ARDEBIL, or Ardabil, one of the chief towns of Azerbijan in Persia, situated in 38° 15' N. lat., and 48° 19' E. long., on the Karasu or Balulk, a tributary of the Aras, in a fertile plain about 40 miles from the Caspian, seems to have been built out of the ruins of a former city. It is surrounded with a mud wall and towers, has a square castle with bastions at the corners fortified after European fashion, and contains the tomb of Shah Ismael Sufi, the founder of the Sufi dynasty of Persia. It is an emporium in the trade of Tiflis, Derbend, and Baku with Ispahan and Teheran. By a great council of the Persian empire, which met in 1736 in the neighbouring plain of Chowal-Mogam, Nadir Shah was chosen king, and his coronation took place next year at Ardebil. In the vicinity there are a number of warm mineral springs, and to the west stands the great mountain Sevilan, of volcanic origin, forming the eastern, extremity of the water-shed between the Aras and the Tigris. From its remarkable salubrity Ardebil has acquired the Persian title of Abadan i Firuz, the abode of happiness.