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BAKWĀ, DAŠT-E, an extensive piedmont alluvial plain in the southwest of Afghanistan. Lying at about 700-750 m above sea level, it is drained by one of the Sīstān rivers, the Ḵospāsrūd, which may perhaps have taken over an old bed of the Ḵāšrūd (J. Pias, Formations superficielles et sols d’Afghanistan,…

BĀLĀBĀN, 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 [the former Soviet Azerbaijan] (where it is also called düdük). This instrument can be made of mulberry or other harder…

BALADĪYA (Municipality), the name or part of the name of several municipal newspapers and journals published in Iran and Afghanistan ca. 1907-39. They include, in order of their dates of publication: 1. Qāsem al-aḵbār-e baladyīa, a weekly, one-page Persian newspaper lithographed in Tehran and edited by Mīrzā Abu’l-Qāsem Khan Hamadānī,…

BALĀḎORĪ, ABU’L-ḤASAN or ABŪ BAKR AḤMAD B. YAḤYĀ B. JĀBER, leading Arab historian of the 3rd/9th century, whose Ketāb fotūḥ al-boldān, in particular, contains much original and indispensable information on the Arab conquests of Iran. Life. The exact details of Balāḏorī’s life are shadowy, but he was probably born at,…

BALĀḠAT (Arabic balāḡa), one of the most general terms to denote eloquence in speech and writing. Its etymology is usually based on the meaning “to reach” of the verb balaḡa. Therefore baloḡa “to be eloquent” is taken to mean: to be able “to convey” the intended meaning effectively, and in…

BALĀḠĪ, MOḤAMMAD-JAWĀD B. ḤASAN B. ṬĀLEB B. ʿABBĀS RABAʿĪ NAJAFĪ, Imami author, poet, and polemicist. Born in Najaf in 1282/1865-66 (or, less probably, in 1285/1868-69 or 1280/1863-64) to a well-known family of scholars, he spent his early years at his birthplace (except for a sojourn in Kāẓemayn between 1306/1888-89 and…

BĀLANG, citron, the fruit of a species of citrus tree (Citrus medica cedrata). The candied unripe fruit is an article of commerce under various names; in Europe it is used as a flavoring in cakes, particularly Christmas cakes. In modern Iran, chiefly in Gīlān and Māzandarān, a tasty jam called…

BALĀŠ, 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. The forms Walāš, Balāš, and even Golāš, attested especially in New Persian…

BALĀSAGĀN (Ar. Balāsajān, Balāšajān; Armenian Bałasakan), an Iranian toponym in -agān (-akān) “country of the Balās),” designating a region located for the most part south of the lower course of the rivers Kor (Kura, Gk. Kyros, Lat. Cyrus) and the Aras (Araxes), bordered on the south by Atropatene and on…

BALĀSĀḠŪN, 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 coming mainly within the eastern part of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The exact site of Balāsāḡūn is uncertain. Barthold, followed by subsequent…

BALĀSĀNĪ, MAJD-AL-MOLK ABUʾL-FAŻL ASʿAD B. MOḤAMMAD QOMĪ, mostawfī or financial intendant to the Saljuq sultan Berk-yaruq (Barkīāroq) b. Malekšāh in the early years of the latter’s reign and then, from 490/1097 until his death in 492/1099, vizier to that monarch. The nesba also appears in the form Barāvestānī, from the name…

BĀLĀSARĪ, term popularly used to distinguish ordinary Shiʿites from members of the Shaikhi sect. The distinction is sometimes expressed by the alternative formulae of “Shaikhi/Motašarreʿ” and “Shaikhi/Oṣūlī,” the latter example implying a continuity between Aḵbārī Shiʿism and Shaikhism. The Shaikhi school itself was also known in the early period by…

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BALAWASTE, a ruin site in the eastern part of the Khotan oasis, near the village of Domoko. Fragments of manuscripts (given the signature DK = Domoko), pottery, and plaster were found at this site by Sir Marc Aurel Stein on his first and second expeditions in 1900 and 1906. On…

BĀLAWĪ, prominent Nīšāpūr family of the 4th/10th and 5th/11th centuries. Aḥmad b. ʿAbd-Allāh b. Aḥmad b. Bālūya (whence the family name Bālawī) had five sons all named Moḥammad but with different konyas. What little is recorded about them establishes that their social origins were commercial. They are called brokers and…