Date

1976

Author

Tükel Yavuz, Ayşıl

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The institution of caravanserai has its most variations in Seljuk Anatolia, as the work of late Kurt Erdmann, "Das Anatolische Karavansaray des 13. Jahrhunderts" very well illustrates. Erdmann has also classified the Hans for the first time, according to the existence of the closed sections, the "hall" and the open section, the "court". The trilogy of concentrically planned Seljuk Hans consists of Alara Han, Eshab-i. Kehf Han and Mama Hatun Kervansarayı. Erdmann has classified Alara and Eshab-i Kehf Hans under "court hans""and Ünal has noted the similarity between Eshab-i Kehf and Hatun Kervansarayı. The three hans have been grouped together and compared by the author in 1967 , in relation to with a research on m Alara Han. In this article mainly the plan types of the three hans will be discussed, re-valuating them on first hand information collected İn 1970. Alara Han lies on the,north-south Seljuk caravan road, and is the second stop from Alanya in the direction of Antalya and Konya. It was constructed by Alaaddin' Keykubad I in 1331/2 (H.629). It roughly measures 38 m. X 50 m. and is oriented to the north. The core of the concentrical plan is occupied by the "travellers' quarters". There is a narrow courtyard at the center of the "core" with three rooms and four eyvans lined alternatingly on its long sides. The courtyard was originally covered with a barrel vault. The north section of the outer circles of the concentrical plan is occupied by the services of the Han. The small courtyard at the back of the portal serves as the main distribution area. The star-vaulted eyvan on tha east, the masjid on the west, the inner portal and the north corridor on the north open to this court. The north corridor leads to two other rooms of the service section as well as to the two-ring galleries which encircle the core on the remaining three sides. The inner ring of the galleries most probably served for sleeping as well as for unloading purposes with its high platform (under mud at the present), and the exterior ring served as the stables. The two galleries are connected to each other and to other rings by means of arched openings. The small rectangular windows on the rear walls of the rooms and the eyvans helped the masters control their servants, goods and animals in t*b^ galleries. Eshab-i Kehf Han belongs to a group of buildings consisting of a mosque, a ribat and a han on the site of the cave of the "Seven Sleepers", near Elbistan, Maraş. The Han was constructed by the governor of Maraş, Emir Nusrat-al-din Hasan bin Ibrahim, before his death in 1234. The building was used by the pilgrims who came to visit the cave; it did not serve for commercial purposes, since it did not lie on a caravan route. The Han which was heavily restored after 1960, measures 28 m. X 30 m. and is oriented to the north. The eyvan at back of the portal leads to a room on its west and to the stables on its east sides and opens to the courtyard in front. The "core" has the courtyard at the center, the main eyvan at the south side, and rooms and eyvans lined along the long sides of the courtyard. There are three rooms and two eyvans on each side, starting with an eyvan, followed by a room, another eyvan, and two more rooms after it. There are two other rooms on each side of the main eyvan. The short north arm of the stables meets the west arm that runs along the west side of the building. Mama Hatun Kervansarayı lies on the busy east-west caravan road, in Tercan, between Ercincan and Erzurum. The caravanserai must have been constructed about the end of the XIII th century and has had several Ottoman repairs and alterations. It is the largest of the concentrically planned hans, measuring 51 m. X 51 m. The east section of the outer, rings of the concentrical plan is devoted to the service spaces, as in Alara Han. The west corridor which runs perpendicular to the entrance corridor opens to the stables on its ends and to the courtyard by means of arched openings at the central section. The stables which complete the outer concentric rings run along the north and the south walls of the Han. There are two rooms at the end of the north stables. The large courtyard at the center of the "core" is surrounded by rooms and eyvans on its north, south and east sides. The rooms are clustered on the east and the eyvans on the west sides of the courtyard, instead of the alternating ıyvan and room arrangement of the other two Hans. There are five rooms and one eyvan on the north and south sides, and three eyvans and two large corner rooms on the west side. The flat, earth covered roof of the Han is reached through a staircase on the entrance corridor. There are two long galleries on the north and south sides running in the east-west direction, situated in the level difference between the lower vaults of the rooms lined on the long sides of the courtyard and the higher vaults of the stables flanking them. Although the location of the three caravanserei in relation to the caravan routes has influenced the size of the building in general and the capacity of the stables and the rooms in particular, concentrical planning is common to all the three Hans with: (1) courtyard, (2) rooms and eyvans, (3) stables and service spaces, in concentric rings. The open or the closed courtyard at the center of the "core" is lined with rooms and eyvans on three sides in Eshab-i Kehf and Mama Hatun Hans and on two sides in Alara Han. The courtyard is pulled back to the rear wall in Eshab-i Kehf Han. The stables encircle the core on three sides in Alara, on two sides in Mama Hatun and on one-and-a-half sides in Eshab-i Kehf Hans. A service section in front of the entrance complete the outer circles of the concentrical plan, in all the three cases. Another noteworhy feature of there Hans is the differentiation of the spaces according to their functions, especially in the living quarters. Devoting a complete section of the Hans to the travellers and expessing it with the abundance of the number of rooms is quite a different approach in the planning of a caravanserai. This special attention becomes even more accentuated in the separation of the spaces for daily use in the form of the eyvan and for sleeping in the form of rooms, as is best illustrated in the case of Alara Han. The emphasis given to the living quarters in these Hans, has led Özgüç and Akok, as well as Ünal, to resemble Eshab-i Kehf .and Mama Hatun Hans to medreses; Kuban thinks that Alara Han could possibly be a zawiya. Only two other examples with similar plan type could be traced outside of Anatolia. Tashrabat, on the road between Kashgar and Narysoje resembles the closed Danishmendid medreses more than the concentrically planned Hans, and the 'Ribad in Senchas resembles very much Mama Hatun Kervansarayı. Diez thinks that Tashrabat is a Nestorian convent with Buddhist influence in its planning. It is not possible to arrive at any relevant conclusion on the origin of or the possible influences on the concentrical plan type since both of buildings are undated. However, it can definitely be stated that the different locations of the Anatolian examples rule out the possibility of a climatic necessity which would influence the development of the specific plan type, as claimed by Erdmann. Although the question of origin is still open to discussion, these three caravanserai form a definite group among the Anatolian Selj.uk Hans with their planning, once more stressing the fact that the services given by a caravanserai do not depend on the existence of the "closed" and the "open" sections but on the organization of the spaces and the expressing of their functions in architecture. This specific group of Hans also make it clear that Anatolian Seljuk Hans need a re-classification, using the "functions" of the building type as the main criteria.

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http://jfa.arch.metu.edu.tr/archive/0258-5316/1976/cilt02/sayi_2/187-204.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/51330

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Department of Architecture, Article