AHQ/Poll: The Restoration of the Persian Empire under the Saffarid

A Sunni Muslim Saffarid Empire over Iran, is it a successor to the Persian Empire


  • Total voters
    20
In the crisis of the 850s-870s in the Abbasid throne, a new wave of threats came upon the Abbasid court at once. Some old and some new. In the northern section of Iraq, the Khawarij rebels of al-Musawir looted across the region an army and state built upon banditry and religious revolution; regional strongmen who sought to demote the Abbasid to pawns of a bygone age (Tulunids); scheming court officials and all powerful Mamluk bodyguards and a slave rebellion infused with all of the combined vitriol of the Shi'a and Khawarij sects, which threatened the destruction of the Caliphate (The Zanj rebellion, who in the words of al-Muwaffaq [the caliphal regent and protector] upon the siege of the Zanj capital of al-Mukhtara, 'he had never seen such a fabulous rebellion and with such organization and power').

However, the most pressing matter perhaps for the Abbasid court that rose as a spectre over much of these events, was the Saffarid threat in the east. A great general of lowly origins, Ya'qub ibn Layth al-Saffar, a Persian general and emir of the Sistan. His medal was earned through hard battle on behalf of the Abbasid Caliph, defeating both Yasr ibn Amr al-Khariji in the Baloch region (then controlled by this rebel under a sort of rebelling Khawarij movement) and famously conquering the Zabul kingdom which had resisted Islamic conquest for the past 200 years. However, Ya'qub ibn Layth al-Saffar had begun to gain ambitions of grandeur, for what reason we cannot know, but we may assume that the blood was in the water, as the Abbasid throne was clearly in a weakening state of affairs and for his part, his Saffarid emirate in Sistan had made its gains without assistance from Baghdad-Samarra, thus the spirit of particularism.

Regardless, the Safafrids began their war with insults upon the Abbasids and moving upon the Abbasid's more loyal Iranian appendages, the Tahirids. The Tahirids had risen to prominence in the 830s after their political victories against the Khuramiyya, the Qarinvand and assisting in the falling star of al-Afshin. Thus, by the middle of the 9th century, the Tahirids were the primary feudal ruler of the Iranian plateau.

Despite this status, the Saffarids waged a low scale war upon the Tahirids with great diplomatic effect and local allies within Iran. The result in short, was Saffarid murder of the major Tahirid powers and the capture of others in the Tabaristan mountains. Meanwhile, according to our sources, the Saffarids had begun to utilize old Sassanid symbols and began to refer to Ya'qub ibn Layth al-Saffar as a Shah. In the mindset of the Abbasid court of the timed, the Saffarids were attempting to restore the crown of Persia and bring ruin upon them.

In short, the career of Ya'qub ibn Layth al-Saffar was cut short, his invasion of the Abbasid Caliphate, with great expectations, was defeated in pitched battle against the Caliphal regent al-Muwaffaq and later the Saffarids attempting to assert power against the Zanj, were defeated by the Zanj at the campaign of Ahvaz.

However, had the Saffarids defeated the Abbasid army near Baghdad and captured the city to great acclaim and made al-Mu'Tamid a puppet and asserting a sort of Saffarid Persian empire with the Caliph as a puppet, would this in the opinion of the forum be a restoration of the old Persian empire of the Sassanids? If not, what ingredients are needed to make it so.
 
Since the Saffarids were patrons of Persian culture, revived Persian state traditions, and considered themselves Persian, I would say yes, it would be a restoration. I don't think their religion is that important as previous Iranian dynasties all had different religious persuasions but are still considered Iranian.
 
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