Mahmud of Ghazni (modern Ghazni, Afghanistan, belongs…

Mahmud of Ghazni (modern Ghazni, Afghanistan, belongs to the Yamini tribe, a Turco-Persian clan residing in the Nakhistan district of Turkestan.

The Yamini are the alleged descendants of the last prince of Persia, Yazdgard i Shahryar, whose family had fled to Turkestan after his death in 628.

According to Ferishta, Mahmud's mother was a Persian noble from Zabulistan; this information contradicts Ferdowsi's satirization of Mahmud for being the son of "the slave of a slave".

However, both appear correct.

Mahmud's father Sebüktigin had, at the age of twelve, been taken prisoner by a neighboring tribe and sold as a slave to a merchant named Nasr the Haji.

He had been purchased by Alptigin, the Lord Chamberlain of the Samani ruler of Khurasan, but when Alptigin later rebelled against the Saminid influence, capturing Zabulistan and Ghazni, he had raised Sebüktigin to the position of General and married his daughter to him.

He had served Alptigin, and his two successors Ishaq and Balkatigin.

He had later succeeded another slave of Alptagin to the throne, and in 977 had become the popular ruler of Ghazni.

Enlarging upon Alptigin's conquests, Sebüktigin has extended his domain north to Balkh, west to Kandahar including most of Khorasan, and east to the Indus River.

Recognized by the Caliph in Baghdad as governor of his dominions, Sebüktigin dies in 997, and is succeeded by his younger son Sultan Ismail of Ghazni.

Mahmud rebels against his younger brother and takes over Ghazni as the new Sultan.

Mahmud, with his father, had been engaged in 994 in the capture of Khorasan from the rebel Fa'iq in aid of the Samanid Emir, Nuh II.

During this period, the Samanid state had become highly unstable, with shifting internal political tides as various factions vie for control, as well as the neighboring Buyids and Kara-Khanids.