Table of Contents

  • BEHDĪN

    James R. Russell

    “the Good Religion,” i.e., Zoroastrianism, or one of its adherents, in modern usage, specifically of the laity.

  • BEHDINĀN DIALECT

    Gernot L. Windfuhr

    a Central dialect spoken by the Behdīnān “the people of the Good Religion,” i.e., Zoroastrianism, who live in, or came from, the cities of Kermān and Yazd and surrounding towns and villages.  

  • BEHEŠT-E ZAHRĀʾ

    Hamid Algar

    the chief cemetery of Teh­ran and principal shrine of the Islamic Revolution of 1357 Š./1978-79.

  • BEHĪZAK

    cross-reference

    See CALENDARS.

  • BEHRAMSHAH NAOROJI SHROFF

    John R. Hinnells

    (1858-­1927), Parsi religions teacher and founder of the move­ment known as Ilm-i Khshnoom (ʿElm-e ḵošnūm; Path of knowledge).

  • BEHRANGĪ, ṢAMAD

    Michael C. Hillmann

    (1939-1968), teacher, social critic, folklorist, translator, and short story writer.

  • BEHRŪZ DONBOLĪ

    cross-reference

    AMĪR. See DONBOLĪ, AMĪR BEHRŪZ.

  • BEHRŪZ, ḎABĪḤ

    Paul Sprachman

    (1889-1971), Persian satirist,  writer of highly popular parodies and burlesques.

  • BEHŠAHR

    Eckart Ehlers

    older Ašraf, a town situated at 36°41′55″ north latitude and 53°32′30″ east longitude in the eastern part of central Māzandarān.

  • BEHSOTŪN, ABŪ MANṢŪR

    cross-reference

    See BĪSOTŪN, ABŪ MANṢŪR.

  • BEHZĀD

    Djalal Khaleghi-Motlagh

    in the traditional history, the name of the black horse belonging successively to Sīāvoš, Kay Ḵosrow, and Goštāsb.

  • BEHZĀD, ḤOSAYN

    Layla Diba

    (1894-1968), lacquer artist, painter, and book illustrator.

  • BEHZĀD, KAMĀL-AL-DĪN

    Priscilla Soucek

    master painter, proverbial for his skill, active in Herat during the reign of the Timurid Ḥosayn Bāyqarā (1470-1506).

  • BEKTĀŠ, ḤĀJĪ

    Hamid Algar

    (d. 1270-71?), Khorasanian Sufi and eponym of the Bektāšī order, once widespread in Anatolia and the Balkans, with offshoots in Egypt, Iraq, and Western Iran.

  • BEKTĀŠĪYA

    Hamid Algar

    a syncretic and heterodox Sufi order, found principally in Anatolia and the Balkans, with offshoots in other regions, named after Ḥājī Bektāš and regarding him as its founding elder (pīr).

  • BELBĀS

    Pierre Oberling

    a former Kurdish tribal confederacy of northwestern Iran and northeastern Iraq.

  • BELDERČĪN

    Hūšang Aʿlam

    (quail, Coturnix coturnix L.). The quail is mentioned in both the Bible and the Koran. Allusions to these Koranic reminiscences are occasionally found in Persian poetry. Various virtues are attributed to the quail in traditional or popular Islamic medicine.

  • BELGIAN-IRANIAN RELATIONS

    Annette Destrée

    Official diplomatic relations between Belgium and Iran date from the end of the nineteenth century.

  • BELGRĀMĪ, ʿABD-AL-JALĪL

    cross-reference

    See ʿABD-AL­-JALĪL BELGRĀMĪ.

  • BELGRĀMĪ, ĀZĀD

    Cross-Reference

    See ĀZĀD BELGRĀMĪ.

  • BELL, GERTRUDE Margaret Lowthian

    G. Michael Wickens

    (1868-1926), British traveler, private scholar, archeolo­gist, sometime government servant, and a translator of Ḥāfeẓ.

  • BELLES LETTRES i. SASANIAN IRAN

    Werner Sundermann

    Belles lettres, that is, entertaining works, are not lacking in Sasanian Iran but can by no means match with their development in New Persian literature, both for quality and quantity.

  • BELLEW, HENRY WALTER

    D. Neil MacKenzie

    (1834-92), surgeon and amateur orientalist. Throughout his service he took a lively interest in the languages and ethnography of the peoples within his charge.

  • BELOVED

    J. T. P. de Bruijn

    (maʿšūq in Arabic and Persian), together with Lover (ʿāšeq) and Love (ʿešq), making the three concepts that dominate the semantic field of eroticism in Persian literature and mysticism.

  • BELOWHAR O BŪDĀSAF

    Cross-Reference

    See BARLAAM AND IOSAPH.

  • BELQĪS

    Ḡolām-Ḥosayn Yūsofī

    the queen of Sheba (Sabā), whose meetings with Solomon (Solaymān) are a favorite theme in Persian and Arabic literature.

