Seyyd mehdi Hosseyni nia; Karim Hajizade; Habib Shahbazi Shiran; Reza Rezaloo
Abstract
The city of Ardabil, due to its unique geographical and strategic location, was known in the early Islamic centuries as a crossroads and the most important city of Azerbaijan in economic, ...
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The city of Ardabil, due to its unique geographical and strategic location, was known in the early Islamic centuries as a crossroads and the most important city of Azerbaijan in economic, political, and cultural exchanges in historical and geographical texts. The diversity in the region's ecosystem and the spatial conditions had a significant impact on the survival and development of the city, which this article examines and analyzes the factors that have created these superior conditions. The aim of this research is to identify the geographical components influencing the survival and development process of Ardabil city from the Islamic era to the end of the Safavid period. Therefore, the main question of this research is: What geographical variables have influenced the survival, development, and decline of the city from the early Islamic centuries to the end of the Safavid era? The research method is descriptive-analytical. Data collection was based on historical and geographical written sources, and the analysis and argumentation were based on the "Kent and Watts" biogeography theory, examining the role of five variables: matter, energy, diversity, space, and time in the two phases of survival-development and recession of the city. The results indicate that in the early Islamic centuries, Ardabil city was mentioned as the first and most important city in the Azerbaijan state. Water resources, energy, and human-made resources shaped it in the early Islamic centuries. After the attacks by the Georgians and Mongols, this city lost some of its past prosperity. However, during the Safavid period, due to the importance of the mausoleum complex of Sheikh Safi al-Din Ardabili and the resurgence of silk trade, this city once again regained its past glory through accumulating wealth by reviving communication routes and collecting endowments for the mausoleum complex from various points regionally and beyond
