Mākū

Maku occupies a mountain passage north of Khoy, on a route linking Azarbaijan with Anatolia and the lands beyond the Araxes. Its fortress guarded a frontier exposed to the movement of armies as well as travellers. In the early fifteenth century the Castilian ambassador Clavijo passed through Maku when raiding made the road from Khoy unsafe.

The frontier wars of the eighteenth century brought severe disruption. Ottoman forces occupied Maku after the collapse of Safavid power; Nader recovered the district in 1730, though control changed hands amid further fighting between the opposing powers along this exposed border. The Bayat family, established in the area to guard the frontier, gained authority at Maku and remained an important local power as central rule weakened.