Save

The Fall of the Barmakids in Historiography and Fiction: Recognition and Disclosure

In: Journal of Abbasid Studies
Author:
Philip Kennedy New York University USA philip.kennedy@nyu.edu

Search for other papers by Philip Kennedy in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Close
Download Citation Get Permissions

Access options

Get access to the full article by using one of the access options below.

Institutional Login

Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials

Login via Institution

Purchase

Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):

$40.00

This study traces a centuries-long development in, transformation of, and argues for a variegated rapport between a group of disparate texts, some historiographical, some fictitious. Classical historiographies recounting the Barmakid debacle (al-Ṭabarī through Ibn Khallikān), late medieval and pre-modern popular accounts of the Barmakid tragedy, tales that accompany these accounts, and others in the Arabian Nights that mention Jaʿfar the Barmakid and related ones that do not, are all analyzed by appealing to Aristotle’s concept of anagnorisis (recognition or discovery). Anagnorisis makes narrative and historiography read like fiction and is a structuring device in these texts, a window into narrative hermeneutics, and specifically, the feature that indicates significantly that these various texts are of a piece, according to both conscious and subliminal design. Anagnorisis reverberates with calamitous recognition built into the Barmakid story — one which unveils hard and tragic truths, and just as importantly preserves malignant secrecy, a secrecy that the Arabian Nights unconsciously transforms into felicity.

Content Metrics

All Time Past 365 days Past 30 Days
Abstract Views 2063 142 6
Full Text Views 494 8 0
PDF Views & Downloads 715 27 0