Sabuktigin - Lineage

Lineage

Sebuktigin, aged twelve years, was taken prisoner by a neighbouring warring tribe and sold as a slave to a merchant named Nasr the Haji. He was purchased by Alptigin, the Lord Chamberlain of the Samanid ruler of Khorasan. However, when Alptigin later rebelled against the Saminid influence, capturing Zabulistan and Ghazna (now Ghazni Province), he raised Sebuktigin to the position of a general and married his daughter to him. Subuktigin served Alptigin, and his two successors Ishaq and Balkatigin. He later succeeded another slave of Alptigin to the throne, and in 977 became the popular ruler of Ghazna in what is now Ghazni Province in Afghanistan.

Sebuktigin enlarged upon Alptigin's conquests, extending his domain north to Balkh, west to Kandahar including most of Khorasan, and east to the Indus River.

Sebuktigin was recognized by the Caliph in Baghdad as governor of his dominions. He died in 997, and was succeeded by his younger son Sultan Ismail of Ghazni. Mahmud rebelled against his younger brother, Sultan Ismail of Ghazni, and took over Ghazna as the new Sultan.

Ferishta records Sebuk Tigin's genealogy as descended from the Sassanid Emperors: "Subooktu-geen, the son of Jookan, the son of Kuzil-Hukum, the son of Kuzil-Arslan, the son of Ferooz, the son of Yezdijird, king of Persia." Some doubt has been cast on this due the lineage having been reckoned as too short to account for the 320 intervening years. What is known about Sebuk Tigin is that he was of Turkic origin, born in Barskhan and bought by Alptigin as a boy in Bukhara. According to Grousset,

The Turkic mercenary army which Alptigin had raised in Ghazni, and which was already profoundly influenced by Islam, was from 977 onward led by another Turkic ex-slave -another Mameluke- named Sebuktigin, who made himself master of Tokharistan (Balkh-Kunduz) and Kandahar, and embarked upon the conquest of Kabul.