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Barmecide : In The Arabian Nights in the story “Barber’s Sixth Brother” a Barmecide prince invites a hungry beggar to a banquet & serves a succession of imaginary dishes. The beggar pretends to enjoy them with such gusto & good-humour that he finally earns a real sumptuous feast. In another version, the beggar, entering into the spirit of the jest, also pretends to be intoxicated by the imaginary wine offered him, & falls upon his entertainer. Hence ‘Barmecidal’ is used for one who offers illusory benefits & ‘Barmecide feast’ for something that appears highly desirable but proves to be imaginary, illusory.― Barmecides or Barmekids is patronymic of a Persian family whose origin is traceable to hereditary Pramukhas, administrators, of the Buddhist monastery Nava-Vihāra west of Balkh. Converted during the Arab-Muslim invasion of the Persian Sasānian Empire, the Skt. Pramukha was arabized to Barmak. The first member of the family whose name ‘Barmak’ is preserved in historical records was a physician of Balkh. His son Khalid ibn Barmak or Khalid al-Barmaki (705-782 AD; s/a “Khaled of the Sea”) supported the civil war that brought in the Abbasside Caliphate governing from Baghdad. He became the prime minister of Al Saffah, the first Caliph of the Abbasside dynasty in Baghdad, with powers such a tax collecting & overseeing the army; later he was appointed governor of Fars & Tabaristan. His son Yaḥyā ibn Khālid (d.806), at one time Governor of Arminiya, was entrusted by Caliph al-Mahdi (ruled 775-85) with the education of his son, Haroun, the future Caliph Haroun al-Rasheed. “We know of Yaḥyā ibn Khalid al-Barmaki as a patron of physicians (writes a historian) &, specifically, of the translation of Hindu medical works into both Arabic & Persian. In all likelihood however, his activity took place in the orbit of the Caliphal court in Iraq, where at the behest of Hārūn al-Rashīd (786–809), such books were translated into Arabic. Thus Khurāsān or Khorasan (q.v.) & Transoxiana were effectively bypassed in this transfer of learning from India to Islam, even though, undeniably the Barmaki’s cultural outlook owed something to their land of origin, northern Khurāsān, & Yaḥyā al-Barmaki’s interest in medicine may have derived from no longer identifiable family tradition.” The Barmekids were highly educated, respected & influential throughout Arabia, Persia, Central Asia & the Levant. In Baghdad, the Barmekid court became a centre of patronage for the Ulema, poets, & scholars alike. Many Barmekids were patrons of the sciences, which greatly helped the propagation of Indo-Iranian science & scholarship into the Islamic world of Baghdad & beyond. They are also credited with the establishment of the first paper mill in Baghdad. The power of the Barmekids in those times is reflected in Arabian Nights or the book of One Thousand & One Nights, e.g. Yaḥyā’s son Ja’far ibn Barmak appears in several stories as Caliph Harun al-Rashid’s vizier. As mentor & aide to Hāroun & later his prime minister, Yaḥyā became the most able administrator of the Caliphate. Yaḥyā’s sons Al-Fadl (766–808) & Jā’far (767–803), both occupied high offices under Hāroun, until they & the family fell from his grace in 803.