Farah

Farah belongs to the wider Sistan region, a largely desert country bisected by the Helmand River, which empties into Hamun Lake on the Iran–Afghanistan border. Sistan takes its name from Sakastan, “the land of the Saka.” The Sakas were a Scythian tribe that migrated to the Iranian Plateau and the Indus valley between the 2nd century BC and the 1st century, where they formed the Indo-Scythian Kingdom. This regional history gives the setting its old name and its frontier character.

Under the Sasanians, Sakastan was formed as a province around 240 during the reign of Shapur I, as part of an effort to centralise the empire. Earlier the province had been under the Parthian Suren Kingdom, and Ardashir I had the ancient city Zrang rebuilt, making it the provincial capital. In the 860s the Saffarid dynasty emerged in Sistan and went on to conquer much of the Islamic East until the Samanids checked it in 900. Sistan thus entered the Islamic period as a base for wider military expansion and as a contested provincial space.

After the Ilkhanate's demise, Sistan declared independence in 1335. In 1383 Tamerlane conquered Sistan and forced the Mihrabanids to become vassals. Timurid overlordship ended with the Uzbek invasion of 1507; the Uzbeks were driven out in 1510, and the Mihrabanids became Safavid vassals until 1537, when the Safavids deposed the dynasty and took full control. Safavid rule lasted until 1717, with interruptions; Nader Shah reconquered Sistan in 1727, and after his assassination in 1747 it passed under the Durrani Empire.