan bahaador jang bahaadour jang bahadour khan      

  Search terms:  بهادرشاه bahador shah  bahaadour shah bahaadour shaah bahadour shah        

BAHAISM  or Bahai Faith, a religion founded in the nineteenth century by the Iranian notable Bahāʾ-Allāh (commonly Baháʾulláh or Bahāʾullāh in Western works) that grew out of the Iranian messianic movement of Babism and developed into a world religion with internationalist and pacifist emphases. i. The Faith. ii. Bahai Calendar and Festivals….

BAHAISM xiii. Bahai Pioneers “Pioneer” (in English) and mohājer (in Persian: migrant, pl. mohājerin) are terms used in Bahai literature to designate those who leave their homes to settle in another locality with the intention of spreading the Bahai faith or supporting existing Bahai communities. The Bahai faith does not…