Bar'mecides, or BARMEKIDES, a Persian family descended from Barmak, a physician and priest of Balkh, in the province of Khorasan, the cradle of the greatness of the Abbaside califs, under whom the Barmecides rose to the highest offices in the state. Khálid bin Bermek became prime-minister of Abul Abbas Al-Saffah, the first Abbaside calif; and his influence enduring through the reigns of Al-Mansur and Al-Mahdi, the latter intrusted him with the education of his son, the celebrated Haroun Al-Raschid. The virtuous and able Yáhyá, the son of Khálid, was made vizier by Haroun upon his accession to the califate in 786, and both by his military skill and civil administration contributed largely to the prosperity of the reign. Under his four sons, Al-Fazl, Ja'afar, Mohammed, and Musa, the house rose to a pitch of power and splendour still more dangerous for a subject in the East than in the West. Al-Fazl and Ja'afar especially were virtual rulers of the great empire, which stretched from
Mauritania to Tartary, and were widely celebrated for a splendid magnanimity and generosity that completely eclipsed the calif. Their downfall was sudden, terrible, and infamous, and stains the great monarch's name with a blot that will never be washed away. After a convivial evening spent in different pavilions, at dead of night the calif sent for Ja'afar's head, and ordered Yáhyá and Al-Fazl to be flung into prison at Bagdad. According to the historian Al-Tabari, the whole Barmecide family, men, women, and children, numbering over a thousand, were slaughtered with scarce an exception. The motives for this atrocious massacre have never been adequately explained. The popular idea is that given in the Arabian Nights. The calif took such delight in Ja'afar's conversation that he desired his companionship even in the harem, and therefore married him pro formâ to his eldest sister, the beautiful Abbásah. Ja'afar bound himself by a solemn oath to be his wife's husband in name only, but failed to keep the compact, and the consequences of his folly brought upon his head the merciless wrath of the offended calif. Some have hinted besides at a taint of heresy, or at least tolerance of heretics, that may have angered the soul of Haroun 'the orthodox.' The only conclusion we can come to is that of Al-Mas'udi: 'As regards the ultimate cause' (of the catastrophe), 'it is unknown, and Allah is Omniscient.' Sa'id ibn Sálím, the grammarian, wrote: 'Of a truth, the Barmecides did nothing to deserve Al-Raschid's severity, but the day (of their power and prosperity) had been long, and whatso endureth long waxeth longsome.' The calif sincerely repented his enormous crime. From that day he never enjoyed refreshing sleep—he would have given his crown to bring Ja'afar back to life. Nor did the kingdom thrive after the extermination of this wise and enlightened family. Though the calif had forbidden mention of their name on pain of death, he could not save his ears from hearing their praises, the constant recurrence of which must ever have added a fresh sting to his penitence. The story, 'full of the waters of the eye,' as Firdousi says, took a strong hold upon the Moslem imagination, and has been told and retold a thousand times. See sec. iii. of the 'Terminal Essay,' in vol. x. (1886) of Sir Richard F. Burton's Thousand Nights and a Night.