Caravanserai

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This article is about the roadside inns. The band Santana also has an album entitled Caravanserai.

A caravanserai (also spelt caravansarai, caravansary from Persian كاروانسرا, Turkish: kervansaray), means home or shelter for caravans ("caravan" meaning a group or convoy of soldiers, traders or pilgrims engaged in long distance travel).

The word "caravansarei" derived from "caravan" (travellers) and "sarai" (or sera) meaning home or inn. A caravanserai was a roadside inn where travellers could rest and recover from the day's journey. Caravanserais supported the flow of commerce, information and people across a network of trade routes of Asia, North Africa and South-Eastern Europe.

Most typically it 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 is almost always open to the sky, and along the inside walls of the enclosure are ranged a number of identical stalls, bays, niches or chambers to accommodate merchants and their servants, their animals and merchandise. (Sims 1978:101)

Image:Sadolsaltaneh caravanserai.jpg|Interior of the Caravanserai of Sa'd al-Saltaneh in Qazvin. Image:Hotel Shah Abbas Sahn.jpg|Caravanserai of Shah Abbas, now a hotel, in Isfahan. View is from courtyard (sahn). Image:Carvansara plan.gif|A sample plan of Safavid caravanserai. Image:Caravansarai Karaj.jpg|A caravanserai in Karaj, Iran of Safavid era

Caravanserais provided water for drinking (for animals and people), and for washing and ritual ablutions. Sometimes they even had elaborate baths. They also kept fodder for animals and had shops for travellers where they could acquire new supplies. In addition, there could be shops where merchants could dispose some of their goods." (Ciolek 2004)

Westernization of the Persian word sarayı سرا with the meaning dwelling, palace or enclosed courts. The word caravan (كاروان) itself also has a Persian origin.

Further reading

• Erdmann, Kurt, Erdmann, Hanna. 1961. Das anatolische Karavansaray des 13. Jahrhunderts, 3 vols. Berlin: Mann, 1976, ISBN 3-7861-2241-5
• Hillenbrand, Robert. 1994. Islamic Architecture: Form, function and meaning. NY: Columbia University Press. (see Chapter VI for an in depth overview of the caravanserai).
• Sims, Eleanor. 1978. Trade and Travel: Markets and Caravanserais.' In: Michell, George. (ed.). 1978. Architecture of the Islamic World - Its History and Social Meaning. London: Thames and Hudson Ltd, 80-111.
• Yavuz, Aysil Tükel. 1997. The Concepts that Shape Anatolian Seljuq Caravanserais. In: Gülru Necipoglu (ed). 1997. Muqarnas XIV: An Annual on the Visual Culture of the Islamic World. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 80-95. Available online as a PDF document, 1.98 MB archnet.org/library/pubdownloader/pdf/8967/doc/DPC1304.pdf.

Samples

• Caravanserai of Sa'd al-Saltaneh

Further reading

• Encyclopedia Iranica, p.798-802

See also

• Islamic architecture
• Persian architecture
• Iran
• han (inn) (khan (inn))

External links

• [Caravansary]
• Ciolek, T. Matthew. 2004. [Catalogue of Georeferenced Caravanserais/Khans]. Old World Traditional Trade Routes (OWTRAD) Project. Canberra: www.ciolek.com - Asia Pacific Research Online.
• Branning, Katharine. 2002. [The Seljuk Han in Anatolia]. www.turkishhan.org, New York, USA.
• Kiani, Mohammad Yusef. 1976. [Caravansaries in Khorasan Road.] Reprinted from: Traditions Architecturales en Iran, Tehran, No. 2 & 3, 1976.
• [UNESCO pages on Caravanserai]

 

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