Citadel Village (Among city, South Khorasan Province)

One of the most prominent and memorable places of our trip to South Khorasan was a mountainous village, surrounded by barberry gardens and a castle at the highest point of the village; Upon arriving at Forg, we found the village deserted and this strange solitude was a little worrying for us who had gone there without a private car..

Forg is a village in the ancient region of Qahistan (کُهِستان) About 12 km southwest of Asadiyeh city and 100 km east of Birjand, the capital of South Khorasan province.

Ghohestan is a part of the Iranian plateau, which is located in the south of Khorasan. Encompasses. In the travelogues of Marco Polo and Naser Khosrow, this mountainous region is mentioned.

When we arrived in the village, it was right in the middle of the barberry harvest, and the red color of the high barberry everywhere adorned the gardens and villages, and that was why when we entered the village we felt that the village was deserted because it was almost deserted. All the people had gone to the gardens to harvest.

We started the tour in Forge by seeing Forge Castle. This vast castle dates back to the Afshari period. You have to spend a lot of time to see it in full; The best place to see the whole gardens and village is this castle.

Lt. Col. Rustam. Khargat was the Deputy Consul and Head of Medical Affairs of the British Consulate in Sistan and Baluchestan from 1307 to 1308 AH, during which time he traveled extensively throughout Iran and suffered a lot to visit all the small and large works related to the past and He took careful notes of them. In the first part of his journey, which is from Zahedan to Birjand and its surroundings, he visited Forge and wrote interesting points about this region in his book.:

The second most scenic area around Birjand is Forg, after which we return to the sour water. The whole trip is done by horse and it is recommended that the trip be in a rotating way, first you have to go to the forge through the sour water through Kalat Mirza and then you have to go back from the route of Bozan..

Forg in 16 km of sour water in the Sunni area of ​​Tabas(Explanation of the blog author: The name of this region was Tabas so as not to be confused with the current Tabas) Is. Percy Sykes(Explanation of the blog author: The English general, who traveled to Iran for about 8 years, wrote his travelogue entitled Ten Thousand Miles in Iran in 1902 or 1281 AD.) He says that when the city was captured by the ruler of Qaen, the number of Afghans was more than Iran. The Sunni area has about sixty villages with a population of approximately 15,000 people, which is located in the Jaselkhiz plain and provides Birjand with wheat and fodder.. This area is located 64 km east of Birjand on the way to Herat and has a castle on a small hill between the northern and western mountains.. There is another mountain in the south of the castle which is in the opposite direction of the valley. This fort was founded by Mirza Bagha Khan about 180 years ago.

In the middle of this narrow valley, there is a tooth-shaped mountain with a height of about 150 meters, on the top of which a large and irregular castle is built.. The fame of Forg, like Tabas, was due to the impenetrability of its fortress and its fortifications, and the fact that its ruler rebelled in intermittent periods.. For years, these types of rebellions were ignored by the central government, until the ability to carry weapons to the top of the hills and fire cannons at the fort was provided..
Currently, the castle is completely abandoned, and its building has a geometric parallelogram shape with three rows. The base and the lower half of the wall and houses are made of lime and stone, and the upper part of the walls and towers and ramparts are a mixture of stone, mud and brick and are broken into small pieces.. In the corners, there are round stone towers and watchtowers. The eastern gate is surrounded by village houses and there is a man with a key. There are three cisterns inside the fort, but during my visit, stones had fallen inside them and their mouths were closed.. Drinking water was supplied to the castle by a covered aqueduct from a spring in one of the mountains west of the city. From the top of the castle, the surrounding view is very beautiful: The mountains of the Afghan border can be seen to the north of the castle and along a dry desert, as well as large mountains to the west and south of the castle.. While in the east of the castle, there is a valley with a lot of vegetables, green gardens and trees such as walnuts and barberries, whose fruits are picked in large quantities and exported to the east..

The following notes on Forge Castle were written by C.P. Skrine has given me: (توضیح: From 1916 to 1919, he was the British deputy consul in Kerman, Iran)

Forg Castle was inherited from Mirza Zaki Khan to Mirza Rafi Khan during the reign of Nader Shah.. He built a big castle and a deep aqueduct in the Sunni area. Mirza Rafi Khan revolted against the ruler of Qain, who at that time was Amir Mohtsham, the father of Shaukat al-Mulk. About seventy years ago, Mir Asadullah, the governor of Sar Bisheh, conquered Forg Castle with trickery and treachery.. The story goes that he called one of Rafi Khan's people. Then at night forty men climbed the northern walls of the castle and with the help of Fard Khain, killed Mirza Rafi Khan in his sleep.. The only son of Rafi Khan named Mahmoud Khan was in a house in the southeast part when the killers sent him a message that his father was sick.. Mahmoud Khan passed through the security gate and when he passed through the gate, they arrested him and tied his legs with a rope and threw him into the valley, where he finally drowned in the river at the bottom of the valley.(Explanation of the blog author: A river that does not exist now). Rafi Khan had ten daughters and no other sons. His pregnant wife fled to Herat and gave birth to a little boy named Mohammad Rafi Khan who came to Tehran from Herat at the age of 22 and received a document from the Shah and returned to Forg with an army.. First, he went to Sarbisheh and arrested Mir Asadullah, and dragged him to the ground three times in the streets until he was killed.. Then he conquered Forg. Later, Amir Khan, the father of Muhammad Ibrahim Shaukat al-Mulk, brought four guns and worked secretly at the observation points and finally managed to take back the fort.. Mohammad Rafi Khan was killed in a fight on the road while being exiled to Tehran.

A number of carpet weaving workshops are located in the small town of Forg, and there are also said to be abandoned copper mines in the mountains near the town..

Travel guide book to Iran. Rostam Khargat. Translation: Hamidreza Pour Barat, Sarasadat Makian. Mahkame Publications. ۱۳۹۶

In the bounty of barberry, visiting barberry gardens will be very enjoyable, especially if the owners of the garden invite you to a cluster of barberries..

Almost all the residents of Forg are from Sunan, as the day ended, the residents gradually returned to the village, and the time of Maghrib Azan was the busiest time in the village..

The village reconstruction plan and the construction of an eco-residence in Forg have started and almost all roads were paved and improved, but the Forg eco-residence was not yet operational and we spent the night in the house of one of the villagers..