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.
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Also
Read: Islam and the
Indic Tradition: The Contribution of Mir Fenderiski
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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.
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-pluralism/indic-tradition-barmakids-baghdad/d/126689
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