Caravanserai

(1598), in Kerman, Iran Caravanserai Caravanserai (), is the Persian compound word variant combining kārvān "caravan" with -sarāy "palace", "building with enclosed courts". Here "caravan" means a group of traders, pilgrims, and travelers, engaged in long-distance travel. The word is also rendered as caravansary, caravansaray, caravanseray, caravansara, and caravansarai. Khan , a caravanserai built in 1752 in Damascus, Syria The word khan () derives from a clipping of . or to any caravanserai in general, including those built in the countryside and along desert routes. It came into more common usage under the Mamluk Sultanate and the Ottoman Empire. The word comes from ; or fonda in Spanish. In the cities of this region such buildings were also frequently used as housing for artisan workshops. The word became the common Arabic word for Hotel. Wikala (1504–05), one of the best-preserved examples in Cairo The Arabic word wikala (), sometimes spelled wakala or wekala, is a term used in Egypt for an urban caravanserai which housed merchants and their goods and served as a center for trade, storage, transactions and other commercial activity. The term khan was also frequently used for this type of building in Egypt. Katra Kāṭrā () is the name given to the caravanserais built by the Mughal Empire in Bengal. The Bara Katra () and Chhota Katra () refers to two magnificent Mughal katras in Dhaka, Bangladesh. ==History==

The origin of rural caravanserais are ancient. One early antecedent has been found in the remains of an Urartian site from the 8th or 9th century BCE uncovered in western Iran, near the mountain pass between Urmia and Oshnavieh. The Achaemenid Empire (6th to 4th centuries BCE) built staging posts or relay stations for communications along its major roads. The later Byzantine Empire also maintained staging posts along its major roads. In the Islamic period (seventh century and after), the use of caravanserais intensified. They continued to be built under successor dynasties, although few notable examples have survived from the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods in the Middle East. They grew in number during the rule of Sher Shah Suri (). Under the Mughals, the sultans commissioned the construction of further caravanserais and encouraged their entourage to do the same, mainly from the 16th to late 18th centuries. Their concept and designs were adapted from Iranian examples. == Function ==

's Caravanserai in use, ca. 1914, Iraq Caravanserais served a variety of functions supporting trade and commerce. Rural caravanserais were built at intervals along major roads. They served as way stations where merchants and travelers could safely stop and rest along the way. The distance between them was intended to be equivalent to a day's journey. 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). ==Architecture==

General of a Safavid Empire-era caravanserai in Karaj, Iran Typically, a caravanserai was a building with a square or rectangular floor plan, with a single entrance wide enough to permit large or heavily laden beasts such as camels to enter. It had a central courtyard, almost always open to the sky, which was surrounded by a number of identical animal stalls, bays, and chambers to accommodate merchants and their servants, animals, and merchandise. Caravanserais provided water for human and animal consumption as well as for washing and ritual purification (wudu and ghusl), provided by a fountain or well in the courtyard and sometimes by attached public baths (hammams). The later Ottomans continued to build caravanserais but their patronage was focused on urban centres, where they were built alongside other commercial structures such as arastas (market streets) and bedestens (central market halls) in the middle of the city. The caravanserais themselves consist of courtyards surrounded by two or more levels of domed rooms fronted by arcaded galleries. In Safavid Iran, caravanserais had a standard layout for the most part: a rectangular courtyard surrounded by a gallery of vaulted openings (iwans) and rooms on one or two levels. At the middle of each of side was a larger central iwan, repeating the four-iwan plan common in Iranian architecture. Rural caravanserais often had rounded towers at their corners and an imposing entrance portal. In the later Safavid period (17th century), more complex layouts appeared, such as those with an octagonal floor plan instead of rectangular. File:20180110 Sultanhani 4496 (40093350601).jpg|Roofed hall attached to the Sultan Han near Aksaray, Turkey (13th century), a feature of some Anatolian Seljuk caravanserais File:Granada Corral del Carbón 16-03-2011 17-29-46 16-03-2011 17-29-46.JPG|Entrance of the Corral del Carbón, a former urban caravanserai in Granada, Spain (14th century, Nasrid period) File:Wikala-sabil-kuttab of Qaitbay 03.jpg|Entrance of the Wikala of Sultan Qaytbay in Cairo, Egypt (1477, Mamluk period) File:Bursa, Turkey (4505709750).jpg|Courtyard of the Koza Han in Bursa, Turkey (1491, Ottoman period) ; the domed building is a small mosque File:Tash Rabat.JPG|Tash Rabat caravanserai in Kyrgyzstan File:Aleppo Khan al-Jumruk 9159.jpg|Interior façade of a gate from the courtyard of Khan al-Jumruk in Aleppo, Syria (1574) File:AminAbad94 (2).jpg|Caravanserai of Aminabad, with an octagonal layout (17th century, Safavid period) File:Górny Karawanseraj - Szeki.jpg|Shaki Caravanserai in Azerbaijan (19th century) ==See also==