Table of Contents

• BAAT

  N. Sims-Williams, J. Russell

  an Iranian middle personal name; Baat is the name of a disciple of Mani mentioned in the Coptic “crucifixion narrative”. The word is borrowed in Armenian in the form “Bat” which translates to the name of the “nahapet” (family head).

• BĀB (1)

  D. M. MacEoin

  “door, gate, entrance,” a term of varied application in Shiʿism and related movements.

• BĀB (2)

  H. Algar

  Title given to certain Sufi shaikhs of Central Asia.

• BĀB AL-ABWĀB

  cross-reference

  Ancient city in Dāḡestān on the western shore of the Caspian Sea, located at the entrance to the narrow pass between the Caucasus foothills and the sea. See DARBAND (1).

• BĀB AL-BĀB

  cross-reference

  Shaikhi ʿālem who became the first convert to Babism, provincial Babi leader in Khorasan, and organizer of Babi resistance in Māzandarān (1814-49). See BOŠRŪʾĪ.

• BĀB, ʿAli Moḥammad Širāzi

  D. M. MacEoin

  (1819-1850), the founder of Babism, from a mercantile family with activities in Shiraz and Būšehr.

• BĀB-E FARḠĀNĪ

  cross-reference

  title given to certain Sufi shaikhs of Central Asia. See BĀB (2).

• BĀB-E HOMĀYŪN

  A. Sh. Shahbazi

  name of a gate and its connecting street in the Qajar citadel of Tehran. Once known as “Sardar Almasiya”, the gate was renamed to Bab-E Homayun and rebuilt as a two-storied structure.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• BĀB-E MĀČĪN

  cross-reference

  title given to certain Sufi shaikhs of Central Asia. See BĀB (2).

• BĀBĀ AFŻAL-AL-DĪN

  William Chittick

  (d. ca. 1213-14) poet and author of philosophical works in Persian. His works suggest a disdain for officials, and his tomb in Maraq is still a place of pilgrimage.

• BĀBĀ BEG

  cross-reference

  See JŪYĀ.

• BĀBĀ FAḠĀNI

  Z. Safa

  Persian poet of the 15th and 16th centuries, who wrote under his last name and also the pen-name Sakkaki.

• BĀBĀ FARĪD

  Cross-Reference

  a major Shaikh of the Češtīya mystic order, born in the last quarter of the 12th century in Kahtwāl near Moltān, Punjab. See GANJ-E ŠAKAR, Farid-al-Din Masʿud.

• BĀBĀ ḤĀTEM

  A. S. Melikian-Chirvani

  11th-century mausoleum in northern Afghanistan, some 40 miles west of Balḵ. It follows the simple plan of the earliest Islamic mausoleums in the Iranian world—a single square room with a cupola resting on squinches.

• BĀBĀ JĀN ḴORĀSĀNI

  Priscilla Soucek

  16th-century calligrapher, poet, and craftsman, also known as Ḥāfeẓ Bābā Jān Torbatī.

• BĀBĀ JĀN TEPE

  R. C. Henrickson

  an archeological site in northeastern Luristan, on the southern edge of the Delfān plain, near Nūrābād, important primarily for excavations conducted by C. Goff from 1966 to 1969.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• BĀBĀ KUHI

  M. Kasheff

  popular name of Shaikh Abū ʿAbdallāh Moḥammad b. ʿAbdallāh b. ʿObaydallāh Bākūya Šīrāzī, Sufi of the 10th-11th centuries.

• BĀBĀ ŠAMAL

  L. P. Elwell-Sutton

  a weekly satirical periodical, 1943-45, founded by Reżā Ganjaʾī. It was impartially opposed to all foreign intervention and influence in Iran. It had a wide circulation and dealt with the political issues of the day.

• BĀBĀ SAMMĀSĪ

  H. Algar

  (d. 1354), Central Asian Sufi of the line known as selsela-ye ḵᵛājagān (line of the masters) which was inaugurated by Ḵᵛāja Abu Yaʿqūb Hamadānī.

