The Caravanserais as an Element of the Road Infrastructure in the Balkan Provinces of the Ottoman Empire in the 16th–18th Centuries

Authors:

Pages: 104-122

Abstract:

The paper studies the stages in the development of the caravanserai complexes in Asia Minor and the Balkans and explains terms like ribat, caravanserai and han (the Turkish word for an inn). The author points out the reasons for the difference in the layout of the caravanserais built in the Ottoman Empire and in Asia Minor in the 13th century. He divides the caravanserai complexes in the Balkan provinces of the Ottoman Empire from the 16th century onwards in three architectural types. The first type includes buildings with an open yard. Roofed buildings without a yard form the second type. The third type combines the first and the second. There are also one or two storey buildings that encircle an open yard. Quite often they are called caravanserais but actually these are hans being built mostly in towns. The relation between the building of the infrastructure along the main roads in the Balkans and the establishment of Islam is shown.

Keywords:

ribat, caravanserai, han

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