Alptakin

Alptakin (also known as Haftakin and Aftakin) was a Turkish military officer of the Buyids, and later the ruler of Damascus.

He was a freedman of the Buyid ruler of Iraq, Izz al-Dawla Bakhtiyar. Nothing further is known about him until in 973, when he joined the rebellion of the Turkish officer Sebük-Tegin, who managed to occupy Baghdad and many other parts of Iraq. The Turkish rebels under Sebük-Tegin then besieged Wasit, where Izz al-Dawla had fortified himself. Fortunately for Izz al-Dawla, Sebük-Tegin died during the siege, and Alptakin was shortly chosen as the new leader of the Turks. Meanwhile, a Buyid army under Izz al-Dawla's cousin Adud al-Dawla was marching towards Iraq, and by 975 managed to completely defeat the rebels at the Diyala River.

After his defeat at the hands of the Buyids, along with ca. 300 of his followers, Alptakin fled to Syria, where they managed to capture Hims. Alptakin then allied himself with the Qarmatians, and in the winter of 975 invaded the Mediterranean coast and laid siege to Fatimid city of Sidon. He shortly managed to capture the city, resulting in the massacre of 4,000 Fatimid troops. He then captured Tiberias, and marched towards to Damascus, which he took without much resistance. The Fatimid Caliph al-Aziz Billah then sent an army under his general Jawhar, who managed to reconquer the Mediterranean coast and reach as far as Damascus, which he besieged.

Fortunately for Alptakin, his Qarmatian allies soon arrived, and managed to force the Fatimids to lift the siege. The Fatimid army then fled to Ramla, but quickly abandoned it, leaving the city open to a Qarmatian invasion. The combined army of Alptakin and the Qarmatians then besieged Ascalon, where the Fatimid army had fled to. After a long siege which lasted over a year, the Fatimids agreed to make a peace treaty: Alptakin would receive Palestine, while the northern border of the Fatimid domain was set at Gaza. To make the treaty more palatable to the Fatimids, Alptakin agreed to recognize the Fatimid Caliph as his suzerain.

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