Ya'qub ibn al-Layth al-Saffar

Who was Ya'qub ibn al-Layth al-Saffar?

Ya'qub ibn al-Layth al-Saffar, or Ya'qub-i Laith Saffari, a Persian coppersmith, was the founder of the Saffarid dynasty in Sistan, with its capital at Zaranj. He ruled territories that are now in Iran and Afghanistan, as well as portions of western Pakistan and a small part of Iraq. He was succeeded by his brother, Amr Saffari.

In Iranian folklore, Ya'qub is sometimes regarded as an Iranian Robin Hood because according to legend he stole from the wealthy and helped the poor. He is also known for his harsh iconoclasm of Buddhist stupas as well as forceful enslavement of Buddhists and their subsequent conversion to Islam. He was also known for generating at that time the largest sex slave trade in the region, kidnapping Zoroastrian, Buddhist, and Hindu women and selling them as sex slaves in the Islamic markets.