History of Safarids of Sistan and Maliks of
Nimruz (247/861 to 949/1542-3)
C.E. Bosworth
Sistan, a land now on the borders of Afghanistan and Iran, was ruled in the 9th and 10th
centuries by the Saffarids, a dynasty of freebooters of lowly origin who carved out a
kingdom from eastern Iranian lands that the declining Abbasid caliphate could no longer
hold. Ya'qub, the coppersmith, and his brother `Amr, founders of the dynasty, rose from
humble origins to conquer great stretches of Khorasan and southern Iran, only to each face
defeat in turn. The writer, traces the history of this dynasty and the little known
province of Sistan that was their homeland from their rise in the 10th century down
through a series of local dynasties into the early 16th century. A masterwork by a
historian who has clarified the obscure and tangled history of the eastern Iranian lands
in the middle Ages.
Specifications:
1995:xvi+520pp., 4 ethnological tables, 2 maps,
notes, bibl., index.
Columbia Lectures on Iranian Studies, No. 8.
ISBN:1-56859-015-6(cloth): $49.00  Now
$20.00
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