Sebüktigin

Abū Mansūr Sebüktigin ( Persian ابو منصور سبکتگین Abū Manṣūr Sabuktigin , also written Sebük ​​Tigin, Sabuktagin, Sabuktakin , from Turkish sevük tégin = "beloved Tigin "; * at 942; † August 997 ) was a Turkish military slave in the service of the Samanids and later the actual founder of the Ghaznavid dynasty.

Not much is known about his life before enslavement. Most of the information comes from his will called Pandnāma . Sebüktigin came from the Balqasch district in the Seven Rivers Land (today Kazakhstan ). After being enslaved at the age of 12, he came to Transoxania , where he served and rose in the Samanid army under Alp-Tigin , who was also a military slave himself.

Alp-Tigin later rebelled against its overlords and conquered a territory in the eastern part of the Samanid Empire. From the city of Ghazna he ruled as governor of the Samanids, but was in fact independent. Sebüktigin was promoted to general and married a daughter of Alp Tigins. After Alp-Tigin had followed two more governors, Sebüktigin took over the rule in 977, whereby he also ruled officially in the name of the Samanids of Khorasan. The inscriptions on his coins provide evidence of Sebüktigin's recognition of the supremacy of the Samanids.

Sebüktigin went into a "holy war" against the Hindushāhīs , whose king Djaypal (965-1001) he defeated in 979 and 988. With that he had also conquered the fortresses on the Indian border. Sebüktigin took Djaypal prisoner, but released him after paying tribute.

In the years 992 and 995 Sebüktigin helped the Samanids against the Simjurids. For their services, he and his son Mahmud were subordinated to other areas in Khorasan and both were given new honorary names in 994 as a reward from Nuh II, who had been threatened by a revolt by his generals. So Sebüktigin was now allowed to call himself Nāsir ad-Dīn wa-'d-Daula (previously: Mu'in ad-Daula ) and Mahmud Saif ad-Daula . The area controlled by the Ghaznavids soon included Makran , Ghor , Zabulistan and Bactria . The Samanids perished for good between 999 and 1005, when the Turkish Karakhanids occupied the Samanid capital Bukhara and came to an understanding with the Ghaznavids.

Sebüktigin - a very ambitious ruler and staunch Sunni - had laid the foundation for one of the longest-lived empires in the region. He fell ill in Balkh and returned to Ghazna, where he died in 997. After his death, the Ghaznavids referred to him as amīr-i ʿādil (righteous emir). He was succeeded by his son Ismail, who was overthrown by Mahmud a short time later (998). Mahmud built on his father's foundations and brought the kingdom to its peak.

literature

• CE Bosworth: Sebüktigin The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition Vol. IX, p. 121.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} B. Spuler in Encyclopaedia of Islam , article GHAZNAWIDS

predecessor	Office	successor
-	Ruler of the Ghaznavids 977–997	Ismail