Ya'qūb-i Layth-i Saffārī (Persian: یعقوب لیث) | |
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Amir of the Saffarid dynasty | |
Reign | 861–879 |
Successor | Amr ibn al-Layth |
Born | 840 Karnin, modern-day Afghanistan |
Died | June 5, 879 (aged 39) Gundeshapur, Khuzestan, Iran |
House | Saffarid |
Father | Laith |
Religion | Sunni Islam |
Ya'qūb ibn al-Layth al-Saffār (يعقوب بن الليث الصفار), or Ya'qūb-i Layth-i Saffārī (یعقوب لیث صفاری), born Rādmān pūr-i Māhak (Persian: رادمان پور ماهک) (October 25, 840 – June 5, 879), a Persian coppersmith, was the founder of the Saffarid dynasty of Sistan, with its capital at Zaranj (a city now in south-western Afghanistan). Under his military leadership he conquered much of the eastern portions of the Greater Persia consisting of modern day Iran, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan as well as portions of western Pakistan and a small part of Iraq. He was succeeded by his brother, Amr ibn al-Layth.
Ya'qub 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. Information about his genealogy and social background is lacking. Clifford Edmund Bosworth explains that a number of Sunni sources were invariably hostile to Ya'qub because of the disrespect he showed toward the Abbasid caliph. "Some sources accused Ya'qub of being a Khariji, Ibn Khallikan labelled him a Christian, and Nizam al-Mulk claimed that he converted to Ismailism". However, these claims came roughly a century after Yaqub's death, and most sources agree on Ya'qub's ascetic lifestyle.