Khalkhal

Khalkhal was a highland district southwest of Ardabil in Azerbaijan. In 1337 its local chief held it under the Jalayirids; the town had succeeded the older Firuzabad as the district’s seat.

Around 1340 Hamdallah Mustawfi described Khalkhal as a former town reduced to a village, with about a hundred villages in its district; a mountain spring powered two mills and irrigated the fields. After Nader Shah’s death in 1747, Amir-Guna Khan of the Afshar founded a semi-independent khanate there. Qajar forces absorbed it in 1799.