Jacob Leith's religious policy and the situation of religious minorities in the Saffarid realm

Sistan, as one of the easternmost states of Iran, has a long presence in Iranian religious and political mythology and history. The most important religions active in this land during the Sassanid period, especially from the second half of the Sassanid rule, were Zoroastrian, Buddhist, Hindu, Christian and Jewish. With the arrival of Islam in Sistan, as in other parts of Iran, there was a significant change in the religious and political form. From the first century AH, the people of Sistan gradually converted to Islam and accepted an Islamic political and religious identity. Yaqub Laith Saffari was one of the first Iranian rulers to come from the people of Sistan. The Ratbil / Zanbil dynasty was one of these local rivals whose territory Sistan was part of centuries ago. These dynasties and Kabul kings were Buddhist and Shia. the time and place in which Yaqub Laith Saffari formed his government, the main issue of this article is to examine his religious policy. For him, political and economic goals were more important than religious goals. In order to repel the enemies and the danger of the rivals, to consolidate power, to gain wealth and spoils, to expand the territory and gain legitimacy from the caliphate and to be accepted by the Sunni community, he proposed models related to invading the land of infidels and destroying their temples. He became religiously tolerant of the followers of the divine religions. In Ya'qub's religious policy, the attempt to spread Islam was irrelevant.