• BĀBĀ SANKŪ

  H. Algar

  ecstatic Central Asian dervish of disorderly habits, contemporary with Timur (d. 1405) and one of several Sufis with whom Timur chose to associate for reasons of state.

• BĀBĀ SHAH ESFAHĀNI

  Pricilla Soucek

  calligrapher and poet who lived in Isfahan and Baghdad where he died in 1587-1588. He was a famous nastaʿlīq script writer.

• BĀBĀ ṬĀHER ʿORYĀN

  L. P. Elwell-Sutton

  medieval dervish poet from the area of Hamadān, best known for his do-baytīs, quatrains composed  in a simpler meter still widely used for popular verse.

• BĀBĀ-YE DEHQĀN

  Anna Krasnowolska

  a mythological and ritual character whose cult has been reported in agrarian communities of mountainous and lowland Tajikistan, northern Afghanistan, and adjacent countries.

• BĀBĀʾĪ BEN FARHĀD

  Amnon Netzer

  18th-century author of a versified history of the Jews of Kāšān with brief references to the Jews of Isfahan and one or two other towns.

• BĀBĀʾĪ BEN LOṬF

  Amnon Netzer

  Jewish poet and historian of Kāšān during the first half of the 17th century (d. after 1662).

• BĀBĀʾĪ BEN NŪRĪʾEL

  Amnon Netzer

  rabbi (ḥāḵām) from Isfahan;  at the behest of Nāder Shah Afšār (r. 1736-47), he translated the Pentateuch and the Psalms of David from Hebrew into Persian.

• BABĀJĀʾĪ

  Cross-Reference

  See KURDISTAN TRIBES.

• BĀBAK (1)

  R. N. Frye

  (Mid. Pers. Pāpak, Pābag), a ruler of Fārs at the beginning of the third century, father of Ardašīr, the founder of the Sasanian dynasty.  

• BĀBAK

  Touraj Daryaee

  reformer of the Sasanian military and in charge of the department of the warriors (Diwān al-moqātela) during the reign of Ḵosrow I Anušervān in the 6th century CE. 

• BĀBAK ḴORRAMI

  Ḡ. -Ḥ. Yūsofī

  leader of the Ḵorramdīnī or Ḵorramī uprising in Azerbaijan in the early 9th century (d. 838), which engaged the forces of the caliph for 20 years before it was crushed in 837.

• BĀBAKĪYA

  Cross-Reference

  See ḴORRAMĪS.

• BABAN

  C. E. Bosworth

  (or Bavan), a small town in the medieval Islamic province of Bāḏḡīs, to the north and west of Herat.

• BĀBĀN

  W. Behn

  (or Baban), Kurdish princely family in Solaymānīya, ruling an area in Iraqi Kurdistan and western Iran (17th—19th centuries) and actively involved in the Perso-Ottoman struggles.

• BĀBĀN DYNASTY

  Cross-Reference

  See ĀL-E BĀBĀN.

• BĀBAY

  A. Vööbus

  catholicos of the Persian Church elected at the synod at Seleucia in 497 (d. 502).

• BĀBAY OF NISIBIS

  N. Sims-Williams

  Christian Syriac writer who flourished about the beginning of the seventh century CE; a homily of his is attested in Sogdian.

• BĀBAY THE GREAT

  A. Vööbus

  (d. 628), abbot and prominent leader in the Nestorian church in Iran under Ḵosrow II.

• BĀBEL

  Cross-Reference

  See BABYLON.

   

• BABILLA, ASHUR BANIPAL IBRAHIM

  Khosro Shayesteh

  In acting also, just as did Artaud, Bani placed heavy emphasis on invoking deeply rooted feelings of the actors and argued that “while actors are wearing masks in their daily lives, in theater, these masks are torn off and we are facing the inner self of the actor.”

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• BĀBIRUŠ

  Cross-Reference

  See BABYLON.

• BABISM

  D. M. MacEoin

  a 19th-century messianic movement in Iran and Iraq under the overall charismatic leadership of Sayyed ʿAlī-Moḥammad Šīrāzī, the Bāb (1819-1850). Babism was the only significant millenarian movement in Shiʿite Islam during the 19th century.

