The Narrators of Barmakid History and Independent Works on the Family
Regarding the Barmakids, the most renowned family of viziers throughout the Abbasid period, many aspects remain unclear despite the abundance of historical, literary, and biographical sources. Identifying the earliest and most important transmitters of accounts about this family, examining the numerous historical and narrative works written about them, and comparing and conducting a stylistic analysis of these works and accounts may help clarify some of these unresolved issues. This article introduces the most important transmitters of these accounts, as well as the known monographs on the Barmakids dating from the 4th century AH onward. The sources for research on the Barmakids—the most renowned family of viziers and administrators of the Abbasid era—can be divided into two main groups: The first group consists of a vast body of reports which, in accordance with the importance of this family and the fundamental role they played in shaping the political and administrative or...