Glossary of Dune Terminology - B

B

• Baliset – "Nine-stringed musical instrument, lineal descendant of the zithra, tuned to the Chusuk scale and played by strumming. Favorite instrument of Imperial troubadours." Gurney Halleck is a master playing the baliset in the series. In David Lynch's 1984 adaptation of Dune, a cosmetically altered Chapman Stick was used to portray the instrument. In the miniseries Frank Herbert's Dune, the baliset resembles a renaissance-era lute, with the pegbox bent back almost 90°.
• Baraka – "A living holy man of magical powers."
• Bashar – Military rank, slightly above a traditional Colonel and primarily used for military leader of a planetary subdistrict; alternately, Colonel Bashar, or Supreme Bashar for a military's most senior commander.
• Bene Gesserit – Secretive and powerful matriarchal order whose members possess extraordinary physical and mental powers.
• Bene Tleilax (or Tleilaxu) – Secretive and powerful patriarchal race known for their genetic manipulation technologies.
• Bi-la kaifa – A Fremen religious phrase meaning "Amen," which translates literally to "Nothing further need be explained."
• Buddislam: a merger of the ancient religions of Buddhism and Islam.
• Burhan "The proofs of life. (Commonly: the ayat and burhan of life. See Ayat.)"
• Burseg – Military general.
• Butlerian Jihad – Mankind's "crusade against computers, thinking machines, and conscious robots."