Alp Tigin

Alp-Tegin
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 962–963
Monarch	Mansur I
Succeeded by	Abu Ishaq Ibrahim
Personal details
Died	September 963 Ghazna
Religion	Sunni Islam

Alp-Tegin, (Persian: الپتگین Alptegīn or Alptigīn) 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. He was succeeded by his son, Abu Ishaq Ibrahim.

Alp-Tegin was originally part of the nomadic Turks that roamed the Central Asian steppes, but was later captured and brought as a slave to the Samanid capital of Bukhara, where he was raised in the Samanid court. Despite being of Turkic stock and allegedly in speech, Alp-Tegin was highly Persianized.

During the reign of Nuh I (r. 943–954), Alp-Tegin was appointed as the head of the royal guard (hajib al-hujjab). During the reign of Nuh's son and successor Abd al-Malik I (r. 954-961), Alp-Tegin was appointed as the governor of Balkh, and by 961 he was the commander-in-chief (sipahsalar) of the Samanid army in Khorasan, thus succeeding Abu Mansur Muhammad. Alp-Tegin also played a major role in the appointment of Muhammad Bal'ami as vizier.