Encyclopaedia Islamica, Volume 4 Bābā Afḍal – Bīrjandī
Brill in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies
This volume of Encyclopaedia Islamica is the fourth of a projected 16-volume publication, consisting of an abridged and edited translation of the Persian Dāʾirat al-Maʿārif-i Buzurg-i Islāmī, one of the most comprehensive sources on Islam and the Muslim world. One unique feature of this work of reference lies in the attention it gives to Shiʿi Islam and its rich and diverse heritage, which makes it complementary to other encyclopaedias. In addition to providing entries on important themes, subjects and personages in Islam generally, it offers the western reader an opportunity to appreciate the various dimensions of Shiʿi Islam, the Persian contribution to Islamic civilisation, and the spiritual dimensions of the Islamic tradition.
This volume contains comprehensive articles on two major cities of the Islamic world, Baghdad and Baṣra, as well as groundbreaking entries in various disciplines: including Barāʾa in jurisprudence, al-Bāqillānī in theology, the Banū Mūsā in the sciences, the Barmakids in history, and Bāyazīd Basṭamī in the mystical tradition.
The Encyclopaedia Islamica is available in print and at Brill Online.
Bābā Afḍal
Bābā Faraj Tabrīzī
Bābā Farīd al-Dīn Ganj Shikar
Bābā Ilyās Khurāsānī
Bābā Jān Ḥāfiẓ-i Turbatī
Bābā Kamāl-i Jandī
Bābā Luqmān, Mausoleum
Bābā Qāsim, Mausoleum
Bābā Rukn al-Dīn Shīrāzī
Bābā Rukn al-Dīn Shīrāzī, Mausoleum
Bābā Shāh Iṣfahānī
Bābā Ṭāhir
Bābāʾī Movement
Bābak Khurram-Dīn
Bābil (Babel or Babylon)
Badāʾ
Badāʾiʿ Nigār, Mīrzā Mahdī
Badāʾiʿ Nigār, Muḥammad Ibrāhīm
Badakhshān
Badakhshānī, Sayyid Suhrāb Walī
Badakhshī, Shāh Muḥammad
Bādgīr
Bādhil Mashhadī
Badīʿ al-Zamān Hamadānī
Badīʿ al-Zamān Tabrīzī
Badīʿ in Persian Language and Literature
Badīhiyyāt
Badr
Badr al-Jamālī
Baghdad
al-Baghdādī, ʿAbd al-Qādir
Bahāʾ al-Dīn Abū Muḥammad Zakariyyāʾ Multānī
Bahāʾ al-Dīn Mattū
Bahāʾ al-Dīn Walad (Bahāʾ Walad or Sulṭān al-ʿUlamāʾ)
Bahāʾ al-Dīn Walad (Sulṭān Walad)
Bahār, Muḥammad Taqī
Bahār-i ʿAjam
Bahmanyār b. al-Marzubān
Bahrām b. Mardānshāh
Al-Baḥrānī, Abū al-Ḥasan Jamāl al-Dīn
al-Baḥrānī, Hāshim
Baḥrayn (Bahrain)
Bajaliyya
al-Bākharzī, Abū al-Ḥasan
Bākharzī, Abū al-Maʿālī Sayf al-Dīn
Bākharzī, Abū al-Mafākhir
Bakht
Bakhtiyār Kākī
Bakhtiyārī
Bakhtiyār-nāmah
Bakr b. Wāʾil
Bakrān, Muḥammad b. Najīb
al-Balādhurī
Balāgha
Balʿam Bāʿūr
Balʿamī
Balkh
Balūch
Balūchī Literature
Balyānī, Amīn al-Dīn
Balyānī, Awḥad al-Dīn
Bam, Arg
Banākatī
Banū al-Munajjim
Banū Isrāʾīl
Banū Mūsā
al-Baqīʿ
Bāqī bi’llāh
al-Bāqillānī, Abū Bakr
Bāqir Khān
Al-Barāʾ b. ʿĀzib
Al-Barāʾ b. Mālik
Barāʾa
Barāhīn Ithbāt al-Bāriʾ
Barāhūyī (Brahui)
Baraka
Baraka (Barakat) Hamadānī
Barāq Bābā
al-Barbahārī
Barbaṭ
Bard al-ʿAjūz
Bār-i Amānat
Barīd
Barmakids
Al-Barqī
Barṣīṣā
Barsiyān
Barzakh
Al-Basāsīrī
al-Basawī
Bashīr b. Saʿd
Bashīriyya
Bashshār b. Burd
Basīṭ al-Ḥaqīqa
Basīṭ wa Murakkab
Baṣra
Baṣra (Morocco)
Bast
Basṭām
al-Basṭāmī
Bāṭiniyya
al-Bāṭirqānī
Bay ʿ
Bayʿa
Bayān b. Samʿān
Bāyazīd Basṭāmī
Bāyazīd Basṭāmī (al-Thānī)
Bayḍā
al-Bayḍāwī
Bayhaq
Bayhaqī, Abū al-Faḍl
al-Bayhaqī, Abū al-Ḥasan
al-Bayhaqī, Abū Bakr
al-Bayhaqī, Abū Jaʿfar
Bayt al-Ḥikma
Bayt al-Māl
al-Bayt al-Maʿmūr
al-Bazanṭī
Bāzgasht-i Adabī
Bazīghiyya
al-Bazzār, Abū Bakr Aḥmad
al-Bazzī
Bektashi Order
Bībī Shahrbānū
Bīdābādī
Bīdil (Bedil)
Bih Āfarīd
Biḥār al-Anwār
Bihzād, Ḥusayn
Bihzād, Kamāl al-Dīn
Bilāl al-Ḥabashī
Bilāl b. Ḥārith
Bilawhar wa Būdāsaf
Bilgrāmī
Bilqīs
Bindings and Binding
Bīrjandī
‘Clearly the editors of ISLA have selected articles they consider will augment the existing reference sources – and they have completed this selection task with acumen and skill. The work as a whole remains, however, a “specialist encyclopaedia” [...] - or perhaps more accurately, it is an encyclopaedia for specialists [...]. In that sense, it is a valuable addition [...] to the reference work available at present. Perhaps its greatest merit is that it brings to an international audience a key example of and an excellent advertisement for high-quality Iranian scholarship which has hitherto been available but known only to a few.’
– Robert Gleave, Journal of the American Oriental Society
‘[T]he publication of Encyclopaedia Islamica is a notable step forward in including the Shi‘a viewpoint in scholarship on Islam.’
– Mousa al-Reza Wahdati, Journal of Shi‘a Islamic Studies
‘Printed on coated paper, the five volumes so far published are an impressive achievement both in production as well as in scholarship related to Persian themes.’
– Yashab Tur, Islamic Sciences
Farhad Daftary is Associate Director of the Institute of Ismaili Studies. He is an authority on Mediaeval Islam and Ismaili studies, consulting Editor of Encyclopaedia Iranica, and sits on the Advisory Board of the Encyclopaedia of Islam (3rd edition).
Wilferd Madelung has made significant contributions to scholarship on mediaeval Islamic movements, including Twelver Shi‘ism, Zaydism and Ismailism. He is a former Laudian Professor of Arabic at the University of Oxford and Senior Research Fellow with The Institute of Ismaili Studies.