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BEČKA, JIŘI (b. Prague, 16 October 1915; d. Prague, 21 December 2004), a noted Czech scholar of Iran, Afghanistan, and particularly, Tajikistan. He began his studies at Charles University, Prague, in 1936, enrolling at the faculty of law while at the same time attending courses in Persian, Arabic, and Turkish…

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BEDIR KHAN (Badr Khan; d. 1867), last ruler of the principality of Cizre-Botan and by extension also the name of a well-known Kurdish clan that has played important political, social, and cultural roles in Kurdish history since the mid-13th/19th century. The princi­pality of Cizre-Botan was, like those of Bābān and…

BEDLĪS (Turk. Bitlis, Arm. Bałēš, Ar. Badlīs), town and province of Turkey, of Kurdish population, situated twenty km southwest of Lake Van, and commanding the passes between the Armenian highlands and the Mesopotamian lowlands (specifically, between Van and Dīārbakr (Diyarbekir). Šaraf Khan, writing in 1005/1596, says the town (qaṣaba) is…

BEDLĪSĪ, MAWLĀNĀ ḤAKĪM-AL-DĪN EDRĪS B. ḤOSĀM-AL-DĪN ʿALĪ (d. 926/1520), scholar, his­torian, poet, and statesman under the Ottoman Sultan Salīm I (916-26/1512-20). Edrīs was born and educated in Bedlīs, where his father, probably a Kurd, was a respected scholar and Sufi, a disciple of ʿAmmār b. Yāser. Edrīs became dīvān secretary…

BEDLĪSĪ, ŠARAF-AL-DĪN KHAN B. ŠAMS-AL-­DĪN B. ŠARAF BEG (949-1012/1543-1603-04?), chief of the Rūzagī tribe of Kurds, whose traditional center was the town of Bedlīs (q.v.) in eastern Anatolia (25 km southwest of the west shore of Lake Van) and author of the Šaraf-nāma, a history of the Kurds in Persian…

BEDLĪSĪ, ŻĪĀʾ-AL-DĪN ʿAMMĀR B. YĀSER B. MOḤAMMAD B. ʿAMMĀR (B. YĀSER) B. MAṬAR B. SAḤĀB ŠAYBĀNĪ, Sufi shaikh, d. between 590/1194 and 604/1207-08 (see Meier, introd., p. 20). A native of Bedlīs, he was a pupil of Abu’l-Najīb Soh­ravardī (d. 563/1168); both were Sunnites (Badeen, pp. 1-3). His own most…

BEDŽỊZATỊ (DAUỊTỊ FỊRT) ČERMEN (Russ.: Chermen Begizov), b. 4 January 1899 (old style, 23 December 1898), d. 20 January 1941, Ossetic writer. Čermen was born in South Ossetia, and received his education at the seminary of Tbilisi. After the establishment of Georgian Soviet power in 1921, he became a prominent…

BEECH, Fagus L. The species found in Iran was previously presented as the same as the common European beech, F. sylvatica L. (e.g., Parsa, IV, p. 1332, VIII, p. 80; Sāʿī, I, p. 164; and Bahrāmī, I, p. 413), but later investigation has proved it to be F. orientalis Lipsky…

BEET, Beta vulgaris L., commonly called čoḡondar in Persian (variant forms found in some older texts: čokondar/čogondar, čondar; cf. Māzandarānī čangel/čangol, and Arabicized forms sawandar, šawandar, šamandar banjar, etc., sometimes used instead of the older Ar. name selq). Our present cultivated čoḡondar, referring to several varieties of Beta vulgaris, is…

BEG (Pers. also beyg) and BEGOM. Beg is a Turkish title meaning “lord” or “chief,” later “prince,” equivalent to the Arabic-Persian amīr. The feminine form of beg is begom (in Mughal India begam) from Turkish begim “lady, princess.” The origin of beg is still disputed, though it is mostly agreed…

BEGGING, Pers. gadāʾī, takaddī (Ar. also kodya, takdīa), soʾāl. i. In the early centuries of the Islamic period. ii. In Sufi literature and practice. iii. In later Iran.   i. In the Early Centuries of the Islamic Period In early Islam, begging must have arisen in the first place from…

BEGLERBEGĪ (Pers. also -beygī), a Turkish title meaning “beg of begs,” “commander of commanders.” In the Il-khanid period it is sometimes employed in chronicles to designate the leading amir in the state, e.g., of Taḡačar (Ṭaḡājār) in 694/1295 (Waṣṣāf, Tajzīat al-­amṣar wa tazjīat al-aʿṣār, ed. Bombay, 1269/1853, p. 284); and…

BEGRĀM, the site of ancient Kāpiśa, is located 80.5 km north of Kabul overlooking the Panjšīr valley at the confluence of the Panjšīr and Ḡorband rivers. Its ruins were known in the 19th century and yielded large quantities of coins dating between the period of the Greco-Bactrians and that of…

BEGTOḠDÏ (Turkish, lit. “a prince has been born, has arisen,” Persian Baktoḡdī), Turkish slave com­mander of the Ghaznavid sultans Maḥmūd and Masʿūd, d. 431/1040. His career must have begun in the reign of Maḥmūd, though it is only in the time of his son Masʿūd (421-32/1031-41) that he achieved prominence…