SABAKTAGIN, the second ruler over the southern tribes of modern Afghanistan. In the reign of Abdul Malik, the fifth prince of the house of the Samani, Alptegin, A.D. 961, A.H. 350, rose to be governor of Khorasan. He had been a Turki slave of Abdul Malik, but, having incurred the of his successor, he retreated with 3000 disciplined slaves to Ghazni, and till his death held the strong tract between the Suliman mountains and the Indus, against all attacks. He died A.D. 976, A.H. 365, fourteen years after assuming independence. He was succeeded by Sabaktagin, a Turki slave, who had inarried the daughter of Alptegin. Raja Jeipal of Lahore advanced into Laghman to oppose him, but en tered into a„areements, which he subsequently refused to fulfil, and formed a combination with the rajas of Dehli, Ajmir, Kalinjar, and Kanouj. Sabaktagin advanced to meet their army, which he defeated and pursued with great slaughter to the Indus. He found a rich plunder in their camp, and took possession of all the country up to the Indus, and occupied Peshawur. The
Afghan and Khilji of Laghman immediately tendered their allegiance. He subpequently twice carried a large force to the aid of Nuh or Noah, the seventh of the Satnani kings, whom Bogra Khan of the Hoie-ke Tartars bad forced to fly across the Oxus. Sabaktagin on the second occasion totally defeated them (A.D. 995, A.H. 387) in the neighbourhood of Tus, now Meshid. Sabak tagin made Ghazni his capital. He died on his way to Ghazni. The natne is also written Sabak taghi. He was succeeded by his son Ismail, but Ismail after a few- months was put aside by his younger brother Mahmud. Mahmud, who died A.D. 1028, enriched Afghanistan with the spoils of India. In the reign of the cruel Bahrain, one of the Tartar's descendants, the Sabaktagin dynasty were deprived of all but the Panjab, and this too, in A.D. 1160, they lost.—Elphin. pp. 274-76 ; Ferrier's Afghanistan, p. 14.