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BĀLAYBALAN LANGUAGE (or Bālaïbalan, Bāl-a i-Balan, Bâleybelen), an a priori constructed language combining elements of the grammar of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish, and known principally from a single text, a dictionary. It is the earliest attested constructed language, and one of a very few that are not of European origin….

Search terms:  بلدرچین Balderchin    

BĀLEḠ, an Arabic term meaning full age, adult, mature, in contrast to the term ṣaḡīr (minor). According to various schools of Islamic law, including the Shiʿite school, there is a clear distinction between girls and boys attaining the age of majority. Presuming sanity, the age of bolūḡ (majority) for boys…

BALḴ, city and province in northern Afghanistan. i. Geography. ii. From the Arab conquest to the Mongols. iii. From the Mongols to modern times. iv. Modern town. v. Modern province. vi. Monuments. (For the ancient history of Balḵ, see BACTRIA.)   i. Geography The city of Bactra, later Balḵ, owed…

BALḴĀB (Bactros of the classical authors), the river of Balḵ (locally pronounced Balḵaw). This perennial river is a major feature of the geography of northern Afghanistan. The 4th/10th-century geographers Eṣṭaḵrī (p. 278) and Ebn Ḥawqal (p. 488, tr. Kramers, p. 433) call it the Dah-ās (ten-mills) river, because a total…

BALḴĪ, ABŪ ʿALĪ ABD-ALLĀH B. MOḤAMMAD B. ʿALĪ, a traditionist (moḥaddeṯ) and author. The date of his birth is not known, but may be placed around 220/835-225/840 because one of his teachers, Qotayba b. Saʿīd Abū Rajāʾ Ṯaqafī Balḵī, died at Baḡlān near Balḵ in 240/854. Also mentioned as Abū…

Search terms:  بلخی، ابو علی محمد balkhi abou ali mohammad balkhy abou ali mohammad   

BALUCHISTAN i. Geography, History and Ethnography. ii. Archeology. iii. Baluchi Language and Literature. iiia. Baluchi Poetry. iv. Music of Baluchistan. v. Baluch Carpets.

Baluchistan Ḏekr title Baluchistan Ḏekr genre/topic Ḏekr language   performer   instrument Sorud; Tamburak; Voice composer   author/poet   first line of poem Lā ellāhe ellā ‘llāh recorded by   place of recording   date of recording   duration 1:35 source Voices from the Land of Iran. An Anthology of…

BALUCHISTAN i. Geography, History, and Ethnography This article is divided into the following sections: 1. introductory review of problems in the history and ethnography of the Baluch, i.e., the present-day inhabitants of Baluchistan; 2. geography; 3. the origins of the Balōč, i.e., the people who brought the name into the…

8. The British period, 1839-1947. The next hundred years saw an explosion of publications on the Baluch and Baluchistan. The information was produced through the interest of the neighboring powers, who finally achieved a definitive division of the area into three separate provinces of the adjacent nation-states. Early in the…

BALUCHISTAN ii. Archeology The archeological record of Iranian Baluchistan, in the southeastern corner of Iran, is very limited. Although early travelers often described the region’s antiquities, the first significant archeological research was done by Sir Marc Aurel Stein during the early 1930s. His efforts focused on the Bampūr valley, where…

BALUCHISTAN iii. Baluchi Language and Literature Baluchi (Balōčī), the language of the Baluch (Balōč), is a member of the Western Iranian group of languages, bearing affinities to both main representatives of Western Middle Iranian: Middle Persian and Parthian. Baluchi has, however, a marked individuality of its own, and differs from…