Turan (Sasanian province)

Sasanian Turan
230–c.650 CE
Map of the southeastern provinces of the Sasanian Empire.
Map of the southeastern provinces of the Sasanian Empire.
Historical eraAntiquity
• Established
230
• Disestablished
c.650 CE
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Indo-Parthians
Rashidun Caliphate
Today part ofPakistan

Turan (also spelled Turgistan and Turestan) was a province of the Sasanian Empire located in present-day Pakistan.[1] The province was mainly populated by Indo-Aryans,[2] and bordered Paradan in the west, Hind in the east, Sakastan in the north, and Makuran in the south.[3] The main city and bastion of the province was Bauterna (Khuzdar/Quzdar).[2]

The province had been a kingdom under the Indo-Parthian king Pahares I, before submitting to the first Sasanian monarch Ardashir I (r. 224–242) in 230 AD.[4][5] These events were recorded by Al-Tabari, describing the arrival of envoys from Makran and Turan to Ardeshir at Gor:[5]

“Then he [Ardashir] marched back from the Sawad to Istakhr, from there first to Sagistan, then to Gurgan, then to Abrasahr, Merv, Balkh, and Khwarizm to the farthest boundaries of the provinces of Kohrasan, whereupon he returned to Merv. After he had killed many people and sent their heads to the Fire temple of Anahedh he returned from Merv to Pars and settled in Gor. Then envoys of the king of the Kushan, of the kings of Turan and Mokran came to him with declarations of their submission."

— Al-Tabari[5][6]

Turan was then governed by the Sakanshah, the first notable one being Ardashir I's grandson, Narseh.[7][8] The province is mentioned in Shapur I's inscription at the Ka'ba-ye Zartosht of 262 CE, among the many provinces of the Sasanian Empire:[9][10]

Parthian version of the Shapur I inscription at Ka'ba-ye Zartosht.

"And I (Shapur I) possess the lands: Fars Persis, Pahlav (Parthia) (......) and all of Abarshahr (all the upper (eastern, Parthian) provinces), Kerman (Kirman), Sakastan, Turgistan, Makuran, Pardan (Paradene), Hind (Sind) and Kushanshahr all the way to Pashkibur (Peshawar?) and to the borders of Kashgaria, Sogdia and Chach (Tashkent) and of that sea-coast Mazonshahr (Oman)."

— Shapur I's inscription at the Ka'ba-ye Zartosht (262 CE), translation by Josef Wiesehöfer (1996).[11][12][13]

The 19th-century historian Wilhelm Tomaschek suggested that the name of Turan possibly derived from the Iranian word tura(n), meaning "hostile, non-Iranian land".[4] The name was also used in the Iranian national epic Shahnameh ("The Book of Kings") to denote the lands above Khorasan and the Oxus River, later viewed as the land of the Turks and other non-Iranians.[4]

The region was conquered by the Rashidun Caliphate circa 650 CE, as part of the Indian subcontinent.

  1. ^ Brunner 1983, pp. 748–750, 775.
  2. ^ a b Brunner 1983, p. 776.
  3. ^ Brunner 1983, pp. 748–749.
  4. ^ a b c Bosworth 2011.
  5. ^ a b c Mitchiner, Michael (1978). The Ancient & Classical World, 600 B.C.-A.D. 650. Hawkins Publications. ISBN 978-0-904173-16-1. Pakores was succeeded in the office of Great King by Sanabares (c. AD 135-160). The much reduced Indo-Parthian realm then split into its two geographical constituents. These now became the Kingdom of Turan whose king was named Pahares and the Kingdom of Sakastan ruled by a second king bearing the name Sanabares (c. AD 160-175). These two kingdoms, Turan and Sakastan, were to persist until the first Sasanian Emperor, Ardeshir I, about AD 230. Both then became vassal kingdoms within the Sasanian Empire. Tabari recorded the submission made by the King of Turan which transpired when Ardeshir was at Gor: then envoys of the king of the Kushan, of the kings of Turan and Mokran came to him with declarations of their submission.
  6. ^ Bracey, Robert (1 January 2012). "The Mint Cities of the Kushan Empire". The City and the Coin in the Ancient and Early Medieval World. BAR International Series 2402: 124.
  7. ^ Brunner 1983, p. 775.
  8. ^ Weber 2016.
  9. ^ Gardner 2014, p. 57.
  10. ^ Tandon (2012). "The Location And Kings Of Paradan". Studia Iranica (41): 28.
  11. ^ The complete paragraph goes:
    "And I [Shapur I] possess the lands: Fars [Persis], Pahlav [Parthia], Huzestan [Khuzistan], Meshan [Maishan, Mesene], Asorestan [Mesopotamia], Nod-Ardakhshiragan [Adiabene], Arbayestan [Arabia], Adurbadagan [Atropatene], Armen [Armenia], Virozan [Iberia], Segan [Machelonia], Arran [Albania], Balasagan up to the Caucasus and to the ‘gate of the Alans’ and all of Padishkhvar[gar] [the entire Elburz chain = Tabaristan and Gelan (?)], Mad [Media], Gurgan [Hyrcania], Marv [Margiana], Harey [Aria], and all of Abarshahr [all the upper (= eastern, Parthian) provinces], Kerman [Kirman], Sakastan, Turgistan, Makuran, Pardan [Paradene], Hind [Sind] and Kushanshahr all the way to Pashkibur [Peshawar?] and to the borders of Kashgaria, Sogdia and Chach [Tashkent] and of that sea-coast Mazonshahr [‘Oman’]."
    in Wiesehöfer, Josef (1996). Ancient Persia : from 550 BC to 650 AD. London: I.B. Tauris. p. 184. ISBN 978-1860646751.
  12. ^ For a secondary source see Kia, Mehrdad (27 June 2016). The Persian Empire: A Historical Encyclopedia [2 volumes]: A Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 67. ISBN 978-1-61069-391-2.
  13. ^ For another referenced translation, visible online, see: Frye, Richard Nelson (1984). The History of Ancient Iran. C.H.Beck. p. 371. ISBN 978-3-406-09397-5.