Table of Contents

• BĪD

  Wilhelm Eilers, Hūšang Aʿlam

  common desig­nation in modern Persian for the genus Salix L., willow. Willow trees are found in all the Iranian lands, mainly along streams and canals.

• BĪDĀD

  Hormoz Farhat

  a melody (gūša) in the modal system (dastgāh) Homāyūn, one of the twelve modal systems of the contemporary tradition of Persian classical music. An important and popular gūša, Bīdād is always included in the performance of Homāyūn, even when the performance is short and selective.

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• BĪDAR

  S. H. Qasemi

  city in the state of Karnataka, India, about 80 miles northwest of Hyderabad, and also the surrounding district. In the 15th-16th centuries, under the Bahmanid dynasty, Bīdar was an important center of Persian cultural influence in the Deccan.

• BĪDĀR

  Nassereddin Parvin

  (lit. awake) the name of three Persian periodicals, two of which were published in Tehran in 1923 and 1951 and the other in Mazār-e Šarīf in 1925.

• BĪDĀRĪ

  Nassereddin Parvin

  (lit. wakefulness) the name of three Persian newspapers published in Tehran (1907), Rašt (1920), and Kermān (1923-53) and also the name of several other Persian-language periodicals.

• BĪDĀRĪ-E ĪRĀNĪĀN, TĀRĪḴ-E

  cross-reference

  See TĀRĪḴ-E BĪDĀRĪ-E ĪRĀNĪĀN.

• BĪDASTAR

  Cross-Reference

  See BEAVER.

• BIDAXŠ

  Werner Sundermann

  title of an official, a word of Iranian origin found in various languages from the first to the eighth century.

• BĪDEL, ʿABD-AL-QĀDER

  Moazzam Siddiqi

  (BĒDIL), the fore­most representative of the later phase of the “Indian style” (sabk-e hendī) of Persian poetry and the most difficult and challenging poet of that school (1644-1721).

• BĪDERAFŠ

  Aḥmad Tafażżolī

  in the traditional history, a Turanian hero of the army of Arjāsp.

• BĪDGOL

  Ehsan Yarshater

  and BĪDGOLI dialect. Bīdgol and Ārān, two practically contiguous townships in the province of Kāšān, are located some 10 km to the north and slightly to the east of the city of Kāšān.

• BĪDMEŠK

  Cross-Reference

  See BĪD.

• BIDOḴT

  Habib Borjian

  the center of a subdistrict (dehestān) in Gonābād šahrestān in central Khorasan and the seat of the Gonābādi Sufi order.

• BĪDPĀY

  Cross-Reference

  the narrator of the animal fables known as Kalila wa Demna. See KALĪLA WA DEMNA.

• BĪḠAMĪ

  William L. Hanaway

  MAWLĀNĀ SHAIKH ḤĀJĪ MOḤAMMAD, oral storyteller of the 8th/14th century, narrator of the romance Dārāb-nāma.

• BĪGĀR

  Yuri Bregel

  and BĪGĀRĪ, a term of taxation in Iran and Central Asia, generally meaning “corvıe,” the duty of supplying workers without pay, such as for the construction and repair of irrigation systems, roads, and public buildings.

• BĪGDELĪ

  Gerhard Doerfer

  (or Bēgdelī, also Bagdīlū), a former Turkish tribe; the name Bīgdelī appears to have survived only in personal names.

• BĪGDELĪ, ĀḎAR

  Cross-Reference

  See ĀẔAR BĪGDELĪ.

• BIHAR

  Syed Hasan Askari

  (Behār), a state in northeastern India, bounded by Nepal in the north, West Bengal in the east, Orissa in the south, and Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh in the west. This article treats the influence of Persian language and culture in Bihar.

• BĪJĀPŪR

  Muhammad Baqir

  capital city and domain of the ʿĀdelšāhī dynasty (1489-1686), located on the western Deccan plateau. The ʿĀdelšāhīs established Shiʿism in Bījāpūr and actively encouraged the immigration of Persian writers and religious figures.

• BĪJĀR

  Eckart Ehlers

  a town and a šahrestān (county) in the Kurdistan province of Iran. The town, which has the highest elevation in Iran (1,920 m), lies ca. 120 miles north-northwest of Hamadān.

• BĪLAQĀN(Ī)

  Cross-Reference

  See BAYLAQĀN.

• BILGETIGIN

  C. Edmund Bosworth

  Turkish name associated with personalities before and during the Ghaznavid period.

• BILIMORIA, NUSHERWANJI FRAMJI

  Kaikhusroo M. JamaspAsa

  (1852-1922), Zoroastrian journalist, editor, and publisher.

• BĪMA

  Willem Floor

  (bīme; Hindi bīmā), insurance. “Insurance” activities are re­ferred to for the first time in 1891, by Eʿtemād-­al-Salṭana in his diary entry of 13 Decem­ber.

• BĪMĀRESTĀN

  Ṣādeq Sajjādī

  "hospital." The oldest Iranian hospital about which we have some information was that at Jondīšāpūr (earlier Bēt Lapaṭ), which, with the attached school of medi­cine, was founded at an unknown date.

