Islam and Indic Tradition: The Barmakids of Baghdad

By Arshad Alam, New Age Islam 30 March 2022 A Buddhist Family Fundamentally Influenced The Islamic Knowledge System Main Points: 1. The Barmakids were the chief priest of the Buddhist temple at Balkh, present day northern Afghanistan. 2. They served at high positions in the courts of Abbasid caliphs like al Mansur and Harun al Rashid 3. They were fundamentally instrumental in transmitting Indian medicinal knowledge to the Arabic and Persian world ------ In the dominant reading of Islam, it appears that the religion almost sprouted out of nowhere. God spoke to Muhammad who eventually struggled and established Islam in the Arabian Subcontinent. Revisionist historians have taken another view; that no religion can just arise in a social and ideological vacuum. These historians link early Islam with sects of Christianity and Judaism and argue that the religion of Muhammad was responding to these religious forces in Arabia. However, because these three religions arose in that part of the world, we do not see much talk on how eastern traditions like Hinduism or Buddhism might have impacted Islam. It is worth noting that a large of Muslim land today was once dominated by eastern religions like Hinduism, Buddhism and Manicheanism. Islam took over those lands very rapidly and it is not conceivable that the practitioners of these religions just converted and forgot everything about their previous traditions. What one is arguing is that there is a need to see the kinds of interaction that took place between different Indic traditions and Islam in its formative years. While the orthodox have argued that the formation was complete the day revelation ended, we know that the history is much more complicated. Some have even argued that it was the Abbasids who would eventually perfect what we know as Islam today. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Also Read: Islam and the Indic Tradition: The Contribution of Mir Fenderiski ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Abbasid empire was far and wide, extending from the shores of Tunis to the present-day parts of Pakistan. We should not forget that some of these lands, especially present-day Afghanistan and parts of Iran, were centers of Buddhism and Hinduism since centuries. The Abbasids and before them the Umayyads were building the foundation of Islam on the edifice of these two important Indic traditions and it is not fantastical to argue that the conquered in turn would have influenced the formation of Islam in certain ways. The current article tells the story of one such interaction which took place between Islam and Buddhism through an important family called the Barmakids. The Barmakids were the chief priest of the Buddhist temple at Nawbahar (Nava Vihara/New Monastery) in Balkh, present day northern Afghanistan. Within this lineage, we get Khalid Barmak who was born as a Buddhist but later converted to Islam and took various important positions in the Abbasid caliphate. Khalid’s father, we are told, studied religious scriptures, medicine and sciences of the day in various monasteries in Kashmir before returning to Balkh to continue with his duties as the chief priest of the temple there. It is important to remember that Barmak is the corrupted version of Pramukh in Sanskrit and Parmak in Bactrian. In both these usages, the meaning is the same: head priest of a Buddhist monastery. But as Parmak was translated into Arabic, the phenome P was changed to B and Parmak became Barmak. The Buddhist ancestry of the Barmakids seems to have stimulated the interest in Indian sciences during the age of translation at the Abbasid court in the late eighth century. Yahya Barmak, the son of Khalid sponsored Sanskrit translations at the court, in part inspired by his own personal heritage. Writers like Masudi wrote high praise for the Barmakids and tell us how they rose to high offices of caliph Harun al Rashid. Although astronomical and mathematical treatises were also being translated during the golden age of Islam, the Barmakids were particularly interested in bringing Indian medical knowledge to the Abbasid court. Thus, the translation of Shusruta Samhita, the Gupta period medical text, was begun during the reign of caliph al Mansur, when Khalid was one of the most important members of the inner circle. Khalid’s son, Yahya Barmak, who rose to become the vizier of caliph Harun al Rashid, similarly showed much interest in the translation of Indic medical knowledge, first in Persian and then into Arabic. Yahya was particularly significant as he gave patronage to Jabir ibn Hayyan (Geber), who recorded the art of alchemy by fusing the Hindu and local Iranian tradition. Jabir has had an enormous influence the world over on medicinal sciences through his huge corpus of works. Jabir’s friendship with the Barmakids facilitated the synthesis of Indic and other traditions related to alchemy and other esoteric sciences. The Jabirian Science, as it later came to be known, emphasized the dualism of physical or exterior (Zahir) and spiritual/hidden (Batin) or interior body; a dualism which will inform the philosophy of the Ismailis later on. Jabir was heavily accused of bringing ‘foreign’ influences into Islam through his multifarious works. But his closeness with the Barmakids meant that he could not be harmed. The Barmakids also popularized the teachings of Buddha by commissioning various authors. Three books about the life of Buddha were translated into Arabic under the patronage of Fazal and Yahya Barmaki. Yahya Barmaki, the right-hand man of the Abbasid caliph Harun al Rashid, personally commissioned some of these translations and this can possibly be due to the fact that Buddhism was his ancestral religion. These translations were not without its risk though. The translator of one of these texts was said to be Aban Lahaghi, who was accused of being a Zindiq (heretic) Manichean, but he was saved as he had the good fortune of being close to the powerful Barmakid family. Others were not so fortunate. Ibn al Muqaffa, who was another celebrated translator of middle Persian texts including the life of Mani (Manicheanism) and Mazdak (Zoroastrianism), was similarly accused of being a Zindiq and put to death. Unfortunately, the Barmakids would themselves be put to death by Harun al Rashid, the reasons for which need not detain us here. What is more important is that this family of Indic origin had a huge impact on knowledge tradition in early Islam. It was through their efforts that a synthesis of Indic and non-Indic knowledge systems could occur. True that they converted to Islam, but their Buddhist origins played a significant part in how they understood knowledge systems and believed in its continuity. The history of Barmakids tells us that a change in one’s religious identity need not mean the fundamental abandonment of one’s intellectual heritage. ----- A regular contributor to NewAgeIslam.com, Arshad Alam is a writer and researcher on Islam and Muslims in South Asia. 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