Bilgetegin

Portraits of the Abbasid Caliphs al-Mu'tazz (d. 869), al-Muqtadir (d. 932), the Samanid ruler Bilgetegin, with the Ghaznavid rulers Mahmud (d. 1030) and Bahram Shah (1152). From the genealogy (silsilanāma), "Cream of Histories" (Zübdet-üt Tevarih). Ottoman Turkish manuscript created in Baghdad, dated 1598

Bilgetegin was a Turkic officer, who was the Samanid governor of Ghazna from 12 November 966 to 975. He was successor of Abu Ishaq Ibrahim of Ghazna.

On 12 November 966, when Abu Ishaq Ibrahim of Ghazna died, he left no child for throne of the Ghaznavid dynasty. Turkic leaders and princes chose Bilgetegin as Samanid ruler of Ghazna in November 966. He died in 975 during his siege of Lawik-ruled Gardez. Böritigin of Ghazni was his successor.

Sources

• Frye, R.N. (1975). "The Sāmānids". In Frye, R.N. (ed.). The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 4: From the Arab Invasion to the Saljuqs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 136–161. ISBN 0-521-20093-8.
• Bosworth, C. E. (1975). "The early Ghaznavids". In Frye, R. N. (ed.). The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 4: From the Arab Invasion to the Saljuqs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 162–198. ISBN 0-521-20093-8.
• Bosworth, C. Edmund (1989). "ALPTIGIN". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. I, Fasc. 9. London et al.: C. Edmund Bosworth. p. 898.