• BABISM iii. Babism in Neyriz

  Hussein Ahdieh

  In 1850, Sayyed Yaḥyā Dārābi, a Babi named as Waḥid arrived in Neyriz, a town in Fars south of Iran. There was a violent confrontation between those who had converted to Babism and the governor of Neyriz. There were more periods of friendly relations with Bahais and Muslims as well as mayhem to come.

• BĀBŌĒ

  A. Vööbus

  catholicos (d. 481 or 484), orthodox leader of the Christian church in Iran under Pērōz, one of Barṣaumā’s chief opponents. 

• BĀBOL

  Multiple Authors

  town in Māzandarān, formerly Bārforūš.

• BĀBOL ii. Islamic Monuments

  S. Blair

  Once the largest town in Māzandarān, Bābol was the site of numerous monuments, including mosques, quarters, madrasas, takias, shrines and so on; Yet today only two small ninth/fifteenth-century emāmzādas are classified as historical monuments.

• BĀBOL iii. Population, 1956-2011

  Mohammad Hossein Nejatian

  This article deals with the following population characteristics of Bābol city: population growth from 1956 to 2011, age structure, average household size, literacy rate, and economic activity status.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• BĀBOL i. The Town

  X. de Planhol

  a small, local market-place, as indicated by its original name, Bārforūš; The settlement developed in early Safavid times on the site of the old town of Māmṭīr, and was favored by Shah ʿAbbās who built a garden there, Bāḡ-e Šāh or Bāḡ-e Eram.

• BĀBOLSAR

  X. de Planhol

  town on the Caspian coast in the province of Māzandarān.

• BĀBOR, ABUʾL-QĀSEM MĪRZĀ

  M. E. Subtelny

  Timurid prince (1422-1457), the youngest son of Bāysonqor and a great-grandson of the conqueror Tīmūr.

• BĀBOR, ẒAHĪR-AL-DĪN MOḤAMMAD

  F. Lehmann

  (1483-1530), Timurid prince, military genius, and literary craftsman, founder of the Mughal Empire in India.

• BĀBORĪ

  D. Balland

  (or Bābor, Bābar; sing. Bāboray), a Paṧtūn tribe originally from the Solaymān mountains, now widely dispersed.

• BABR

  P. Joslin

  “tiger.” The little evidence suggests only tentative differences between the Caspian tiger (Panthera tigris virgata) and the Indian tiger (P. t. tigris) or the Siberian tiger (P. t. altaica).

• BABR-E BAYĀN

  Dj. Khaleghi-Motlagh

  (or babr, also called palangīna), in the traditional history, the name of the coat which Rostam wore in combat.

• BABYLON

  G. Cardascia

  The economic and cultural history of Babylon under the Persian Achaemenids rule matched the vicissitudes of its political life.

• BABYLONIA

  Multiple Authors

  ancient state in southern Mesopotamia, present-day Iraq.

• BABYLONIA i. History of Babylonia in the Median and Achaemenid periods

  M. A. Dandamayev

  The Medes, under their king Cyaxares, first seized the Assyrian province of Arrapha in 614 B.C. Then, in the autumn of the same year, and after a fierce battle, they gained control of Assyria’s ancient capital, Assur. Nabopolassar brought his Babylonian army and joined the Medes after Assur had fallen.

• BABYLONIA ii. Babylonian Influences on Iran

  G. Gnoli

  In the Achaemenid period, the influence of Babylonia was strong in the fields of the arts, science, religion, and religious policies, even affecting the concept of kingship.

• BABYLONIAN CHRONICLES

  M. Dandamayev

  as sources for Iranian history. In a number of cases Babylonian chronicles provide valuable information about the political history of Iran. They began with the reign of Nabu-nāṣir (747-734 BCE) and continued as far as the reign of Seleucus II (245-226 BCE).

• BAČČA-YE SAQQĀ

  D. Balland

  “the water-carrier’s child,” the derogatory name given to the leader of a peasants’ revolt which succeeded in placing him on the throne of Afghanistan in 1929.

