[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.

[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: 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.

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".