Table of Contents

  • BOZ

    Jean-Pierre Digard

    the domestic goat. The earliest evidence for domestication of the goat has been found in Iran (ca. 10,000 B.C.), as have the largest number of prehistoric sites (ca. 7000 B.C.) showing traces of the systematic breeding of this animal.

  • BOZBĀŠ

    Mohammad R. Ghanoonparvar

    Azeri Turkish name for an Iranian dish usually called ābgūšt-e sabzī (green vegetable stew).

  • BOZGŪŠ

    Djalal Khaleghi-Motlagh

    the traditional reading of the name of a mythical tribe in Māzandarān mentioned in the Šāh-nāma.

  • BOZKAŠĪ

    G. Whitney Azoy

    (lit. “goat-dragging”), an equestrian folk game played by Turkic groups in Central Asia. Its origins are obscure; quite probably the game first developed as a recreational extension of livestock raiding.

  • BOZORG

    Jean During

    one of the modes in traditional Iranian and Arabic music, mentioned for the first time by Ṣafī-al-Dīn ʿOrmavī among the twelve šodūd, later on called maqāmāt.

  • BOZORG, MĪRZĀ

    cross-reference

    See QĀʾEMMAQĀM, MĪRZĀ BOZORG.

  • BOZORG-OMĪD, KĪĀ

    Wilferd Madelung

    the second Ismaʿili ruler of Alamūt (1124-38). He was of Deylami origin from the region of Rūdbār.

  • BOZORGĀN

    Aḥmad Tafażżolī

    the third class-rank of the four or five divisions of the early Sasanian aristocracy, namely šahryār “landholders,” wispuhr “princes” or members of the royal house, wuzurg “grandees,” āzād “nobles,”  and kadag-xwadāy “householders.”

  • BOZORGMEHR-E BOḴTAGĀN

    Djalal Khaleghi Motlagh

    identified in literature and legend as a vizier of Ḵosrow I Anōšīravān (r. 531-78). According to Persian and Arabic sources, he was characterized by ex­ceptional wisdom and sage counsels.

  • BOZPAR

    Louis Vanden Berghe

    a valley situated about 100 km southwest of Kāzerūn and 11 km by donkey path through the mountains from Sar Mašhad, Fārs. The most important ruin in the Bozpār valley is the building known locally as Gūr-e Doḵtar.

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  • BOZPAYIT

    James R. Russell

    Middle Persian name, attested only in Armenian, of a Zoroastrian school or body of religious teaching in the Sasanian period.

  • BRAHM

    Werner Sundermann

    “manner, fashion, costume,” Middle Persian word used in connection with human beings, referring either to mode of behavior or to outward appearance.

  • BRĀHMĪ

    Douglas A. Hitch

    Indian script used for a variety of languages in Chinese Turkestan, including Iranian languages. From the Tarim Basin (Xinjiang, China) we have first-millennium documents in Brāhmī script in several Iranian languages.

  • BRAHUI

    Josef Elfenbein

    As “long-distance cattle-herders” in 1880 no fewer than 80 percent of these tribesmen were tent-dwelling nomads; fewer than 20 percent were described as settled. In 1975 the proportions were almost exactly the reverse, and Brahui settlement in large towns has been increas­ing ever more rapidly.

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  • BRASS

    cross-reference

    See BERENJ.

  • BRAZIER

    Asadullah Souren Melikian-Chirvani, Jaʿfar Šahrī

    two distinct types of utensil traditionally used in Iran. One type is a closed container on legs, a kind of stove that holds slowly burning coals for heating.

  • BRAZMANIY(A)

    cross-reference

    See AŠA ii.

  • BREAD

    Hélène Desmet-Grégoire

    Persian nān. In modern Iran bread is the dietary staple food for the population and accounts, on the average, for 70 percent of the daily caloric intake.

  • BRĒLVĪ

    cross-reference

    See BARĒLVĪ.

  • BREST-LITOVSK TREATY

    Joseph A. Kechichian

    treaty signed by the Central Powers and Soviet Russia on 3 March 1918 that was consequential in the history of modern Iran.