Sabuktigin founds the Ghaznavid state
A Turkic slave-soldier lays the ground for Mahmud's empire
In 977 the Turkic commander Sabuktigin became ruler of Ghazni, nominally subject to the Samanids. After 998 his son Mahmud of Ghazni turned the domain into a vast empire from Iran to the Punjab and led seventeen campaigns into India.
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Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 955 Battle of Lechfeld — 22 years earlier
- 962 Coronation of Otto I — 15 years earlier
- 966 Baptism of Poland — 11 years earlier
- c. 1000 Stephen I, first king of Hungary — 23 years later
Eastern Europe & Russia
- 988 Christianization of Kievan Rus' — 11 years later
Africa
- 969 Founding of Cairo — 8 years earlier
- 972 Al-Azhar Mosque opens — 5 years earlier
- c. 1000 Extinction of the elephant birds — 23 years later
Alive at the time
- Vladimir the Great (aged 17)
- Ferdowsi (aged 37)
- Hugh Capet (aged 37)
- Æthelred the Unready (aged 11)
- Leif Erikson (aged 7)
- Murasaki Shikibu (aged 4)
- Otto II (aged 22)
- Yaropolk I (aged 22)
- Sei Shōnagon (aged 11)
- Robert II the Pious (aged 5)