ARDABIL

Turkish Erdebil, town, northwestern Iran, 38 miles (61 km) from the Caspian Sea. It stands on an open plain 4,500 feet (1,400 m) above sea level, just east of Mount Sabalan (15,784 feet ), where cold spells occur until late spring. Persian historians have ascribed a founding date to the town in the Sasanian period, but its known history does not begin until the Islamic period. The town was taken by treaty by 'Ali (c. 600661), the fourth caliph. It was at that time the residence of the Sasanian governor. The Umayyad governor made Ardabil his capital, but the Arab hold on the region did not last. Local rulers fought continuously in the area until the Mongol conquest in 1220, when the town was destroyed. It lost all importance until Sheikh Safi od-Din made it the centre of his Sufi order in the 13th century, at the beginning of the rise of the Safavid dynasty. Ardabil became a Safavid shrine, especially enriched by gifts from Safavid rulers. Much of the library of the shrine, once the greatest in Iran, and many of the treasures were looted by the Russians after their sack of Ardabil in 1827. The town once shared in trade with Russia via the Caspian, but such activity has stagnated. Its industry consists of a cement factory and the making of carpets and rugs. Local warm mineral springs are frequented. The population speaks Azeri, a Turkic language. Pop. (1991) 311,022.