- The Taican of Polo is the still existing TALIKAN in the
province of Kataghan or Kunduz, but it bears the former name (Thaikan)
in the old Arab geographies.
Both names are used by Baber, who says it lay
in the Ulugh Bagh, or Great Garden, a name perhaps acquired by the
Plains of Talikan in happier days, but illustrating what Polo says of the
next three days' march. The Castle of Talikan resisted Chinghiz for seven
months, and met with the usual fate (1221). [In the Travels of Sidi Ali,
son of Housain (Jour. Asiat., October, 1826, p. 203), "Talikan, in the
country of Badakhschan" is mentioned. - H. C.] Wood speaks of Talikan in
1838 as a poor place of some 300 or 400 houses, mere hovels; a recent
account gives it 500 families. Market days are not usual in Upper India or
Kabul, but are universal in Badakhshan and the Oxus provinces. The bazaars
are only open on those days, and the people from the surrounding country
then assemble to exchange goods, generally by barter. Wood chances to
note: "A market was held at Talikan.... The thronged state of the roads
leading into it soon apprised us that the day was no ordinary one."
(Abulf. in Buesching, V. 352; Sprenger, p. 50; P. de la Croix, I.
63; Baber, 38, 130; Burnes, III. 8; Wood, 156; Pandit Manphul's
Report.)
The distance of Talikan from Balkh is about 170 miles, which gives very
short marches, if twelve days be the correct reading.
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