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Saffarid Empireصفاریان
867–1002
Saffarid Emirate at its Greatest Extent
Capital	Zaranj, Afghanistan
Common languages	Persian (mother tongue)
Religion	Sunni Islam
Government	Monarchy
Emir
• 861–879	Ya'qub bin Laith as-Saffar
• 963–1002	Khalaf I
Historical era	Medieval
• Established	867
• Disestablished	1002
Preceded by Succeeded by Tahirid dynasty Samanid dynasty

The Saffarids (Template:Lang-fa) were a Muslim and Persianate dynasty of Persian origin from Seistan who established a Persian Empire in eastern Iran, between 861 and 1002, which included Khorasan, Afghanistan and Balochistan. The dynasty was founded by Ya'qub bin Laith as-Saffar, a native of Seistan and a local ayyar, who worked as a coppersmith (ṣaffār) to becoming a warlord. He seized control of the Sistan region and began conquering most of what is now Afghanistan in the name of Islam.

The Saffarids used their capital Zaranj, which is a city in modern-day Afghanistan, as a base for an aggressive expansion eastwards and westwards. They first invaded the Buddhist-Hindu dominated areas south of the Hindu Kush in Afghanistan and then overthrew the Persian Tahirid dynasty, annexing Khorasan in 873. By the time of Ya'qub's death, he had conquered the Kabul Valley, Sindh, Tocharistan, Makran (Balochistan), Kerman, Fars, Khorasan, and nearly reached Baghdad but then suffered a defeat by the Abbasids.

The Saffarid empire did not last long after Ya'qub's death. His brother and successor, Amr bin Laith, was defeated in a battle in Balkh against Ismail Samani in 900. Amr bin Laith was forced to surrender most of his territories to the new rulers. The Saffarids were subsequently confined to their heartland of Sistan, with their role reduced to that of vassals of the Samanids and their successors.

Founding

The dynasty began with Ya'qub bin Laith as-Saffar (Ya'qub, son of Layth), a coppersmith 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 and Zamindawar followed by Zunbil and Kabul by 865. He then invaded Bamyan, Balkh, Badghis, and Ghor. In the name of Islam, he conquered these territories which were ruled mostly by Buddhist tribal chiefs. He took vast amounts of plunder and slaves from this campaign.

"Arab armies carrying the banner of Islam came out of the west to defeat the Sasanians in 642 and then they marched with confidence to the east. On the western periphery of the Afghan area the princes of Herat and Seistan gave way to rule by Arab governors but in the east, in the mountains, cities submitted only to rise in revolt and the hastily converted returned to their old beliefs once the armies passed. The harshness and avariciousness of Arab rule produced such unrest, however, that once the waning power of the Caliphate became apparent, native rulers once again established themselves independent. Among these the Saffarids of Seistan shone briefly in the Afghan area. The fanatic founder of this dynasty, the coppersmith’s apprentice Yaqub ibn Layth Saffari, came forth from his capital at Zaranj in 870 and marched through Bost, Kandahar, Ghazni, Kabul, Bamyan, Balkh and Herat, conquering in the name of Islam.".

— Nancy Dupree, 1971

The Tahirid city of Herat was captured in 870 and his 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, Khuzistan, Kirman and Fars. These attacks forced the Abbasid caliphate to recognize him as governor of Kirman.

In 901, Amr Saffari was defeated at the battle of Balkh by the Persian Samanids, which reduced the Saffarid dynasty to a minor tributary in Sistan.

In 1002, Mahmud of Ghazni invaded Sistan, dethroned Khalaf I and finally ended the Saffarid dynasty.

Culture

The Saffarids gave great care to the Persian 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 bin Wasif al-Sistani, 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.

From silver mines in the Panjshir Valley, the Saffarids were able to mint silver coins.

