BARMECIDES, better, BARMAKIDS, a noble Persian family which attained great power under the Abbasid caliphs. Barmak, the founder of the family, was a Parsi. According to tradition, his wife was taken for a time into the harem of Abdallah, brother of Kotaiba, the conqueror of Balkh, and became 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 Mando and tutor of Harun al-Rashid. His sons Fadl and Ja'far (the Giafar of the Arabian Nights) both occupied high offices under Harun. 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 by one of the Barmecides to a hungry man, to test his sense of humour (see edition by L. C. Smithers, 1894, vol. i. 317)•