Ya'qub bin Laith as-Saffar or Ya'qub-i Laith Saffari (840-June 5, 879) (Persian: یعقوب لیث صفاری) was the founder of the Saffarid dynasty in Sistan, with its capital at Zaranj (a city now in south-western Afghanistan). He ruled territories that are now in Iran and Afghanistan, as well as portions of West Pakistan.[1][2] In Iranian folklore, Ya'qub is regarded as a Khorasani Robin Hood because according to legend he stole from the wealthy and helped the poor.[1]
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Ya'qub was born in 840 in a small town called Karmin, which was located east of Zaranj and west of Bost, in what is now Afghanistan.[3] He lived a very poor life, it is mentioned that he sometimes ate bread and onions due to poverty. His family moved to the city of Zaranj due that reason as well as the occasional sectarian violence between the Sunni Ayyārs and Kharijites. His father's name was Laith, who was probably killed before the family arrived to the new city. Ya'qub began work as a coppersmith ("saffar"), while his brother Amr worked as a mule-hirer.[4]
When the Tahirid dynasty of Khorasan came south to take control of the region, Ya'qub was fighting in 852 under a local commander of Bost (now Lashkar Gah), Saleh. After killing in a single combat a dreaded Kharijite captain named Amman, Ya'qub was promoted to the position of a commander. He decided to give himself the title Emir at that point.[3]
He attracted the attention of an Abbasid caliph by conquering non-Muslim territories in the east, which are now mostly part of modern Afghanistan and Pakistan. Then he began acting as an independent ruler and eventually succeeded in gaining control of much of what is now Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. He became the sovereign monarch of the first Khorasan dynasty after the Arab Islamic conquest.[1][2] In many cases, the people he conquered had rebelled against their Islamic overloards and reverted to prior forms of worship.[5]
...Arab armies carrying the banner of Islam came out of the west to defeat the Sasanians in 642 AD 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 AD and marched through Bost, Kandahar, Ghazni, Kabul, Bamyan, Balkh and Herat, conquering in the name of Islam.[5]—Nancy Hatch Dupree, 1971
From his capital Zaranj, he conquered a vast area that included: Kabul Valley, Sindh, Tocharistan, Makran, Balochistan, Kerman, Fars, Khorasan. He attempted to conquer Baghdad but was defeated by the much larger forces of the caliph al-Mu'tamid.[1][2] It was during his rule that Persian was introduced as an official language, ending the pervasive influence of the Arabic language.[6] Laith has been accorded the historical status of a popular folk hero in history because his court began the revitalization of the Persian language after two centuries of domination by the Arabic language.[2]
Ya'qub had colic disease and was refusing treatments when advised to do so. As a result, he died on Wednesday, June 5, 879, at a place called Gundishabur.[7] He was soon after succeeded by his brother Amr Saffari. Although he was not viwed as a gentleman, he also did not exercise any special cruelty. It was reported that he did not smile much, and was called "the anvil" by one his enemies. According to Ibn Khallikan, his wife was an Arab woman from Sistan.[8]
| Preceded by none |
Emir of Saffarids 867–879 |
Succeeded by Amr Saffari |