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BASKERVILLE, HOWARD C., a teacher at the American mission in Tabrīz, killed April 19,1909, at the age of 25 in a sally during the siege of Tabrīz. A graduate of Princeton University (B.A., 1907), he arrived to teach science and English under a two-year contract at the Memorial School of…

BĀSMA (also bāṣma, basma,and baṣma), a Turkish word which originally referred to a design applied (with an etching stylus, a wooden block press known as a qāleb-e taḵtāʾī, etc.) in ink, silver and gold foil, and the like to paper, cloth, and other such materials. It is similar in type…

BASRA (Ar. al-Baṣra), town located near the Šaṭṭ al-ʿArab river in southern Iraq, a predominantly Arab town possessing a rich political, cultural, and economic history. This article concentrates mainly on describing the town’s many significant ties with Iran. Foundation and early history. Basra was initially established in about 17/638 as…

BASSĀM-e KORD, the Kharijite (fl. mid-3rd/9th century), one of the first poets in the New Persian language, active at the court of the Saffarids. The epithet “Kord” (spelled Kūrd in the Tārīḵ-e Sīstān)apparently meant “shepherd” and does not seem to have any connection with the western Iranian tribes who came…

BAŠŠĀR-e MARḠAZĪ (possibly Bešgar; see Bahār, I, p. 378 n. 1), a Persian poet of the 4th/10th century, apparently from Marv in Khorasan. No in­formation about his career has come down. Reżāqolī Khan Hedāyat (Majmaʿ al-foṣaḥāʾ I, p. 440) mistook him for the famous Arabic poet of Iranian extraction Baššār…

BAST (sanctuary, asylum), the designation of cer­tain sanctuaries in Iran that are considered inviolable and were often used by people seeking refuge (bast nešastan, bast-nešīnī)from prosecution (even common criminals), called bastīs.The word is probably derived from OIr. (OPers., Av.) upastā-“help, assistance,” cf. Mid. Pers. apastām “reliance,” Arm. lw. apastan “ref­uge,…

BASTANEGĀR, a gūša in the instrumental repertory (radīf) of classical Persian music. The term appears for the first time in the treatise of Ṣafī-al-Dīn Ormavī where it is defined as one of the maqāms more common­ly known as Eṣfahānak or Gavāšt/Gavešt (Wright, p. 62-63). Its scale was: G Ap Sip…

Bastenegār title Bastanegār genre/topic Radif for Tār and Setār, Dastgāh-e Čahārgāh, guša Bastanegār language   performer ‘Ali-Akbar Šahnāzi instrument Tār composer Āqā Hosayn Qoli, Radif author/poet   first line of poem   recorded by   place of recording   date of recording 1962 duration 0:39 source Radif of Āqā Hosayn…

BASTŪR (Mid. Pers. Bastwar, Av. Bastauuairi), a hero of the Iranian national epic, son of Zarēr, King Goštāsp’s brother. In the Avesta Bastauuairi is men­tioned once (Yt. 13.103) when his fravaši is praised together with that of the other members of Goštāsp’s house, who were the first followers of Zoroaster….

BĀṬĀS, a village in Iraq on the Arbīl-Ravāndūz highway, center of the Ḥarīr subdistrict (nāḥīa) of Arbīl province. To the northeast of the village a rock relief, no longer in good preservation, stands on the cliff wall of the long valley some 80 m above the floor. It was discovered…

BĀṬEN (inner, hidden), the opposite of ẓāher (outer, visible). Both can be predicated of living beings; in the Koran (57:3) God is al-ẓāher wa’l-bāṭen. Most frequently, however, bāṭen or ẓāher is associated with the concept ʿelm (knowledge). There are two ways in which knowledge can be hidden: (1) If it…

BĀṬENĪYA, a generic term for all groups and sects which distinguished the bāṭen and the ẓāher of the Koran and the Islamic law (Šarīʿa). The Arabic word bāṭen (inner, hidden, q.v.) was used to denote non-literal meanings of Koranic verses and Islamic legal commands and prohibitions, its opposite, the Arabic…

BATHHOUSES (ḥammām, garmāba) i. General. ii. The layout of rural bath structures. i. General Pre-Islamic Iran. Bathhouses existed prior to the Islamic period in the Iranian cultural area. However, their number seems to have been limited due to the Zoroastrian religion’s reverence for the holy element of water. This may…

BĀTMAN, a measure of weight, the same as mann (q.v.) but more common in Central Asia, especially in modern times. The earliest information about bātman goes back to the 14th century; but most data are from the 17th-19th centuries. There was a great variety of bātmans in different regions of…