ABSTRACT
COMMENTARY 62 The city oJ Ardabil(Erdebil) (ref. Chap. 12, p. 454, n. I) Erdebil is the Turkish pronunciation of Persian Ardabil. As the home of Shaikh Safi-al-din and the original centre of the Sufi order at the end of the thirteenth century, Ardabil enjoyed great prestige under the Safavids. With Tabriz and Kazvin it was one of the triangle of capitals of the earlier Safavids before Shah Abbas removed the centre of administration to Isfahan. On the west the city is dominated by the peak of Savalan (4800 In.). It lies at an altitude of 1370 m. in a circular plain surrounded by mountain ridges and is subject to extremes of heat and cold and formidable dust storms. In a near-contemporary description, Evliya Chelebi (von Hammer ed., Vol. II, pp. 146-7) observes:
