120 E.E. Oliver— Decline of the Sdmdnis and the Rise of the [No. 2, 
date of his final visit,and quoting the Tabakat sentence beginning—“Eight 
years subsequent to these events ” fixes his death in 359 H. But there 
is no reason why “these events” should sjDecially refer to Alptigin’s 
going to Gdiaznin, and might equally relate to Sabuktigin’s purchase. 
Indeed a few pages further on, the Tabakat gives the date of the birth 
of Mahmud as occurring “ on the night of ’Ashura, the 10th of the 
month Muharram in the year 361 H., in the seventh year of the govern¬ 
ment of Amir BalJcdtigin at Qhaznin. Mr. Thomas mentions the 
occurrence of Balkatigin’s name on certain coins struck at Balkh in 
324, but considering hoAV frequently the governors of these cities were 
changed, there is nothing at all improbable in his having held that 
charge, and inserted his name on the coinage there, as he subsequently 
did on the coinage of G-liaznin. Among the coins noticed by Mr. 
Thomas in the same paper is one described by M. Dorn* as struck in 
359 H. by Balkatigin as ruler of Gliaznin, with the name of his Samani 
suzerain, Mansur bin Nuh. The description is as follows : 
Obverse | tir—|| ^ || || I ^ 
Margin j aI** [ |5.a J dlJt 
Reverse || || aBi || || || aB 
Margin illegible. 
“ The name of the mint can stand for nothing but Ghaznah.” 
The legends of the coin now figured as No. X are very similar, 
though the mint and last figure of the date are wanting, what is left 
looks more like the final of than anything else, which would 
make it 355 H. Major Raverty in his notes to the Tabakat gives the 
death of Balkatigin as occurring in 362 H., but does not quote his 
authority, the ill-conditioned Piri succeeding him. In the following 
year (363) Piri, or rather Sabuktigin for him, is said to have fought a 
battle with an army advancing from India for the purpose of seizing 
Ghaznin and to have completely defeated it. In 366, as given in the 
extract from the Tabakat above quoted, he was deposed, and Sabuktigin 
installed. 
The acknowledgment of the Samani line as Suzerains or Lords 
Paramount, by the insertion of their names on the coinage, still con¬ 
tinued, and was common to all the Ghaznavi rulers, Sabuktigin, Isma’il, 
and Mahmud himself, at any rate until 389 H. when the house as¬ 
sumed independency; Sabuktigin being a particularly loyal supporter 
of the house. No. XI of the coins now figured is however an interest¬ 
ing novelty, probably a very early coin of Sabuktigin’s struck for 
* In the Bulletin de 1’ Academie des Sciences de Saint Petershourg in 1855. 
