بهتان

What it means

بهتان (bohtân) means slander, false accusation, or libel: a deliberate falsehood spread about a person to damage their reputation. The word is borrowed from Arabic بُهْتَان (buhtân), the verbal noun of the root ب-ه-ت (b-h-t), which carries the meaning of striking someone dumb with astonishment or horror. A بهتان is an accusation so false and so damaging that the accused is left speechless. The compound verb بهتان زدن (bohtân zadan) means to slander someone or to make a false accusation against them. A near synonym is تهمت (tohmat), also from Arabic, meaning accusation or slur; the difference is that بهتان tends to imply the deliberate and fabricated nature of the charge more strongly. In formal and religious discourse بهتان carries heavy moral weight as a serious sin.

How to use it

• این یه بهتان محضه. (in ye bohtân-e mahze.) “This is pure slander.”
• بهتان زدن به کسی گناهه. (bohtân zadan be kasi gonâhe.) “Slandering someone is a sin.”
• اون بهتان‌هایی که زدن همه دروغ بود. (un bohtânhâyi ke zadan hame dorugh bud.) “All the false accusations they made were lies.”
• من این بهتان رو قبول نمی‌کنم. (man in bohtân ro ghabul nemikonam.) “I do not accept this slander.”

Cultural note

In Persian ethical and religious culture, بهتان is treated as one of the gravest sins of speech, condemned alongside غیبت (ghybat, backbiting) and دروغ (dorugh, lying). Classical Persian poetry and prose use بهتان in contexts of political oppression and unjust accusation, and the word appears frequently in discussions of the Prophet’s companions being falsely accused. In contemporary usage it surfaces in legal contexts (defamation cases) and in public discourse when public figures deny charges against them.

References

• Dehkhoda
• Vajehyab