Table of Contents

  • BĀMĪA

    H. Aʿlam, N. Ramazani

    (or bāmīā), okra, the edible unripe seed-pods of Hibiscus esculentus of the Malvaceae or mallows. i. The plant. ii. In cooking. iii. The sweet.  It was introduced into the culinary art of Persians by Arabs from Baghdad in the 19th century.

  • BĀMĪĀN

    Multiple Authors

    town and province in central Afghanistan. Bāmīān’s position midway between Balḵ and Peshawar at the approach to the most difficult passes and the resultant opportunities to purvey provisions and accommodation for caravans explain why it became a particularly important stopping place.

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  • BAMPŪR

    B. de Cardi, ʿA.-A. Saʿīdī Sīrjānī

    i. Prehistoric Site. ii. In Modern Times. Bampūr is a baḵš and qaṣaba (borough) in the šahrestān of Īrānšahr in the province of Balūčestān o Sīstān. The plain of Bampūr is encircled by several high mountains.

  • BAMPUR ia. PREHISTORIC SITE (Continued)

    Daniel T. Potts

    Since Beatrice de Cardi’s excavations in 1966 (de Cardi, 1968; idem, 1970) no new work has taken place there. Nevertheless, objects recovered at Bampur in the 1960s can now be better dated and understood, thanks to discoveries in recent years at sites in Central Asia, the Indo-Iranian borderlands, and southeastern Arabia..

  • BĀMŠĀD

    A. Tafażżolī

    named as a musician at the court of the Sasanian king Ḵosrow II Parvēz (r. 591-628).

  • BĀMŠĀD newspaper

    N. Parvīn

    a Persian newspaper and a news and public affairs magazine published in Tehran, 1956-68.

  • BAN-e SORMA

    L. Vanden Berghe

    a necropolis of the Early Bronze Age, excavated in 1967 by the Belgian Mission in Iran. By analogy with the funeral furnishings from the Old Elamite period at Susa IV, the  tombs must be situated in the Early Dynastic III period, about 2600-2400 B.C. 

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  • BĀNA

    ʿA. Mardūḵ

    a šahrestān in the province of Kurdistan, located in a mountainous, well-forested region of western Iran (lat 35°59′ N,  long 45°53′ E).

  • BANAFŠA

    H. Aʿlam

    “violet,” common name for the genus Viola L. in New Persian. From certain botanical features of violas there have developed some violet-based similes and metaphors in classical Persian literature.

  • BANĀʾĪ HERAVĪ

    Z. Safa

    (1453-1512), KAMĀL-AL-DĪN ŠĪR-ʿALĪ, noted poet at various courts of Persia and Transoxania.

  • BANĀKAṮ

    C. E. Bosworth

    or BENĀKAṮ, the main town of the medieval Transoxanian province of Šāš or Čāč; it almost certainly had a pre-Islamic history as a center of the Sogdians.

  • BANĀKATĪ, Abū Solaymān

    P. Jackson

    Dāwūd b. Abi’l-Fażl Moḥammad (d. 1329-30), poet and historian.

  • BANĀN, ḠOLĀM-ḤOSAYN

    M. Caton

    (1911-1986), one of the foremost Persian singers of the 20th century, known for the quality of his voice and vast knowledge of āvāz repertory.  

  • BĀNBIŠN

    W. Sundermann

    Middle Persian “queen”: etymology and occurrences in Middle Iranian.

  • BAND “DAM”

    X. De Planhol

    “dam, ” something that factually or figuratively binds, ties, or restricts (cf. Av. banda- “bond,” Eng. bond). In geographical nomenclature it is applied to ranges (mainly in Afghanistan),  passes (darband), and old dams and barrages built to store or divert water.

  • BAND-E AMĪR (1)

    J. Lerner

    (the amir’s dike) or Band-e ʿAżodī (for the Daylamite ruler ʿAżod-al-Dawla, r. 949-83), a dam or weir constructed across the Kor river at the southeast end of the Marvdašt plain in Fārs.

  • BAND-E AMĪR (2)

    X. De Planhol

    the chain of natural lakes 90 km west of Bāmīān in Afghanistan (lat 30°12’ N, long 66°30’ E).

  • BAND-E BAHMAN

    K. Afsar

    an ancient dam built on the Qara Āḡāj river nearly sixty km south of Shiraz, attributed to the legendary king Bahman son of Esfandīār.

  • BAND-E TORKESTĀN

    X. De Planhol

    (boundary wall of Turkestan), the mountain range in northwestern Afghanistan which runs in a west-east direction for 200 km between the upper valley of the Morḡāb to the south and the plains of the Āmū Daryā to the north.

  • BANDA

    W. Eilers, C. Herrenschmidt

    “servant.” i. The term. ii. Old Persian bandaka. Banda (NPers.) and its precursors bandak/bandag (Mid. Pers.) and bandaka (OPers.) meant “henchman, (loyal) servant, vassal,” but not “slave.”