• BACHER, WILHELM

  A. Netzer

  (1850-1913), Hungarian scholar of Persian and Judeo-Persian language and literature.

• BACKGAMMON

  Cross-Reference

  See NARD.

• BACTRA

  Cross-Reference

  See BACTRIA i; BALKH vi.

• BACTRIA

  P. Leriche, F. Grenet

  Little information has been obtained from Achaemenid sites in Bactria. Bactra is deeply buried under the citadel (bālā-ḥeṣār) of present-day Balḵ. Drapsaca and Aornos, mentioned by the historians of Alexander, are usually identified with Kondūz and Tashkurgan, where excavations have yet to begin.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• BACTRIAN LANGUAGE

  N. Sims-Williams

  The Iranian language of ancient Bactria (northern Afghanistan) of the Kushan period is the only Middle Iranian language whose writing system is based on the Greek alphabet.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• BĀD (1)

  X. de Planhol

  “wind.” On the plateau of Iran and Afghanistan winds depend on a general regime of atmospheric pressures characterized, in the course of the year, by the succession of markedly distinct seasons with relatively stable barometric gradients.

• BĀD (2)

  L. Richter-Bernburg

  (“wind”) in Perso-Islamic medicine: 1. wind as a medically relevant environmental factor; 2. “airiness” as internal physiological and pathological agent.

• BADʾ WAʾL-TAʾRĪḴ

  M. Morony

  (The book of creation and history), an encyclopedic compilation of religious, historical, and philosophical knowledge written in Arabic by Abū Naṣr Moṭahhar b. al-Moṭahhar (or Ṭāher) Maqdesī in 966.

• BĀDA

  J. W. Clinton

  one of several terms used in Persian poetry to mean wine, and, by extension, any intoxicating liquor.  

• BADĀʾ

  W. Madelung

  (Ar. appearance, emergence), as a theological term denotes a change of a divine decision or ruling in response to the emergence of new circumstances.  It is upheld in Imami Shiʿite doctrine.

• BADAḴŠĀN

  X. de Planhol, D. Balland, W. Eilers

  This highland has an extremely harsh climate. The annual rainfall, which can be as much as 800 to 1,500 mm on west-facing and northwest-facing massifs, falls to less than 200 mm on sheltered plateaus in the Pamir and less than 100 mm in the Oksu basin, with the result that these areas are highland deserts.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• BADAḴŠĀNI, Sayyed SOHRĀB WALI

  Farhad Daftary

  the most prominent Central Asian Nezāri Ismaʿili theologian and author of the early centuries after the fall of Alamut.

• BADAḴŠĪ SAMARQANDĪ

  Z. Safa

  the poet laureate (malek-al-šoʿarāʾ) of the Timurid Mīrzā Uluḡ Beg (murdered 1449).

• BADAḴŠĪ, MOLLĀ SHAH

  H. Algar

  (also known as Shah Moḥammad; 1584-1661), a mystic and writer of the Qāderī order, given both to the rigorous practice of asceticism and to the ecstatic proclamation of theopathic sentiment.

• BADAL

  Cross-Reference

  See PAṦTŪNWĀLĪ.

• BĀDĀM

  X. de Planhol, N. Ramazani

  “almond.”  i. General.  ii. As food.  The genus Amygdalus is very common in Iran and Afghanistan and throughout the Turco-Iranian area.

• BĀDĀN B. SĀSĀN

  Cross-Reference

  See ABNĀʾ.

• BĀDĀN PĪRŪZ

  Cross-Reference

  See ARDABĪL.

• BADAŠT

  M. Momen

  small village of about 1,000 inhabitants, site of a conference  convened on the instructions of the Bāb in 1848.

• BADĀʾŪNĪ, ʿABD-AL-QĀDER

  A. S. Bazmee Ansari

  (1540-ca. 1615), polyglot man of letters, historian, and translator of Arabic and Sanskrit works into Persian during the reign of the Mughal emperor Akbar.

• BĀDĀVARD

  Dj. Khaleghi-Motlagh

  (windfall), the name of one of the seven treasures of Ḵosrow Parvēz in the Šāh-nāma.

