Lasgerdi

The Lasgerdis are the people of Lasjerd (locally Lasgar), an old fortified village about 35 km west of Semnan and 15 km west of Sorkheh, now the seat of the Central District of Sorkheh County, Semnan province. They speak Lasgerdi, one of the Komisenian (Semnani-group) languages of Northwestern Iranian. Lasgerdi is closest to Sorkhei, the language of nearby Sorkheh; the two share the same large vowel system and form a Sorxei-Lasgerdi subgroup distinct from Semnani and Sangisari. The village's old name, Balash-gerd ('town of Valakhsh/Vologases', a Parthian royal name), shortened to Lashgerd and then Lasgerd, points to Parthian-era roots, and some historians identify it with a Seleucid foundation called Apamea. Lasgerdi has only about 1,000 speakers, essentially the population of the one village, and is now spoken mainly by middle-aged and older people.

Lasjerd is famous for the Balashgerd castle (Qal'eh-ye Balashgerd), a massive round mud-brick fortress of several storeys with four towers, in which villagers once lived and took refuge from raiders on the Khorasan road. A 19th-century traveller drew it as 'Lasgird, a fortified village in northern Persia'. The castle is national heritage monument no. 649 and has been under emergency restoration since 2024. The village also has a Safavid caravanserai on the old Tehran-Khorasan route and the twin shrine of Imamzadeh Sayyed Reza and Sayyed Ali Akbar. Families farm grain, cotton, grapes, figs, almonds, pomegranates, melons, onions and mulberries with spring and qanat water, keep sheep and goats, and weave carpets. Everyday greetings in Lasgerdi ('che kenda, khujia, ta hal khujiye?' - how are you, are you well?) are still heard. Lasjerd now promotes eco-lodges and heritage tourism.

Lasgerdis are Twelver Shia Muslims. Village religious life centres on the shrine of the two Imamzadehs, Sayyed Reza and Sayyed Ali Akbar, the mosque and Muharram mourning rites. Folk practices such as vows and votive meals at the shrine are probably common, as elsewhere in rural Iran, but they are not documented for Lasjerd specifically. No other religious communities are recorded in the village.

There is no Scripture, Jesus Film or known audio recording in Lasgerdi. All Lasgerdis are bilingual in Persian and could use Persian Scripture and media. No outreach to the village is known.