Alp-Tegin

Alp-Tegin
Persian: الپتگین
Bust of Alp Tegin as one of the founders of the "16 Great Turkic Empires", part of the "Turkishness Monument" (Türklük Anıtı) in Pınarbaşı, Kayseri (opened 2000, 2012 photograph).
Governor of Ghazna
In office
962 – September 963
MonarchMansur I
Succeeded byAbu Ishaq Ibrahim
Personal details
Bornc. 910
DiedSeptember 963
Ghazna

Alp-Tegin, (Persian: الپتگین Alptegīn or Alptigīn[1]) or Alptekin, was a Turkic slave commander of the Samanid Empire, who would later become the semi-independent governor of Ghazna from 962 until his death in 963.

Before becoming governor of Ghazni, Alp-Tegin was the commander-in-chief (sipahsalar) of the Samanid army in Khorasan. In a political fallout over succession of the Samanids he crossed the Hindu Kush mountains southward and captured Ghazna, located strategically between Kabul and Kandahar in present-day Afghanistan, and thereby establishing his own principality, which, however, was still under Samanid authority.[2] He was succeeded by his son, Abu Ishaq Ibrahim.

  1. ^ Alp is a Turkic honorific, translating to "brave" or "hero"; tegin is an Old Turkic word meaning "prince"; see C. E. Bosworth, Oriens 36 (2000), p. 304.
  2. ^ Bosworth 2001, pp. 578–583.