Alptekin (Alptegīn, d. 352/963) was a Turkish ghulām , or military slave commander, of the Sāmānids of Transoxania, who founded a centre of Turkish power in eastern Afghanistan that subsequently developed into the Ghaznavid state. (Alptigin (Turk.) literally means "hero prince"; however, by the fourth/tenth century, the second element, tigin , had undergone a downward social shift and was commonly found in the names of slaves.) Nothing is known of Alptekin's origins, but it appears that he had been purchased as a slave from Inner Asia and entered the