This is the first episode of the year 2024, and I am recording it on January 1. On the Islamic calendar, the current year is 1445, and it is 1402 on the Iranian calendar.

In Persia, the date is March 30, 1637, and our travelers are in the Kur River valley near the modern-day border of Azerbaijan and Iran. After days of freezing in the mountains, they now encounter “nothing but fair weather, a sky clear, and without any cloudiness,” except for a light haze in the mornings that is quickly burned off by the sun.

They cross the river on April 2, and are met by a guide from the city of Ardebil. They transfer their belongings to 40 camels and 300 horses, being informed that wagons are not suitable for the next 120 miles of road through mountains and valleys. Each day on the road to Ardebil, they are supplied with 10 sheep, 30 batmans of wine, along with rice, eggs, almonds, raisins, and as much fruit as they please.

They arrive in Ardebil – where they will stay for two months – on April 10 and with greater pomp and magnificence than they had met in Schamachie. About a league from the city, Governor Kelbele Khan – described as “a low man, but of a good aspect and pleasant humor” – meets them with more than a thousand horse-mounted troops.

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