Ḫōy

Khoy stands on a fertile plain north of Lake Urmia, enclosed by high mountains. Its position between Azarbaijan, Armenia and Anatolia made it a stopping place on the caravan road west from Tabriz. Travellers and merchants crossed its plain on journeys between the Iranian plateau and the lands beyond the mountains.

In 1478 rival Aq Qoyunlu princes fought a decisive battle near Khoy, opening the road to Tabriz to Yaqub. Shah Ismail I later gathered his forces here before the campaign that ended at Chaldiran in 1514. Ottoman and Safavid armies repeatedly contested the town, while the Kurdish Donboli emerged as its leading local family and served as frontier guardians. Khoy was destroyed in 1636–37 and revived after peace was made three years later.