Saffarid dynasty
The Saffarid dynasty was a culturally Persianate dynasty of eastern Iranian origin that ruled over parts of Persia, Greater Khorasan, and eastern Makran from 861 to 1002. One of the first indigenous Persian dynasties to emerge after the Islamic conquest, the Saffarid dynasty was part of the Iranian Intermezzo. The dynasty's founder was Ya'qub bin Laith as-Saffar, who was born in 840 in a small town called Karnin (Qarnin), which was located east of Zaranj and west of Bost, in what is now Afghanistan. A native of Sistan and a local ayyār, Ya'qub worked as a coppersmith (ṣaffār) before becoming a warlord. He seized control of the Sistan region and began conquering most of Iran and Afghanistan, as well as parts of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Founding
The dynasty began with Ya'qub ibn al-Layth al-Saffar (Ya'qub, son of Layth, the Coppersmith), a coppersmith of eastern Iranian origins,[a] who moved to the city of Zaranj. He left work to become an Ayyar and eventually got the power to act as an independent ruler. From his capital Zaranj he moved east into al-Rukhkhadj (Arachosia), Zamindawar and ultimately Kabul, vanquishing the Zunbils and the Hindu Shahis by 865. He then invaded Bamyan, Balkh, Badghis, and Ghor. In the name of Islam, he conquered these territories which were predominantly ruled by Buddhist tribal chiefs. He took vast amounts of plunder and slaves from this campaign.
Expansion
The Tahirid city of Herat was captured in 870, and Ya'qub's campaign in the Badghis region led to the capture of Kharidjites which later formed the Djash al-Shurat contingent in his army. Ya'qub then turned his focus to the west and began attacks on Khorasan, Khuzestan, Kerman (Southeastern Iran) and Fars (southwestern Iran). The Saffarids then seized Khuzestan (southwestern Iran) and parts of southern Iraq, and in 876 came close to overthrowing the Abbasids, whose army was able to turn them back only within a few days' march from Baghdad. From silver mines in the Panjshir Valley, the Saffarids were able to mint silver coins. These incursions, however, forced the Abbasid caliphate to recognize Ya'qub as governor of Sistan, Fars and Kerman, and Saffarids were even offered key posts in Baghdad. Despite Ya'qub's military successes, he was not an empire builder since he had no concept of a centralized government.
Decline
In 901, Amr Saffari was defeated at the battle of Balkh by the Samanids, and they lost Khorasan to them. The Saffarids were reduced to the provinces of Fars, Kerman and Sistan. Under Tahir ibn Muhammad ibn Amr (901–908), the dynasty fought the Abbasids for the possession of Fars to maintain its control over the province. However, in 908, a civil war erupted between Tahir and the pretender al-Laith b. 'Ali in Sistan. In the next years, the governor of Fars, Sebük-eri defected to the Abbasids. In 912, the Samanids finally expelled the Saffarids from Sistan. Sistan passed briefly to Abbasid control, but became independent again under the Saffarid Abu Ja'far Ahmad ibn Muhammad; but now the dynasty was a minor power isolated in Sistan.
The Saffarids patronized the Persian language in the form of court poetry and established Persianate culture. Under their rule, the eastern Islamic world witnessed the emergence of prominent Persian poets such as Fayrouz Mashriqi, Abu Salik al-Jirjani, and Muhammad ibn Wasif, who was a court poet. In the later 9th century, the Saffarids gave impetus to a renaissance of New Persian literature and culture. Following Ya'qub's conquest of Herat, some poets chose to celebrate his victory in Arabic, whereupon Ya'qub requested his secretary, Muhammad bin Wasif al-Sistani, to compose those verses in Persian.
The religion of the Saffarids, particularly its founder Ya'qub, has been a topic of debate. The majority of the sources are hostile to the Saffarids giving many contradictory claims: Ibn Khallikan claims he was a Khariji, Nizam al-Mulk as an Ismaili, Hamdallah Mustawfi as an extremist Shi'ite intent on destroying Islam, while the official Abbasid propaganda of Al-Mu'tamid went unusually far, publicly condemning Ya'qub via a formal missive, even claiming he was a Christian, suggesting he threatened their legitmacy beyond that of a typical rebel. The Abbasids also seem to have created propaganda that he was a Persian Nationalist.[b] However, Al-Ya'qubi, the only contemporary source and only source written before the 875 march on Baghdad and the subsequent Abbasid-Samanid propaganda which followed, declared the Saffarid as a righteous holy warrior fighting on command of the Caliph. Modern scholars like C.E. Bosworth ascribe to the dynasty the lack of any major religious beliefs and Kharijite sympathies. While archeologist Barry Cunliffe, states the Saffarids were Shia Muslim.
