Amr ibn al-Layth
| Amr ibn al-Layth | |
|---|---|
| Amir of the Saffarid dynasty | |
| Reign | 879–901 |
| Predecessor | Ya'qub ibn al-Layth al-Saffar |
| Successor | Tahir ibn Muhammad ibn Amr |
| Born | Unknown Karnin, modern-day Afghanistan |
| Died | 20 or 22 April 902 Baghdad |
| House | Saffarid |
| Father | Layth |
| Religion | Sunni Islam |
Amr ibn al-Layth or Amr-i Laith Saffari (Persian: عمرو لیث صفاری) was the second ruler of the Saffarid dynasty of Iran from 879 to 901. He was the son of a whitesmith and the younger brother of the dynasty's founder, Ya'qub ibn al-Layth al-Saffar.
Said to have started as a mule-driver and a mason, he later fought alongside his older brother and in 875 became governor of Herat. When Ya'qub died in Fars in 879, Amr managed to become the successor of the Saffarid throne over his brother Ali ibn al-Layth, who was the preferred choice of both Ya'qub and the army.
In 884, the Bavandid ruler Rustam I, after being repelled from Mazandaran by the Zaydi ruler Muhammad ibn Zayd, arrived to the court of Amr, and requested his aid to reclaim the Bavand throne. With the aid of Amr, Rustam was allowed to return to his domains in Mazandaran.
The Caliph al-Mu'tadid (r. 892–902) was forced to acknowledge the reality of the Saffarids' domination in the East, and reached a modus vivendi with them, perhaps hoping, according to Hugh N. Kennedy, to harness them in a partnership analogous to that which the Tahirids had enjoyed in previous decades. Consequently, the Saffarids were recognized in their possession of Khurasan and eastern Persia as well as Fars, while the Abbasids were to exercise direct control over Jibal, Rayy and Isfahan.
The Abbasid–Saffarid partnership in Iran was most clearly expressed against the intrepid general Rafi ibn Harthama, who had made his base in Rayy and posed a threat to both caliphal and Saffarid interests in the region. The Abbasid caliph al-Mu'tadid sent the Dulafid Ahmad ibn Abd al-Aziz to seize Rayy from Rafi, who fled and made common cause with the Zaydis of Tabaristan in an effort to conquer Khurasan from the Saffarids. With Amr mobilizing anti-Alid sentiment against him and the expected assistance from the Zaydis failing to materialize, Rafi was defeated and killed in Khwarazm in 896. Amr, at the pinnacle of his power, sent the defeated rebel's head to Baghdad. In 897 Rayy too was handed over to the Saffarids by the Abbasids, who could not manage to hold over the city against Zaydi invasions.
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