Merzifon Taşhanı: A Seventeenth-Century Ottoman Inn
Site at a Glance
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Turkey
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- Eras represented
- Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Ottoman
- Site type
- Economic
- Remains
- Caravanserai
History
Merzifon Taşhanı is a seventeenth-century Ottoman inn in Turkey, built as part of the Kara Mustafa Pasha complex, a mosque-centered külliye that could include charitable and commercial facilities. Kara Mustafa Pasha was the Ottoman grand vizier, the sultan’s chief minister. The inn’s construction is estimated to have taken place before 1671, based on an endowment register held in the General Directorate of Foundations’ archive.
A register dated March 1678 records the inn and describes its arrangement and associated shops.
Remains
The inn occupies level ground where an east–west slope reaches the edge of the Kara Mustafa Pasha Mosque courtyard. It lies east of the courtyard and west of the covered market. Four streets bound the site: Kuyumcular Street to the west, Kunduracı Street to the east, Taşhan Street to the south, and Bakırcılar Street to the north.
The 1678 register describes streets along three sides of the inn’s plot and rooms associated with Veli Efendi along the fourth. It lists 62 rooms on two levels and four shops within the plot. Outside that boundary were 35 shops and one coffee-roasting shop.
