ancient cities

distinction is made between the highway khan
(with short-term lodging for both commercial travelers
and their transport animals, thus the caravanserai)
and the urban khan (a lodging house,
warehouse, and trading center). A substantial gateway,
large enough to allow passage of a camel with
loaded bags on each side, provides access to the
central court, an open area large enough to contain
300 to 400 camels. Two-story buildings surrounded
the rectangular courtyard, with an arcaded corridor
creating a permeable space between the courtyard
and the interior. The introverted spatial conception
corresponds to the protective nature of the institution
and its sheltering function, which is achieved
by arranging the rooms along the second floor for
travelers facing the open courtyard, while the windowless
walls facing the outside space create a protected
fortress-like appearance. After the mosque,
the caravanserai is the most common building type
dated to the medieval
Moslem world, and in the
present day they include
world heritage sites as well
as examples of adaptive
reuse: Several are now
modern hotels.
The caravanserai were
spread along the major
land routes in the Muslim
world at regular intervals
with the intervening distances
ordered by the
speed of caravan travel by
camels, donkeys, mules,
and loaded horses.
Because this speed and
distance did not change
for millennia, the caravanserai
may be linked to
the routes of the advancement
of armies of
Alexander the Great, then
to the Romans and
Byzantines, and even
more so to Seljuk Turks
following their conquest
of Byzantium. The
Ottoman Empire (ruled in
direct lineage 1077–1407)
stretched from the Mediterranean
to the Black
Caravanserai
113
Sea, crossed by overland roads. The famous Silk
Road from China to Europe and related legends of
Venetian Marco Polo’s travel were also part of the
caravanserai.
Located one day’s travel time (about every
30 kilometers) along the major trade routes, the
caravanserai completed the communication network
of the Ottoman economy and gave shelter to
persons on pilgrimages across the empire. It was
considered a pious duty to provide for the endowment
of caravanserai for pilgrims. Over time the
caravanserai acted as growth poles, and market
towns would develop adjacent to them. In places
where the regional conditions and population gravitation
were suitable, permanent trade bazaars
would develop, and charitable institutions—the
vaquf, an essential element of urbanity for the
Muslim town—were established. In addition to
the bazaar, or market center, the vaquf would
Caravanseri of Mehmed Pasa Sokolovic in Belgrade. Detail of the map of Belgrade by Gump, end
of the seventeenth/early eighteenth century.
Source: Serbian National Library.