Rulers of the Saffarid dynasty

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See also

• Iranian Intermezzo
• Samanids
• Ghaznavids
• List of kings of Persia
• List of Sunni Muslim dynasties

References

1. "Persian Prose Literature." World Eras. 2002. HighBeam Research. (September 3, 2012);"Princes, although they were often tutored in Arabic and religious subjects, frequently did not feel as comfortable with the Arabic language and preferred literature in Persian, which was either their mother tongue—as in the case of dynasties such as the Saffarids (861–1003), Samanids (873–1005), and Buyids (945–1055)...".
2. The Islamization of Central Asia in the Samanid era and the reshaping of the Muslim world, D.G. Tor, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London , Vol. 72, No. 2 (2009), 281;"The Saffārids were the first of the Persianate dynasties to arise from the remains of the politically moribund ʿAbbāsid caliphate".
3. "First, the Saffarid amirs and maliks were rulers of Persian stock who for centuries championed the cause of the underdog against the might of the Abbasid caliphs." -- Savory, Roger M.. "The History of the Saffarids of Sistan and the Maliks of Nimruz (247/861 to 949/1542-3)." The Journal of the American Oriental Society. 1996
4. "The provincial Persian Ya'kub, on the other hand, rejoiced in his plebeian origins, denounced the Abbasids as usurpers, and regarded both the caliphs and such governors from aristocratic Arab families as the Tahirids with contempt". -- Ya'kub b. al-Layth al Saffar, C.E. Bosworth, The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Vol. XI, p 255
5. Saffarids: A Persian dynasty.....", Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature, Volume 2, edited by Julie Scott Meisami, Paul Starkey, p674
6. "There were many local Persian dynasties, including the Tahirids, the Saffarids....", Middle East, western Asia, and northern Africa, by Ali Aldosari, p472.
7. "Saffarid, the Coppersmith, the epithet of the founder of this Persian dynasty...", The Arabic Contributions to the English Language: An Historical Dictionary, by Garland Hampton Cannon, p288.
8. "The Saffarids, the first Persian dynasty, to challenge the Abbasids...", Historical Dictionary of the Ismailis, by Farhad Daftary, p51.
9. The Cambridge History of Iran, by Richard Nelson Frye, William Bayne Fisher, John Andrew Boyle (Cambridge University Press, 1975: ISBN 0-521-20093-8), pg. 121.
10. The Encyclopedia of World History, ed. Peter N. Stearns and William Leonard Langer (Houghton Mifflin, 2001), 115.
11. ^ Clifford Edmund Bosworth, Encyclopædia Iranica SAFFARIDS
12. The Development of Persian Culture under the Early Ghaznavids, C.E. Bosworth, Iran, Vol. 6, (1968), 34.
13. Saffarids, C.E. Bosworth, Encyclopedia of Islam, Vol. VIII, Ed. C.E.Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P.Heinrichs and G. Lecomte, (Brill, 1995), 795.
14. Dupree, Nancy (1971) "Sites in Perspective (Chapter 3)" An Historical Guide To Afghanistan Afghan Tourist Organization, Kabul, OCLC 241390
15. Saffarids, Encyclopedia of Islam, Vol. VIII, 795.
16. The Development of Persian Culture under the Early Ghaznavids, C.E. Bosworth, 34.
17. C.E. Bosworth, The Ghaznavids 994-1040, (Edinburgh University Press, 1963), 89.
18. The Ṭāhirids and Persian Literature, C. E. Bosworth, Iran, Vol. 7, (1969), 104.
19. The Tahirids and the Saffarids, C.E.Bosworth, The Cambridge History of Iran: The period from the Arab Invasion to the Saljuqs, Vol. IV, Ed. R.N.Frye, (Cambridge University Press, 1999), 129.
20. Pandjhir, Encyclopedia of Islam, Vol. VIII, 258.

External links

• Encyclopædia Iranica Saffarids

• Medieval Persia
• Medieval Afghanistan
• History of Tajikistan
• History of Pakistan
• History of Turkmenistan
• History of Uzbekistan
• Sistan
• States and territories established in 861
• 867 establishments
• 1002 disestablishments
• Saffarid dynasty
• Muslim dynasties
• History of Islam
• History of Nimruz Province
• Former political entities in Afghanistan