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Encyclopedia Britannica



BARMECIDES

This article appears in Volume V03, Page 407 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: BAI-BAR
BARMECIDES , more accurately BARMAKIDS, a noble Persian family which attained
great
  power under the Abbasid caliphs. Barmak, the founder of the family, was a Persian fire-worshipper, and is supposed to have been a native of Khorasan. According to tradition, his wife was taken for a time into the harem of Abdallah, brother of Kotaiba the conqueror of Balkh, and be-came the mother of Khalid b. Barmak the Barmecide. Barmak subsequently (about A.D. 736) rebuilt and adorned his native city of Balkh after the rebellion of Harith. The family prospered, and his grandson Yahya b. Khalid was the
vizier
  of the caliph Mandi and tutor of Harun al-Rashid. His sons Fadl and Ja`far (the Giafar of the Arabian Nights) both occupied high offices under Harlin. The story of their disgrace, though romantic, is not improbable. 'Harun, it is said, found his
chief
  pleasure in the society of his
sister
  `Abbasa and Ja'far, and in order that these two might be with him continuously without breach of etiquette, persuaded them to
contract
  a purely formal
marriage
 . The conditions were, however, not observed and Harun, learning that `Abbasa had borne a son, caused Ja'far suddenly to be arrested and beheaded, and the rest of the family except Mahommed, Yahya's brother, to be imprisoned and deprived of their property. It is probable, however, that Harun's anger was caused to a large extent by the insinuations of his courtiers that he was a mere puppet in the hands of a powerful family. See further
CALIPHATE
 , section C, 4, 5.
The expression "Barmecide Feast," to denote an imaginary banquet, is
drawn
  from one of the tales (" The Barber's Tale of his
Sixth
  Brother ") in the Arabian Nights, in which a
series
  of empty dishes is served up to a hungry man to test his sense of humour by one of the Barmecides (see edition by L. C. Smithers, Lond., 1894, vol. i. 317).


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