Caravanserai

Caravanserai

The word is also rendered as caravansary, caravansaray, caravanseray and caravansara. The Persian word Kārwānsarā is a compound word combining Kārwān (caravan) with sara (palace, building with enclosed courts), to which the old Persian suffix -yi is added. Here "caravan" means a group of traders, pilgrims, or other travelers, engaged in long distance travel. The word serai is sometimes used with the implication of caravanserai.

A number of place-names based on the word sarai have grown up: Mughal Serai, Sarai Alamgir and Sarai Rohilla for example, and a great many other places are also based on the original meaning of "palace".

Khan

The Persian caravanserai was built as a large road station, outside of towns. An inn built inside a town would be smaller and was known in Persian as a khan (خان). In the Middle-East the term "khan" covers both meanings, of roadside inn as well as of inner-town inn. In Turkish the word is rendered as han. The same word was used in Bosnian, having arrived through Ottoman conquest. The Greek pandocheion, lit.: "welcoming all", thus meaning 'inn', led to funduq in Arabic (فندق), pundak in Hebrew (פונדק), fundaco in Venice, fondaco in Genoa and alhóndiga in Spanish.

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 country 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, while the revenues therefrom accruing 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 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 ablutions. Sometimes they had elaborate baths. They also kept fodder for animals and had shops for travelers where they could acquire new supplies. In addition, some shops bought goods from the traveling merchants.