Muhammad ibn Khalid ibn Barmak was one of the

Barmakids The Barmakids ( fa, برمکیان ''Barmakiyân''; ar, البرامكة ''al-Barāmikah''Harold Bailey, 1943. "Iranica" BSOAS 11: p. 2. India - Department of Archaeology, and V. S. Mirashi (ed.), ''Inscriptions of the Kalachuri-Chedi Era'' vol ...

, a family of Iranian functionaries who rose to great power under the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid ().

Life

He was the brother of Yahya ibn Khalid, whose appointment as vizier by Caliph Harun al-Rashid in 786 began the family's twenty-year domination of the Abbasid Caliphate's public affairs. Muhammad served as the Caliph's chamberlain () from 788 to 795. He was replaced by al-Fadl ibn al-Rabi, who in the anecdotes of the time appears both as the Barmakids' foil and main antagonist at court. Muhammad also served Harun al-Rashid as governor in the Yemen and the Jazira. He was the only Barmakid to be spared during the family's abrupt fall in 803, likely because he had reported on the attempted flight of the

Alid The Alids are those who claim descent from the '' rāshidūn'' caliph and Imam ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (656–661)—cousin, son-in-law, and companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad—through all his wives. The main branches are the (inc ...

Yahya ibn Abdallah Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (–803) was an Alid and Zaydi leader who led a rebellion against the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid in Daylam in 792. He was soon obliged to capitulate, but his ...

, who had been released by Yahya's son Ja'far, contrary to the Caliph's orders to have him killed.

Family tree

References

Sources

* * * * * * {{EI3 , last = van Bladel , first = Kevin , title= Barmakids , doi =10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_24302 , year =2012 Barmakids 8th-century births 8th-century people from the Abbasid Caliphate 9th-century deaths 9th-century people from the Abbasid Caliphate Chamberlains Governors of the Abbasid Caliphate Upper Mesopotamia under the Abbasid Caliphate Abbasid governors of Yemen