Whatever unfavourable reputation the Saffarids may have left behind in the provinces outside their homeland, there is much to show that they were genuinely popular inside Sistan, that they expressed something of the local, particularist spirit there, and that they had in some measure the interests of Sistan in their minds. In the early years of Ya'qub's career, when he was an cayyar commander in Salih b. al-Nadr's service, he is said to have restrained Salih's predominantly Bust! troops from plundering Zarang, since impoverishment of the capital could only benefit the rival town of Bust. More explicit are the attempts of a member of the ruling family, Muhammad b. Khalaf b. al-Laith, to sooth the factional strife between the two groups of the Samakiyya and Sadaqiyya. His theme is that the unity and cohesion of Sistan will suffer from dissensions: "He said, 'Let there be no more strife (ta'assub), for we are already in deep trouble. You have all seen the present state of affairs and the divisions which have arisen since the deaths of Ya'qub and cAmr; you must not let any more divisive factional strife arise. Instead, let there be concord amongst you, so that even if all the [outlying] provinces [of the empire] are lost, this province at least will remain in your hands and be inviolate from the grasp of outsiders and unworthy ones.'" Moreover, during their period of rule in Khurasan, the Saffarids made some endeavour to enlist the support and sympathy of the *ulamd and scholars there. Ya'qub had caused some destruction in Nishapur when he had captured it, but 'Amr added to the Friday mosque and built the ddr al-imdra or governor's palace there. The Saffarids employed as a secretary the poet Ibrahim alMughaithl, and it is mentioned that 'Amr rewarded the jurist and traditionist Muhammad al-Bushanji with 20,000 dinars.
Saffarids and Their Strategy for Spread of Islam in Afghanistan
