i. General The earliest dated reference in lexicography to berenj occurs in Adīb Kordī Nīšāpūrī’s Arabic-Persian dictionary Ketāb al-balāḡa, completed…

BARGOSTVĀN, armor, specifically horse armor, a distinctive feature of Iranian warfare from very early times on. The earliest known chamfron…

BANNERS (ʿalam, derafš). In the earliest surviving Persian lexicon, the Loḡat-e fors (ed. Dabīrsīāqī, p. 70), Asadī Ṭusī glosses the…

BĀBĀ ḤĀTEM, 5/11th-century mausoleum in northern Afghanistan, popularly known as Bābā Ḥātom, at some 40 miles west of Balḵ (A….

ASADALLĀH EṢFAHĀNĪ, a signature borne by hundreds of fine blades, which is occasionally followed by dates ranging from the 17th…

BUDDHISM ii. In Islamic Times The Muslim conquerors of eastern Iran, Afghanistan, and Transoxania in the mid-8th century found Bud­dhism…

BRAZIER (Pers. ātašdān “receptacle for fire,” Ar. Pers. manqal, lit. “means of carrying or transporting”), a “pan or stand for…