Editing Ghaznavids (section)

==Rise to power==
[[File:Portrait from the Palace courtroom, Lashkari Bazar.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Ghaznavid portrait, Palace of [[Lashkari Bazar]]. [[Daniel Schlumberger|Schlumberger]] noted that the [[turban]], the small mouth and the strongly slanted eyes were characteristically Turkic.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Schlumberger |first1=Daniel |title=Le Palais ghaznévide de Lashkari Bazar |journal=Syria |date=1952 |volume=29 |issue=3/4 |page=263 & 267|doi=10.3406/syria.1952.4789 |jstor=4390312 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4390312 |issn=0039-7946|url-access=subscription }}</ref> 11th century]]
Two military families arose from the Turkic slave-guards of the [[Samanid Empire]], the [[Simjurids]] and Ghaznavids, who ultimately proved disastrous to the Samanids. The Simjurids received an [[appanage]] in the [[Quhistan|Kohistan]] region of eastern Khorasan. The Samanid generals Alp Tigin and [[Abu al-Hasan Simjuri]] competed for the governorship of Khorasan and control of the Samanid Empire by placing on the throne [[emir]]s they could dominate after the death of [[Abd al-Malik I (Samanid emir)|Abd al-Malik I]] in 961. His death created a succession crisis between his brothers.

A court party instigated by men of the scribal class – civilian ministers rather than Turkic generals – rejected the candidacy of Alp Tigin for the Samanid throne. [[Mansur I]] was installed instead, and Alp Tigin prudently retired to south of the [[Hindu Kush]], where he captured Ghazna and became the ruler of the city as a Samanid authority.{{sfn|Bosworth|2006}} The Simjurids enjoyed control of Khorasan south of the [[Amu Darya]] but were hard-pressed by a third great Iranian dynasty, the [[Buyid dynasty]], and were unable to survive the collapse of the Samanids and the subsequent rise of the Ghaznavids.

The struggles of the Turkic slave generals for mastery of the throne with the help of shifting allegiance from the court's ministerial leaders both demonstrated and accelerated the Samanid decline. Samanid weakness attracted into Transoxiana the [[Karluks]], a Turkic people who had recently converted to Islam. They occupied [[Bukhara]] in 992, establishing in Transoxania the [[Kara-Khanid Khanate]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Frye |first=Richard N. |author-link=Richard N. Frye |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hvx9jq_2L3EC&pg=PA160 |title=The Cambridge History of Iran |last2= |first2= |date=1975-06-26 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-20093-6 |volume=IV: From the Arab Invasion to the Saljuqs |pages=156–157 |language=en |chapter=The Sāmānids}}</ref>

Alp Tigin's died in 963, and after two ghulam governors and three years, his slave [[Sabuktigin]] became the governor of Ghazna.