• BĪNĀLŪD, KŪH-E

  Eckart Ehlers

  mountain range in northeast­ern Iran between Mašhad in the east and Nīšāpūr in the west with elevations of up to 3,211 m.

• BĪNAMĀZĪ

  James R. Russell, Hamid Algar

  NPers. “the state of being without prayer,” term for the state of a menstruant woman. i. In Zoroastrianism. ii. In Islam. All bodily discharges are regarded by Zoroastrians as violations of the wholeness of the person.

• BĪNEŠ KAŠMĪRĪ, ESMĀʿĪL

  N. H. Ansari

  Persian poet of India in the 17th century. He left six maṯnawīs and a dīvān of ḡazals and qaṣīdas.

• BINYON, (ROBERT) LAURENCE

  Parvin Loloi

  (1869-1943), prolific English poet, translator, art historian and critic, notably of Oriental art.

• BIOGRAPHIES

  Cross-Reference

  See Supplement.

• BIRCH

  Hūšang Aʿlam

  (Pers.tūs), the genus Betula L., found in western Azer­baijan, along the Karaj river, and other locations on the southern slopes of the Alborz.

• BIRD, ISABELLA L

  C. Edmund Bosworth

  also known under her married surname of Bishop (1831-1904), British traveler in western Iran and Kurdistan during the late Victorian period.

• BIRDS

  Derek A. Scott

  Of 324 breeding species, 131 occur widely in the Palearctic region, 81 are Western Palearctic species, reaching the easternmost extremities of their ranges in Iran, while 19 are typically Eastern Palearctic species, reaching the westernmost tip of their ranges in Iran.

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• BĪRĪ

  Cross-Reference

  or BĪRĪTEKĪN. See BÖRI.

• BĪRJAND

  Moḥammad-Ḥasan Ganjī

  town and district in the southeastern part of the province of Khorasan (lat 32°52′  N, long 59°13′ E).

• BIRJAND

  Multiple Authors

  the capital and a sub-province in Khorasan-e Jonubi Province.

• BIRJAND ii. Population, 1956-2011

  Mohammad Hossein Nejatian

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

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• BĪRŪNĪ

  Mohammad Ali Djamalzadeh and Ḥasan Javādī

  the public or male quarters of wealthy households, used for the conduct of business, male religious ceremonies, and parties for men.

• BĪRŪNĪ, ABŪ RAYḤĀN

  Multiple Authors

  scholar and polymath of the period of the late Samanids and early Ghaznavids and one of the two greatest intellectual figures of his time in the eastern lands of the Muslim world (973-after 1050).

• BĪRŪNĪ, ABŪ RAYḤĀN i. Life

  C. Edmund Bosworth

  Bīrūnī was born in the outer suburb (bīrūn, hence his nesba) of Kāṯ, the capital of the Afrighid Ḵᵛārazmšāhs, and spent the first twenty-five years of his life in Ḵᵛārazm.

• BĪRŪNĪ, ABŪ RAYḤĀN ii. Bibliography

  David Pingree

  Ca. 1035-36 Bīrūnī wrote a Resāla fī fehrest kotob Moḥammad b. Zakarīyāʾ al-Rāzī in two parts, the first devoted to Rāzī and his works, the second to the books that he himself had authored up to that time.

• BĪRŪNĪ, ABŪ RAYḤĀN iii. Mathematics and Astronomy

  George Saliba

  Ninety-five of 146 books known to have been written by Bīrūnī were devoted to astronomy, mathematics, and related subjects like math­ematical geography.

• BĪRŪNĪ, ABŪ RAYḤĀN iv. Geography

  David Pingree

  Bīrūnī’s conceptions of the spherical shape of the earth and of the geographical features on its surface are those of Greek scientists, especially Ptolemy, as modified by earlier Muslim geographers.

• BĪRŪNĪ, ABŪ RAYḤĀN v. Pharmacology and Mineralogy

  Georges C. Anawati

  Bīrūnī, a traveler proficient in several Asian languages and an inquisitive and attentive ob­server, was interested all his life in gathering precise information on plants and their medicinal uses.

• BĪRŪNĪ, ABŪ RAYḤĀN vi. History and Chronology

  David Pingree

  Bīrūnī’s main essay on political history is now known only from quotations. Discussions of historical events and methodology are found in connection with the lists of kings in his al-Āṯār al-bāqīa and Qānūn, in India, and scattered throughout his other works.

• BĪRŪNĪ, ABŪ RAYḤĀN vii. History of Religions

  François de Blois

  In this article some of his remarks on pre-Islamic Iranian religions, on Christian­ity and Judaism, and on Muslim sects will be discussed.

• BĪRŪNĪ, ABŪ RAYḤĀN viii. Indology

  Bruce B. Lawrence

  Bīrūnī’s magnum opus in Indology is Ketāb taḥqīq mā le’l-Hend men maqūla maqbūla fi’l-ʿaql aw marḏūla (The book confirming what pertains to India, whether rational or despicable).

• BĪŠĀPŪR

  Edward J. Keall

  ancient and medieval town in Fārs, in the Sasanian period the administrative center of one of the five districts in the province of Fārs.

• BISHOP, ISABELLA L.

  cross-reference

  See BIRD, ISABELLA L.