The Rise and Fall of the Barmakids: Stories from a Forgotten Persian Manuscript - The Islamicate East: New Approaches to Texts and History (Hardback)

The Rise and Fall of the Barmakids offers the first annotated English translation of Ḍiyāʾal-Dīn Baranī’s The Accounts of the Barmakids, based on the Bodleiain's MS Ouseley 217, which features in the Treasured exhibition at the Weston Library. Contained within this work are 70 tales, including stories of generosity, wise leadership, romance and skulduggery.

This translation offers lively and often intriguing human stories about the rise and fall of the Barmakids. Firoozbakhsh and Azad expertly introduce Baranī and his milieu, and illuminate a blend of Abbasid history, Indo-Persian political culture, and mirror-for-princes narrative art—indispensable for students of caliphs, viziers, and the Persianate world.

– John A. Nawas, KU Leuven & Institute for Advanced Arabic and Islamic Studies (IAAS)

• Hardback
• 344 pages
  
• ISBN: 9781399559317
• Published: 28/02/2026