Sultan Sabuktagin

Sultan Sabuktagin was the founder of the Ghaznavid dynasty, ruling from 367 A.H/977 A.D to 387 A.H/997 A.D. In Turkic the name means beloved prince. Sabuktigin lived as a slave during his youth and later married the daughter of his master Alptigin, the man who seized the region of Ghazna (modern Ghazni Province in Afghanistan) from the Samanids of Bukhara. Alptigin and Sabuktigin still recognized Samanid authority, and it was not until the reign of Sabuktigin’s son Mahmud that the rulers of Ghazni became independent. When his father-in-law Alptigin died, Sabuktigin became the new ruler and expanded the kingdom after defeating Jayapala of Udabhandapura to cover the territory as far as the Neelum River in Kashmir and the Indus River in what is now Pakistan.