118 E. E. Oliver —Decline of the Sdmdnis and the Rise of the [IS’o. 2, 
necessary to briefly notice sacli scanty information as is available rela¬ 
ting to the early governors, who have been almost entirely omitted from 
general history. 
Of the origin of Alptigin, or Albtigin, beyond that he was a “ Turk ” 
the slave of the Samani dynasty, no reliable account is forthcoming. 
According to Fasihi and others, he was born in 267 H., a date more than 
doubtful, as it would make him 79 when appointed commander-in-chief 
in Kliurasan. There is more evidence to show that he displaced 
“ Lawik* and captured Ohaznin first in 322 H., and from that time 
had more or less to do with the administration of affairs there, although it is 
exceedingly improbable that his residence was continuous. In 346 he is 
spoken of as the Hajib and commander-in-chief of ’Abd-ul-Malik Samani 
and by him also entrusted with the governorship of Hirat to which 
place he sent Ishak-i-Tahiri as his deputy. In 350 he had become one 
of the most, if indeed not the most, powerful Amir at the Samani court, 
holding among other offices the governorship of Nishapur. After some 
little friction with the court in connection with the election of Mansiir 
the first to the throne, he went to GAaznin in 351, and in 352 H. he 
died there, and was succeeded by his son Ishak. 
The governor Lawik, long a competitor for power in G-haznin. 
almost immediately attacked Ishak who was either defeated or con¬ 
sidered it more desirable to retire on Bukhara, whither he was ‘‘ ac¬ 
companied (in 353) by his father’s slave Sabuktigin”. At Bukhara he 
obtained the formal investiture of government, and returned reinforced, 
Fasihi says the following year, to Gliaznin, Lawik taking to flight. 
After a year at Ghaznin Ishak died (early in ?) 355 H., and was 
succeeded by Balkatigin, formerly chief of the Turkish troops under 
Alptigin. 
Balkatigin as a successor of Ishak has been passed unnoticed by 
most historians. In Muhammad ’Ufi’s Jami'ul Hikayat he is in two 
stories spoken of as ruler in Ghaznin, a brave but hard-drinking Amir, 
with Sabuktigin as his watchful Hajib and general-in-chief, who on one 
occasion at least saves Balkatigin’s life. And in the Tabakat-i-JN'asiri, 
Minhaj-i-Siraj quoting from the last volumes of Abii-l-Fazl-i-Baihaki, 
who wrote in the time of Mahmud, gives a circumstantial account of his 
* The question as to who was Lawik, the Wali of ^aznin, is full of interest, but 
unfortunately history is a blank regarding hina. 
