Caravansary

A caravanserai (or caravansary; ) was a roadside inn where travelers ( caravaners) could rest and recover from the day's journey. Caravanserais supported the flow of commerce, information and people across the network of trade routes covering Asia, North Africa and Southeast Europe, most notably the Silk Road. Often located along rural roads in the countryside, urban versions of caravanserais were also historically common in cities throughout the Islamic world, and were often called other names such as ''khan'', ''wikala'', or ''funduq''.

Terms and etymology

Caravanserai

Caravanserai ( fa, کاروانسرای, ''kārvānsarāy''), is the Persian compound word variant combining ''kārvān'' "caravan" with ''-sarāy'' "palace", "building with enclosed courts". Here "caravan" means a group of traders, pilgrims or other travellers, engaged in long-distance travel. The word is also rendered as ''caravansary'', ''caravansaray'', ''caravanseray'', ''caravansara'', and ''caravansarai''. In scholarly sources, it is often used as an umbrella term for multiple related types of commercial buildings similar to inns or hostels, whereas the actual instances of such buildings had a variety of names depending on the region and the local language. However, the term was typically preferred for rural inns built along roads outside of city walls.

Khan

The word ''khan'' () derives from Middle Persian ''hʾn (''xān'', "house"). It could refer to an "urban caravanserai" built within a town or a city, or generally to any caravanserai, including those built in the countryside and along desert routes. In Turkish the word is rendered as ''han''. The same word was used in Bosnian and Bulgarian, having arrived through Ottoman conquest. In addition to Turkish and Persian, the term was widely used in Arabic as well, and examples of such buildings are found throughout the Middle East from as early as the Ummayyad period. The term ''han'' is also used i
Romanian
being adopted from Ottoman Turkish.

Funduq

The term ''funduq'' ( ar, فندق, lit=; sometimes spelled ''foundouk'' or ''fondouk'' from the French transliteration) is frequently used for historic inns in Morocco and around western North Africa. The word comes from Greek ''pandocheion'', lit.: "welcoming all", thus meaning 'inn', led to '' funduq'' in Arabic (), ''pundak'' in Hebrew (), '' fundaco'' in Venice, '' fondaco'' in Genoa and ''alhóndiga'' or ''fonda'' in Spanish (''funduq'' is the origin of Spanish term ''fonda''). In the cities of this region such buildings were also frequently used as housing for artisan workshops.

Wikala

The Arabic word ''wikala'' (), sometimes spelled ''wakala'' or ''wekala'', is a term found frequently in historic Cairo for an urban caravanserai which housed merchants and their goods and served as a center for trade, storage, transactions and other commercial activity. The word ''wikala'' means roughly "agency" in Arabic, in this case a commercial agency, which may also have been a reference to the customs offices that could be located here to deal with imported goods. The term ''khan'' was also frequently used for this type of building in Egypt.

History

Caravanserais were a common feature not only along the Silk Road, but also along the Achaemenid Empire's Royal Road, a ancient highway that stretched from Sardis to Susa according to Herodotus: "Now the true account of the road in question is the following: Royal stations exist along its whole length, and excellent caravanserais; and throughout, it traverses an inhabited tract, and is free from danger." Other significant urban caravanserais were built along the Grand Trunk Road in the Indian subcontinent, especially in the region of Mughal Delhi and Bengal Subah.

Throughout most of the Islamic period (7th century and after), caravanserais were a common type of structure both in the rural countryside and in dense urban centers across the Middle East, North Africa, and Ottoman Europe. A number of 12th to 13th-century caravanserais or ''han''s were built throughout the Seljuk Empire, many examples of which have survived across Turkey today (e.g. the large Sultan Han in Aksaray Province) as well as in Iran (e.g. the Ribat-i Sharaf in Khorasan). Urban versions of caravanserais also became important centers of economic activity in cities across these different regions of the Muslim world, often concentrated near the main '' souq'' areas, with many examples still standing in the historic areas of Damascus, Aleppo, Cairo, Istanbul, Fes, etc.

Ibn Battuta, a 14th-century Muslim traveler, described the function of a caravenserai in the region of China:

In many parts of the Muslim world, caravanserais also provided revenues that were used to fund charitable or religious functions or buildings. These revenues and functions were managed through a '' waqf'', a protected agreement which gave certain buildings and revenues the status of mortmain endowments guaranteed under Islamic law.Behrens-Abouseif, Doris. 2007. ''Cairo of the Mamluks: A History of Architecture and its Culture''. Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press. Many major religious complexes in the Ottoman and Mamluk empires, for example, either included a caravanserai building (like in the '' külliye'' of the Süleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul) or drew revenues from one in the area (such as the Wikala al-Ghuri in Cairo, which was built to contribute revenues for the nearby complex of Sultan al-Ghuri).

