Alptakin

Alptakin (also known as Aftakin) was a Turkish military officer of the Buyids, who participated, and eventually came to lead, an unsuccessful rebellion against them in Iraq from 973 to 975.

Fleeing west with 300 followers, he exploited the power vacuum in Syria to capture several cities, including Damascus.

[1] Nothing further is known about him until 973, when he joined the rebellion of the Turkish officer Sabuktakin, who managed to occupy Baghdad and many other parts of Iraq.

[1] Alptakin then allied himself with the Qarmatians, and in the winter of 975 invaded the Mediterranean coast and laid siege to Fatimid city of Sidon.

The Fatimid caliph al-Aziz Billah then sent an army under his general Jawhar, who managed to reconquer the Mediterranean coast and reach as far as Damascus, which laid siege to in July 976.

However, the Fatimids turned the tide of the battle by making a counter-attack on the centre and right wing of Alptakin's army, killing c. 20,000 of his men.