192 – ʿAmr ibn al-Layth al-Saffār

It was said that he had once been a coppersmith; another report maintains that he was only a donkey driver, yet his circumstances carried him all the way to the throne.

He succeeded his brother, governed with sound policy and justice, his dominion became great, and he remained obedient to the caliph.

Every three months he would distribute pay to his army. He himself attended the inspection parade while heaps of money were piled up before him. The herald would first call out, “ʿAmr ibn al-Layth!” whereupon he would bring forward his fully equipped horse. The inspector examined it, weighed out three hundred dirhams for him, and placed them in front of him. ʿAmr would tuck the coins into his boot and say, “Praise be to Allah, who enabled me to obey the Commander of the Faithful so that I deserved this stipend.” The money then belonged to whoever removed his boot.

Next the other commanders were summoned with their horses and equipment; anyone whose kit was deficient was denied his pay (1).

It is also said that his wife was served by one thousand seven hundred slave-girls.

Subsequently ʿAmr revolted against the governor of Samarqand, Ismaʿil ibn Aḥmad ibn Asad, and set out against him. Ismaʿil humbled himself and said, “I hold a frontier post with which I am content, while the whole world is in your hands; so leave me in peace.” But ʿAmr would not relent. So Ismaʿil moved swiftly in winter, fell upon ʿAmr, his strength collapsed, and he began to flee; they captured him.

Naftaweih said: Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad narrated to us that the cause of ʿAmr’s defeat at Balkh was that its people had grown weary of his soldiers and of their oppression. When Ismaʿil advanced, the men of ʿAmr ibn al-Layth started to flee; Ismaʿil’s troops rode them down, and ʿAmr became bogged down in the mud—