Alp Tigin

Who was Alp Tigin?

Alp Tigin, sometimes spelled as Alptigin, was the first Turkic emir of Ghazna between 962 to 963 after replacing the Lawiks, a native ruling dynasty. A Turk by origin or ethnicity, he is believed to have ruled this new territory as an extension of the Persian Samanid Empire in the north. He ruled for around 15 years and died in 365 AH.

Before becoming governor of Ghazni, Alp Tigin was a general from Balkh who had risen from a mercenary to a general of the Governor of Khorasan. In a political fallout over succession of the Samanids he crossed the Hindu Kush mountains southward and captured Ghazni, located strategically between Kabul and Kandahar in modern Afghanistan, and thereby establishing his own kingdom, which, however, was still under Samanid authority. He was succeeded by his son, Abu Ishaq Ibrahim.