• BADĀYEʿ

  Cross-Reference

  collection of ḡazals by Saʿdī. See SAʿDĪ.

• BADĀYEʿNEGĀR, ĀQĀ MOḤAMMAD-EBRĀHĪM

  Cross-Reference

  See NAWWĀB-E TEHRĀNĪ.

• BAḎḎ

  Ḡ. -Ḥ. Yūsofī

  or BAḎḎAYN (perhaps two places), a mountainous region (kūra) in Azerbaijan, site of the castle  headquarters of Bābak Ḵorramī during his revolt against the ʿAbbasid caliphate (816-37).

• BĀDENJĀN

  F. Aubaile-Sallenave, ʿE. Elāhī

  “eggplant, aubergine.” Solanum melogena L. of the Solanaceae family. i. The plant.  ii. Uses of cooking.

• BĀDGĪR

  S. Roaf

  (wind-tower), literally “wind catcher,” a traditional structure used for passive air-conditioning of buildings. Yazd is known as šahr-e bādgīrhā (the city of wind catchers) and is renowned for the number and variety of them, some of which date from the Timurid period.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• BĀḎḠĪS

  C. E. Bosworth, D. Balland

  During the first century of Islam, Bāḏḡīs passed into Arab hands, together with Herat and Pūšang, around 652-53, under the caliph ʿOṯmān, for already in that year there is mentioned a rebellion against the Arabs by an Iranian noble Qāren, followed by further unrest in these regions in 661-62.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• BĀDHĀ ḴABAR AZ TAḠYIR-e FAṢL MIDĀDAND

  Soheila Saremi

  (The winds presaged the changing of season), novel by the fiction writer and literary critic, Jamal Mirsadeqi. Set in the 1960s in Tehran, it revolves around the novel’s narrator and his friends and neighbors, of poverty-stricken families.

  This Article Has Images/Tables.

• BADĪʿ (1)

  J. T. P. de Bruijn

  rhetorical embellishment. During the early Islamic period the word developed into a technical term through its use in discussions about Arabic poetry and ornate prose.

• BADĪʿ (2)

  D. M. MacEoin

  designation of the calendar system of Babism and Bahaism, originally introduced by the Bāb.

• BADĪʿ BALḴĪ

  Z. Safa

  Persian poet of the 10th century.

• BADĪʿ KĀTEB JOVAYNĪ, MOḤAMMAD

  Cross-Reference

  See KĀTEB JOVAYNĪ.

• BADĪʿ, ĀQĀ BOZORG

  M. Momen

  (d. 1869), a young Bahai martyr who has gained a certain distinction in Bahai lore.

• BADĪʿ-AL-ZAMĀN

  M. E. Subtelny

  (d. ca. 1514), Timurid prince, who rebelled against his father,  Sultan Ḥosayn Bāyqarā (r. Herat 1469-1506).

• BADĪʿ-AL-ZAMĀN HAMADĀNĪ

  F. Malti-Douglas

  (968-1008), Arabic belle-lettrist and inventor of the maqāma genre. His maqāmāt are a set of adventures narrated in rhymed prose and poetry, revolving around a rogue hero and a narrator.

• BADĪʿ-AL-ZAMĀN MĪRZĀ

  R. D. McChesney

  by most accounts the last of the Chaghatay/Timurid rulers of Badaḵšān (d. ca. 1603). 

• BADĪʿ-AL-ZAMĀN NAṬANZĪ

  Cross-Reference

  See ADĪB NAṬANZĪ.

• BADĪHA-SARĀʾĪ

  F. R. C. Bagley

  composition and utterance of something improvised (badīh), usually in verse. Among the Arabs, poetic improvisation was practiced and admired from pre-Islamic times. Among the Iranians, it has been a mark of poetical talent and skill.

• BADĪLĪ, AḤMAD

  H. Algar

  SHAIKH, a Sufi shaikh in 12th-century Sabzavār, renowned for his mastery of the exoteric as well as the esoteric science. 

• BĀDKŪBA

  Cross-Reference

  See BAKU.

• BĀDPĀYĀN

  Cross-Reference

  See ARTHROPODS.