Sultan Han

This caravanserai was the largest of the approximately 250 such staging posts in Seljuk Anatolia. Nine were known as ‘sultan han’, commissioned by sultans. In the thirteenth century, the Seljuk Empire gained great political power due to its strategic position, located between the Mediterranean and the East. Many caravanserais were built within the Empire, every 30 kilometres or so – a day’s journey apart.

Their principal function was to provide accommodation. The existence of such buildings is documented from the beginning of Islamic civilisation[1]. They originated in earlier periods: indeed, the geographical area covered by the new Seljuk civilisation contained the vestiges of Achemenid, Roman[2], Parthian and Sasanian[3] buildings resembling caravanserais. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, under Iranian influence, khans were introduced into Anatolia. Similar buildings exist in urban areas[4] in the Near-East and the West[5].

The exterior of the building is defensive. Semicircular and hexagonal towers punctuate the outside wall. The single entrance, set inside a great rectangular portal, is flanked with triples columns. The portal with its triangular muqarnas niche is richly sculpted with geometric, epigraphic and vegetal motifs. Two side columns with chevron-patterend shafts are reminiscent of crusader buildings in Palestine. This type of portal is common in Anatolian buildings, for example, in mosques[6], madrasa[7] and mausolea.

The interior is divided in two areas, a courtyard and an enclosed hall, following an arrangement frequently seen in Anatolian construction and especially employed in the sultan han. A groin-vaulted vestibule leads from the portal. The courtyard contains a small building in the centre whose upper level served as an oratory and was accessible by a staircase of two flights. The decoration comprises bands with geometric motifs emphasising the construction lines; the arches are decorated with floral motifs and flanked with circular medallions. This type of building was already in existence in pre-Islamic caravanserais[8] and perhaps recalls the keeps constructed in the centre of Parthian fortified buildings[9].

Many rooms with varying functions surrounded the courtyard: the administrative rooms (the guard room and offices) were located to the north. The rooms to the west open onto the courtyard and communicate with one another through arcades which probably served as stables and unloading areas. Enclosed rooms to the east held two baths, kitchens and refectories. The latrines were located in the north-west corner. The covered hall which was probably used in winter leads from the courtyard. The courtyard is reached through a portal with a triangular muqarnas niche. It is a pillared hall structured around a central nave and nine barrel vaulted spaces. A dome set on squinches with muqarnas surmounts the central space. The helical motif formed by the arrangements of stone in the dome recalls the ornate brickwork of Iranian architecture[10]. A conical roof sits above the interior dome, familiar from Armenian architecture[11]and Anatolian turbe[12].

Foreign influences are also apparent, attested by the inscription on the portal mentioning an architect ‘from Damascus’[13]. There are numerous echoes of Syrian architecture, for example in the use of bicoloured lintels and muqarnas niche in the entrances which were used for the first time in the hospital of Nur al-Din in Damascus (1154) and recur in Ayyubid architecture of the thirteenth century.

[2] Fortified walls discovered in the Palmyra region (Syria, C1st B.C. – C2nd A.D.) probably served as a place of commercial transactions.

[3] Qasr Daba, near to Ukhaydir (Iraq), Parthian and Sasanian periods.

[4] In towns and cities, caravanserais played an important commercial role. The wakala of sultan al-Ghawri (r. 1501-1505) in Cairo is a very well conserved example.

[5] Venice, fondaco dei Turchi.

[6] Mosque of Khuand Khatun Kayseri,, Anatolia, 1237-1238.

[7] Cifte Minareli madrasa, Erzerum, Anatolia, 1253.

[8] Caravanserai of Bibsetun (Iran), Sasanian period.

[9] Fortress of Khirbat Jaddalah, Iraq, 141 A.D.

[10] See, for example, the dome of the Sangbast mausoleum (Iran), 1028.

[11] Church of Saint Mary, Bdjini, Armenia 11th century.

[12] Tomb of Hüdavend Hatun, Nigde, Turkey, 1312.

[13] He also perhaps worked on the Great Moque of Konya (1156).