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BARMECIDES

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 407 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BARMECIDES , more accurately BARMAKIDS, a See also:

noble See also:Persian See also:family which attained See also:great See also:power under the Abbasid caliphs. Barmak, the founder of the family, was a Persian See also:fire-worshipper, and is supposed to have been a native of See also:Khorasan. According to tradition, his wife was taken for a See also:time into the See also:harem of Abdallah, See also:brother of Kotaiba the conqueror of See also:Balkh, and be-came the See also:mother of Khalid b. Barmak the Barmecide. Barmak subsequently (about A.D. 736) rebuilt and adorned his native See also:city of Balkh after the See also:rebellion of Harith. The family prospered, and his See also:grandson Yahya b. Khalid was the See also:vizier of the See also:caliph See also:Mandi and See also:tutor of See also:Harun al-Rashid. His sons Fadl and Ja`far (the Giafar of the Arabian Nights) both occupied high offices under Harlin. The See also:story of their disgrace, though romantic, is not improbable. 'Harun, it is said, found his See also:chief See also:pleasure in the society of his See also:sister `Abbasa and Ja'far, and in See also:order that these two might be with him continuously without See also:breach of See also:etiquette, persuaded them to See also:contract a purely formal See also:marriage. The conditions were, however, not observed and Harun, learning that `Abbasa had See also:borne a son, caused Ja'far suddenly to be arrested and beheaded, and the See also:rest of the family except Mahommed, Yahya's brother, to be imprisoned and deprived of their See also: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 See also:

mere puppet in the hands of a powerful family. See further See also:CALIPHATE, See also:section C, §§ 4, 5. The expression "Barmecide Feast," to denote an imaginary banquet, is See also:drawn from one of the tales (" The See also:Barber's See also:Tale of his See also:Sixth Brother ") in the Arabian Nights, in which a See also:series of empty dishes is served up to a hungry See also:man to test his sense of See also:humour by one of the Barmecides (see edition by L. C. Smithers, Lond., 1894, vol. i. 317).

End of Article: BARMECIDES

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