Caravanserai in Arab literature

Al-Muqaddasi the Arab geographer wrote in 985 CE about the hostelries, or wayfarers' inns, in the Province of Palestine, a province at that time listed under the topography of Syria, saying: "Taxes are not heavy in Syria, with the exception of those levied on the Caravanserais (''Fanduk''); Here, however, the duties are oppressive..." The reference here being to the imposts and duties charged by government officials on the importation of goods and merchandise, the importers of which and their beasts of burden usually stopping to take rest in these places. Guards were stationed at every gate to ensure that taxes for these goods be paid in full, with the revenues going to the Fatimid kingdom of Egypt.

Architecture

Most typically a caravanserai was a building with a square or rectangular walled exterior, with a single portal wide enough to permit large or heavily laden beasts such as camels to enter. The courtyard was almost always open to the sky, and the inside walls of the enclosure were outfitted with a number of identical animal stalls, bays, niches or chambers to accommodate merchants and their servants, animals, and merchandise.

Caravanserais provided water for human and animal consumption, washing and ritual purification such as '' wudu'' and ''ghusl''. Sometimes they had elaborate public baths ( hammams), or other attached amenities such as a fountain or a sabil/sebil. They kept fodder for animals and had shops for travellers where they could acquire new supplies. Some shops bought goods from the travelling merchants. Many caravanserais were equipped with small mosques, such as the elevated examples in the Seljuk and Ottoman caravanserais in Turkey.

In Cairo, starting in the Burji Mamluk period, ''wikala''s (urban caravanserais) were frequently several stories tall and often included a ''rab, a low-income rental apartment complex, which was situated on the upper floors while the merchant accommodations occupied the lower floors. While making the best use of limited space in a crowded city, this provided the building with two sources of revenue which were managed through the '' waqf'' system.

Notable caravanserais

Alphabetically, not taking article (al-, el-, etc.) into consideration.
*Abbasi Hotel, Isfahan, Iran
*Ağzıkara Han, Ağzıkarahan (Aksaray Province), Turkey
*Akbari Sarai, Lahore, Pakistan
*Büyük Han, Nicosia, Cyprus
* Büyük Valide Han, Istanbul, Turkey
* Büyük Yeni Han, Istanbul, Turkey
* Caravanserai of Sa'd al-Saltaneh, Qazvin, Iran
* Caravanserai of Zor, Iğdır, Turkey
*Corral del Carbón, Granada, Spain
* Elbasan Han, Korçë, Albania
* Funduq Nejjarine, Fes, Morocco
* Funduq Sagha, Fes, Morocco
*Funduq Shamma'in, Fes, Morocco
*Funduq Staouniyyin, Fes, Morocco
*Garghabazar Caravanserai, Kharabakh, Azerbaijan
* Kapan Han, Skopje, North Macedonia
* Khan As'ad Pasha, Damascus, Syria
* Khan Jaqmaq, Damascus, Syria
* Khan el-Khalili, Cairo, Egypt
* Khan Sulayman Pasha, Damascus, Syria
* Khan al-Tujjar, Mount Tabor, Israel
* Khan al-Tujjar, Nablus, West Bank
* Khan Tuman, Damascus, Syria
* Khan al-Umdan, Acre, Israel
* Koza Han, Bursa, Turkey
*Kürkçü Han, Istanbul, Turkey
*Kuršumli An, Skopje, North Macedonia
*Manuc's Inn, Bucharest, Romania
*Morića Han, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
* Multani Caravanserai, Baku, Azerbaijan
*Mughal Sarai, Surat, Gujarat, India
* Nampally Sarai, Nampally, Hyderabad, India
*Orbelian's Caravanserai, Armenia
* Rabati Malik, Uzbekistan
*Shaki Caravanserai, Shaki, Azerbaijan
* Stari Han, Kremna, Užice, Serbia
*Suli An, Skopje, North Macedonia
* Sultan Han, Sultanhanı (Aksaray Province), Turkey
* Sultan Han, Sultanhanı (Kayseri Province), Turkey
* Wikala al-Ghuri, Cairo, Egypt
* Wikala Qaytbay (at al-Azhar), Cairo, Egypt
* Wikala Qaytbay (at Bab al-Nasr), Cairo, Egypt
* Zeinodin Caravanserai, Zein-o-din, Yazd, Iran

