[1] The Caliph al-Mu'tadid (r. 892–902) was forced to acknowledge the reality of the Saffarids' domination in the East, and reached a modus vivendi with them, perhaps hoping, according to Hugh N. Kennedy, to harness them in a partnership analogous to that which the Tahirids had enjoyed in previous decades.

[2][3] The Abbasid–Saffarid partnership in Iran was most clearly expressed against the intrepid general Rafi ibn Harthama, who had made his base in Ray and posed a threat to both caliphal and Saffarid interests in the region.

Al-Mu'tadid sent the Dulafid Ahmad ibn Abd al-Aziz to seize Ray from Rafi, who fled and made common cause with the Zaydis of Tabaristan in an effort to conquer Khurasan from the Saffarids.

Al-Mu'tadid in turn conferred Amr's titles to Isma'il ibn Ahmad, but the Saffarid remnant under Tahir proved sufficiently resilient to thwart the caliphal attempts at regaining Fars and Kirman for several more years.

When the new Caliph, al-Muktafi, entered Baghdad, he asked the vizier, al-Qasim ibn Ubayd Allah, of Amr's whereabouts, and was overjoyed to hear that he was still alive, as the Saffarid had been generous and kind to him in the past.