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, a town situated in D̲j̲ūzd̲j̲ān [ q.v.] province of northern Afg̲h̲ānistān, in lat. 36° 35′ N. and long. 65° 45′ E. Arab geographers referred to it as S̲h̲aburḳān or S̲h̲abūrḳān. Excavations of graves at Ṭila Tepe, in 1978, 5 km/3 miles north of the town, have revealed the area was an important trade and cultural centre from as early as the Iron Age. Kushan-Sāsānid ceramics dating from 1st to 7th century A.D. have also been found in the area (V. Sarianidi, Raskopki Tillya-Tepe v severnom Afganistane , Moscow 1972; W. Ball, Archaeological gazetteer of Afghanistan , Paris 1982, i, 1079, 1192). I…

, Ṭālḳān , the name of three places in the Iranian lands. The biographical and geographical dictionaries mention only two of these specifically (thus al-Samʿānī, Ansāb , ed. Ḥaydarābād, ix, 8-13; Yāḳūt, Buldān , ed. Beirut, iv, 6-8: both distinguish just a Ṭālaḳān of Marw al-Rūd̲h̲ and a Ṭālaḳān of Ḳazwīn). These are nos. 1 and 2 below. There was, however, a further Ṭālaḳān in the Ṭuk̲h̲āristān-Badak̲h̲s̲h̲ān region; this is no. 3 below. 1. A town of mediaeval Gūzgān or D̲j̲ūzd̲j̲ān [ q.v.], in what is now northern Afg̲h̲ānistān but adjacent to the frontier with the Turkmenis…