Gallery

File:Main_Entrance_of_Akbari_Sarai.jpg, 16th century Akbari Sarai in Lahore, Pakistan
File:Fallujah 1914.jpg, Fallujah's Caravanserai in use, ca. 1914, Iraq
File:Fair at Khan al-Tujjar.jpg, An 1850 drawing of Khan al-Tujjar, near Mount Tabor, Israel
File:Akko BW 13.JPG, Khan al-Umdan in Acre, Israel
File:Khan al-Wazir Alp.JPG, Khan al-Wazir, Aleppo, Syria
File:Selim Caravanserai3.jpg, Inside the Orbelian's Caravanserai, Armenia
File:Sadolsaltaneh caravanserai.jpg, The interior of the Caravanserai of Sa'd al-Saltaneh in Qazvin, Iran
File:Hotel Shah Abbas Sahn.jpg, The caravanserai of Shah Abbas, now Abbasi Hotel, in Isfahan, Iran. View is from the courtyard (sahn).
File:Neyestanak Caravanserai Inner Courtyard 2007-01-01.jpg, An abandoned caravanserai in Neyestānak, Iran
File:Bursa, Turkey (4505709750).jpg, The courtyard of the Koza Han (1490-91) of Bursa, Turkey; the domed building is a small mosque (''mescit'')
File:Caravanserai-Sheki.jpg, 18th-centuryVladimir Braginskiy. Tourist Attractions in the USSR: A Guide. Raduga Publishers, 1982. 254 pages. Page 104.

The whole of the centre of Sheki has been proclaimed a reserve protected by the state. To take you back to the time of the caravans, two large eighteenth-century caravanserais have been preserved with spacious courtyards where the camels used to rest, cellars where goods were stored, and rooms for travellers.

caravanserai in Sheki, Azerbaijan
File:Multani karvansarayı.JPG, Multani Caravanserai, Baku, Azerbaijan
File:Katra Mosque - Murshidabad.jpg, The Caravenserai Mosque in Murshidabad, India; built by Nawab Murshid Quli Khan of Bengal
File:Charles D'Oyly04.jpg, An 1823 etching of Bara Katra, or Great Caravanserai, in Dhaka, Bangladesh; built by the Mughal Prince Shah Shuja
File:The Small Kuttra with its enclosed Mosque, Dhaka (1817).jpg, An 1817 sketch of the Choto Katra caravanserai in Dhaka, Bangladesh; built by the Mughal viceroy Shaista Khan
File:Anderkilla Shahi Jame Mosque (02).jpg, Anderkilla in Chittagong, Bangladesh
File:Wikala-sabil-kuttab of Qaitbay 03.jpg, The entrance portal of the Wikala of Sultan Qaytbay, dating from 1477, south of Al-Azhar Mosque, Cairo
File:Granada Corral del Carbón 16-03-2011 17-29-46 16-03-2011 17-29-46.JPG, Corral del Carbón, a former caravanserai in Granada, Spain
File:Tash Rabat.JPG, The ruins of a Silk Road caravanserai in Tash Rabat, Kyrgyzstan
File:تی تی کاروان سرا.jpg, Titi Caravanserai
File:تصویر سراسرنما از بام کاروانسرای دیرگچین استان قم، معماری برجای مانده از دوره ساسانی.jpg, Panoramic view of the roof of Dirgchin Caravanserai in Qom Province, surviving architecture from the Sassanid period

See also

References

Further reading

* Branning, Katharine. 2018
turkishhan.org
The Seljuk Han in Anatolia. New York, USA.
* Cytryn-Silverman, Katia. 2010. ''The Road Inns (Khans) in Bilad al-Sham''. BAR (British Archaeological Reports), Oxford.
*
* Erdmann, Kurt, Erdmann, Hanna. 1961. ''Das anatolische Karavansaray des 13. Jahrhunderts'', 3 vols. Berlin: Mann, 1976,
*
* Hillenbrand, Robert. 1994. ''Islamic Architecture: Form, function and meaning''. New York: Columbia University Press. (see Chapter VI for an in depth overview of the caravanserai).
* Kiani, Mohammad Yusef. 1976
Caravansaries in Khorasan Road.
Reprinted from: ''Traditions Architecturales en Iran'', Tehran, No. 2 & 3, 1976.
* Schutyser, Tom. 2012. ''Caravanserai: Traces, Places, Dialogue in the Middle East''. Milan: 5 Continents Editions,
* Yavuz, Aysil Tükel. 1997. ''The Concepts that Shape Anatolian Seljuq Caravansara.'' In: Gülru Necipoglu (ed). 1997. ''Muqarnas XIV: An Annual on the Visual Culture of the Islamic World.'' Leiden: E. J. Brill, 80–95. rchnet.org/library/pubdownloader/pdf/8967/doc/DPC1304.pdf Available online as a PDF document, 1.98 MB

External links

Shah Abbasi Caravanserai, Tishineh

Caravansara Pictures

Consideratcaravanserai.net
Texts and photos on research on caravanserais and travel journeys in Middle East and Central Asia.



The Seljuk Han in Anatolia

Persian Caravanserai
UNESCO application

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Hotel types
Islamic architecture
Architecture in Iran
Silk Road
Persian words and phrases