Turan (also spelled Turgistan and Turestan) was a province of the

Sasanian Empire The Sasanian Empire (), officially Eranshahr ( , "Empire of the Iranian peoples, Iranians"), was an List of monarchs of Iran, Iranian empire that was founded and ruled by the House of Sasan from 224 to 651. Enduring for over four centuries, th ...

located in present-day

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

. The province was mainly populated by

Indo-Aryans Indo-Aryan peoples are a diverse collection of peoples predominantly found in South Asia, who (traditionally) speak Indo-Aryan languages. Historically, Aryans were the Indo-Iranian speaking pastoralists who migrated from Central Asia int ...

, and bordered

Paradan Paradan or Paratan was a province of the Paratarajas and the Sasanian Empire. It was constituted from the present-day Balochistan region, which is divided between Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Paratarajas Evidence from coins shows that it wa ...

in the west, Hind in the east, Sakastan in the north, and Makuran in the south. The main city and bastion of the province was Bauterna ( Khuzdar/Quzdar). The province had been a kingdom under the Indo-Parthian king Pahares I, before submitting to the first Sasanian monarch

Ardashir I Ardashir I (), also known as Ardashir the Unifier (180–242 AD), was the founder of the Sasanian Empire, the last empire of ancient Iran. He was also Ardashir V of the Kings of Persis, until he founded the new empire. After defeating the last Par ...

() in 230 AD. These events were recorded by

al-Tabari Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Jarīr ibn Yazīd al-Ṭabarī (; 839–923 CE / 224–310 AH), commonly known as al-Ṭabarī (), was a Sunni Muslim scholar, polymath, historian, exegete, jurist, and theologian from Amol, Tabaristan, present- ...

, describing the arrival of envoys from Makran and Turan to Ardeshir at Gor: Turan was then governed by the Sakanshah, the first notable one being Ardashir I's grandson, Narseh. The province is mentioned in Shapur I's inscription at the Ka'ba-ye Zartosht of 262 CE, among the many provinces of the

: The 19th-century historian Wilhelm Tomaschek suggested that the name of Turan possibly derived from the

Iranian Iranian () may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Iran ** Iranian diaspora, Iranians living outside Iran ** Iranian architecture, architecture of Iran and parts of the rest of West Asia ** Iranian cuisine, cooking traditions and practic ...

word ''tura(n)'', meaning "hostile, non-Iranian land". The name was also used in the Iranian national epic ''

Shahnameh The ''Shahnameh'' (, ), also transliterated ''Shahnama'', is a long epic poem written by the Persian literature, Persian poet Ferdowsi between and 1010 CE and is the national epic of Greater Iran. Consisting of some 50,000 distichs or couple ...

'' ("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. The region was conquered by the

Rashidun Caliphate The Rashidun Caliphate () is a title given for the reigns of first caliphs (lit. "successors") — Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali collectively — believed to Political aspects of Islam, represent the perfect Islam and governance who led the ...

circa 650 CE, as part of the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...

References

Sources

* * * * * Provinces of the Sasanian Empire {{Sasanian-stub