Tabas is located in the western part of South Khorasan Province of Iran. This desert city, which is the center of Tabas city, is historically highly regarded by researchers and historians. In this city, there are the remains of the historical ruins of a building known as Tabas Citadel.
The historical city of Tabas and this historical castle, which dates back to a thousand years ago, has always been considered as a historical point and a place for historical studies and archaeological excavations has attracted the attention of researchers. One of the interesting features of this castle is that Tabas Citadel, in addition to witnessing many events throughout history, over time has hosted prominent historical figures and people like Naser Khosrow, a famous poet.
According to historians, Naser Khosrow Ghobadiani, a famous Iranian poet, has been in this castle for 17 days and nights. As a result of archeological excavations, an inscription has been discovered from this place where the name of the castle is recorded as an ancient citadel, so it indicates that this building has a considerable antiquity and, in the past, it was called Kohan (means ancient in Persain) citadel.
The ancient fortress or citadel of Tabas, which is considered a historical monument in this desert city, according to the writings of historians of the past and the references of historians of the early centuries of Islam, including Blazeri, has dated this place to more than 1000 years ago. In many historical texts, including the same book of Blazeri called Fatuh al-Baldan, which was written in the third century AH, the citadel of Tabas and its fence are mentioned. Also, the presence of Nasser Khosrow, an Iranian poet of the fifth century AH who was the guest of Amir Gilaki bin Mohammad in this citadel for seventeen days and nights, leaves no doubt about the antiquity of this place.
In his famous travelogue, Nasser Khosrow, while describing Tabas, has mentioned the existence of a citadel in this city. The historical citadel of Tabas has not been spared from damage and natural disasters throughout history and in different periods and has suffered a lot of damage, but it has been repaired and rebuilt many times. Once in 1216 AH, one of the repairs was done and up to recent years, there was an inscription on the entrance of the citadel in which the name of the citadel was ancient. Mir Hassan Khan developed the citadel that year. This building had 6 towers, one of which became known as Nader Mirza Tower.
Historians attribute the name of this tower to the imprisonment of Nader Mirza, who was imprisoned in this tower by the order of Mir Hassan Khan. This citadel was repaired and rebuilt once again in the year 1292 AH during the reign of Emad al-Molk, the ruler of Tabas.
Before the earthquake, Tabas Citadel had only one resident in the area in previous decades. Aq Seyyed Ali Mirza went down in history like the citadel of Tabas during the 1978 Tabas earthquake and only his name remained.
The historical monument of Tabas was severely destroyed by an earthquake that occurred in this region in 1957, and in the past years, the cultural heritage carried out activities to repair and rebuild it. As a result, the walls and corridors of the citadel reappeared.
Another interesting point is that in these excavations, the remains of the lonely old man’s body, Aq Seyyed Ali Mirza, although 4 years had passed since the earthquake and his death, were still found intact. For the lonely man of Tabas, an eternal house was considered in the same place of the citadel and he was buried and a small room was built on his tomb.
This citadel has been attacked many times by the enemy throughout its history of ups and downs, but according to the writings of historians and other texts, this fortress of that period was never captured by the enemies. According to most historians, the strongest attack on this citadel was the attack of Sultan Sanjar of Seljuk in the middle of the eighth century, which Ibn Athir also dealt with in the history of the Ismailis, but after this attack and other subsequent attacks, as we said, this building was rebuilt and restored.
The Tabas citadel consisted of five houses, and these houses, like the old houses in the city of Tabas, had two porches, north and south, which were all around the house. These houses also had a pool in the middle of the courtyard that was filled with aqueduct water. The water of this basin was for sanitary purposes and except for this basin, in the old houses of Tabas, a water basin was considered for eating and drinking.
The basement, the remains of which are clearly visible, has been a component of other houses. The kitchen was another place and component installed in this house, and there were kitchen stoves in the corners of the courtyards. In addition to these five courtyards, Tabas Citadel also had public places. These places included baths, Husseiniyahs, mosques and other places. There was also a large reservoir in the northeastern part of the citadel. Tabas Citadel was registered in the list of national monuments of Iran in 2008.