mound called "castle" in the 10th century just the same as it is today.) Al-Tell castle was probably in the hills west of Tadım, probably no more than 10 km or so away. Sayf al-Dawla sent a detachment to siege al-Tell in 938 while he was besieging Dadima. Canard proposed that al-Tell is the same place as the Tell Arsanas mentioned by Ibn Hawqal; this is accepted by Howard-Johnston "for want of convincing alternatives - but with considerable hesitation".) The exact location is uncertain, but the coordinates Ibn Hawqal gave for Tell Arsanas would place it about 18 km west of Harput and about 24 km from the Euphrates ford at the village of Hammam. Tell Arsanas would have overlooked the main route southwest from Harput towards the ford at Tomisa. If al-Tell was indeed here, then Sayf al-Dawla's actions here would have been intended to hold the route and perhaps provide a distraction from his main actions at Tadım and Harput. The castle of al-Minşār was almost certainly at the large rock by the village of Kale on the mountain called Muşer or Mişar Dağ near the east bank of the Euphrates. This site "had been fashioned into a castle by hewing out platforms and steps and constructing walls in the prehistoric period". The site is just upstream from a ford on the Euphrates - itself upstream from the main one at Tomisa - which was used by Sayf al-Dawla in 953 to make a rapid retreat when his forces were almost trapped on the opposite bank. There was presumably a minor route running through the Anzitene highlands that he used then. 4 km south-southeast of modern-day Aşvan is the late medieval castle of Taşkun Kale, which is on the northern edge of an upland basin. Anthony McNicoll tentatively dated Taşkun Kale castle and the medieval phase of its nearby church to 14th century and concluded that the settlement around it must have been fairly large given the presence of scattered potsherds and traces of stone walls. The name "Taşkun" is vaguely reminiscent of the ancient Roman border fort of Dascusa - as does the nearby city of al-Ashkūniyyah, a provincial capital across the river from Aşvan. There is a small castle on a small hill overlooking the village of Keluşağı 12 km west of Tell Arsanas; it should probably be distinguished from al-Tell. It commands a second, more