  • BELTS

    Multiple Authors

    (Mid. Pers, kamar, NPers. kamar-band). Investigation of representations of belts in Iran between the fall of the Achaemenid dynasty in the 4th century BC and the coming of Islam reveals that they were almost exclusively male accessories. Depictions of females wearing belts are rare.

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  • BĒMA

    Werner Sundermann

    the chief festival of the Manicheans. The Greek word bēma meant “platform,” “stage,” or “judge’s seat.” 

  • BENDŌY

    Cross-Reference

    See BESṬĀM O BENDŌY.

  • BENFEY, THEODOR

    Thomas Oberlies

    German comparative philologist with a focus on Indian languages. His path-breaking research on the Pañcatantra made him one of the pioneers of comparative folklore studies.

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  • BENGAL

    Richard M. Eaton, N. H. Ansari and S. H. Qasemi

    the deltaic region of the Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghna rivers, and the easternmost haven of Indo-Iranian culture on the Indian subcontinent.

  • BENNIGSEN, ALEXANDRE

    Michael Rywkin

    (1913-1988), scholar of Soviet Islam. Bennigsen saw the unassimilable quality of Soviet Muslim peoples and the continued strength of Soviet Islam based on the national-religious symbiosis.

  • BENVENISTE, ÉMILE

    Gilbert Lazard

    (1902-76), French scholar, eminent Iranist, and one of the greatest linguists of his era. At a very young age he caught the attention of the dean of linguistics in France, Antoine Meillet, and was soon engaged in the research activities that he was to pursue through half a century.

  • BERENJ “brass”

    A. Souren Melikian-Chirvani, James W. Allan

    Very few analyses have been carried out on Iranian metalwork. It would seem that brass was used for making many of the wares executed from sheet metal hammered into shape and then engraved and inlaid with silver that were the products of the Khorasan school in the later 12th and early 13th centuries.

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  • BERENJ “rice”

    Marcel Bazin and Christian Bromberger, Daniel Balland, Ṣoḡrā Bāzargān

    Rice farming is a marginal activity in arid regions where it is limited to a few areas with an adequate water supply: namely the lower Aras and Qezel Ozon valleys; the upper Isfahan oasis; some oases in Khorasan, Sīstān, and Baluchistan; parts of the alluvial plain of Ḵūzestān; the Marvdašt plain and other basins in Fārs.

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  • BEREZIN, IL’YA NIKOLAEVICH

    Jean Calmard

    (1818-96), Rus­sian orientalist known for his works on Iranian, Arabic, and Turkish philology and dialectology and on Mongol history,  and for his travel ac­counts.

  • BERJĪS

    Wilhelm Eilers

    Arabic word listed in the dictionaries as meaning the planet Jupiter (usually al-Moštarī in Arabic, Hormozd in Persian).

  • BERK-YARUQ

    cross-reference

    See BARKĪĀROQ.

  • BEROSSUS

    Stanley M. Burstein

    Babylonian 4th-3rd-century priest-chronicler; he took note of Iranian actions insofar as they directly affected Babylon.

  • BERTHELS, EVGENIĭ ÈDUARDOVICH

    Michael Zand

    [BERTEL’S] (1890-1957), Soviet Iranologist, head of the Soviet school of Persian and Central Asian Turkic studies in the 1930s-50s.

  • BERYĀNĪ

    Ṣoḡrā Bāzargān

    (from beryān “roast”), an Iranian meat dish usually served wrapped in flat bread.

  • BĒŠĀPŪR

    Cross-Reference

    See BĪŠĀPŪR.

  • BEŠĀRAT

    Nassereddin Parvin

    (Glad tidings), a weekly Persian journal of news and political comment, Mašhad, 1907.

  • BESĀṬ

    Cross-Reference

    See CARPETS.

  • BESĀṬĪ SAMARQANDĪ

    Zabihollah Safa

    SERĀJ AL-DĪN, Per­sian poet (14th-15th centuries).

  • BESMEL ŠĪRĀZĪ

    Cross-reference

    See NAWWĀB ŠIRĀZI, ʿALI-AKBAR.

  • BESMELLĀH

    Philippe Gignoux, Hamid Algar

    Islamic formula meaning “in the name of God,” more fully Besmellāh al-raḥmān al-raḥīm “in the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.”

  • BESSOS

    Michael Weiskopf

    satrap of Bactria and last Achaemenid king (ca. 336-329 BC). From his capital at Bactra (Zariaspa), in the area of modern Balḵ, Bessos exercised control over Bactria, Sogdia to the north, and border regions of India.

  • BESṬĀM (1)

    Wilhelm Eilers

    (or Bestām), an Iranian man’s name; as a result of its past popularity, it is a fairly common component of place names.

  • BESṬĀM (2)

    Wolfram Kleiss

    (or Basṭām), Elamite Rusa-i Uru.Tur, the name of a village at the foot of the ruins of an ancient Urartian hill fortress in the province of West Azerbaijan (85 km southeast of Mākū and 54 km northwest of Ḵᵛoy; altitude ca. 1,300 m above sea level).

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