YA'QUB IBN LAITH AS-SAFFAR

born 840 died 879 founder of the Saffarid Empire, who rose from obscurity to rule much of present Iran as well as portions of Afghanistan and Pakistan; at one point he came close to capturing Baghdad, the seat of the caliph (the religious leader of all Islam). After Laith's apprenticeship as a coppersmith (saffar, whence the name of the dynasty), he became a bandit and assembled an independent army. He won a measure of respect from the caliph by conquering non-Muslim areas in what is now Afghanistan. He then began to act as an independent ruler, minting his own coinage and driving out the Tahirid dynasty from control of Khorasan, in eastern Iran. Laith next seized control of the Iranian food-producing provinces of Fars and Ahwaz. Finally in 878 he marched on Baghdad itself but was stopped when its defenders cut irrigation dikes. Laith is a popular folk hero in Iranian history, and it was at his court that the revitalization of the Persian language began after two centuries of eclipse by Arabic.