Routes, Caravanserais and Travel in Safavid Iran

In seventeenth-century Safavid Iran, roads carried merchants, pilgrims, messengers and officials between Isfahan, the capital in central Iran, provincial towns and borderlands. Routes ran north toward the Caspian and Caucasus, west toward Ottoman territory, south to Persian Gulf ports, and east toward Mughal India. These journeys linked work and worship to everyday life across the Safavid realm.

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Routes and the people who travelled

Most overland trade moved on pack animals because Persian roads were unsuitable for wheeled vehicles. A camel, mule, donkey or horse could carry goods across broken ground, but travellers had to plan around water and fodder. During the busy season, the English physician John Fryer reported meeting caravans almost every day; some were simply groups of pack animals, while a Dutch East India Company convoy could include as many as a hundred. Caravan size varied with the journey and its cargo.

Jean Chardin, a French jeweller and merchant, reached Isfahan on 24 June 1673 after travelling from Tiflis (modern Tbilisi, Georgia) through Erevan (Yerevan, Armenia), Tabriz, Zanjan, Qom and Kashan. His itinerary connected towns by regional roads. Other travellers joined established routes for pilgrimage: Shiite visitors journeyed to Mashhad and Qom, to Ardabil’s shrine of Sheikh Safi, or across the Ottoman frontier to the shrines of Najaf and Karbala.

Water, roads and stopping places

Route stages depended on springs, wells and places where people and animals could rest. A caravanserai was a roadside lodging complex for travellers, animals and goods. Rulers and private patrons supported such inns, water tanks and bridges. Between Kashan and Garmsar, the Sang-farsh road crossed salt marshes and foothills on a paved track about seven metres wide, carried over marshy ground by numerous bridges. From the early seventeenth century, caravans between Isfahan and the north or northeast used this difficult crossing.

Water could determine where builders placed an inn. Work on the Ayn-e Rashidi caravanserai south of Garmsar stopped when its spring proved too salty; builders established the Abbasi caravanserai a few kilometres away near drinkable water. The replacement kept the road’s stopping place beside a dependable supply. In cities, caravanserais near the bazaar also served as depots and commercial offices.

Caravanserais in different terrain

Most roadside caravanserais organized lodging around an enclosed court, with a controlled entrance and areas for animals and storage. At Kenargerd Caravanserai, near Tehran in northern Iran, the older Safavid block has rooms facing a rectangular courtyard and long stables behind the lodging cells. Passages through the entrance vestibule, the chamber just inside a doorway, and cut-off courtyard corners let pack animals reach the stables. The western courtyard is a later addition, so the site’s present form reflects more than one building phase.

Mountain routes required another kind of shelter. Sain Stone Caravanserai stood on the old Nir–Sarab road at Sain Pass in Ardabil Province, in northwest Iran, where heavy snow could obstruct travel. Its locally gathered stone walls, low residential doorways and few roof openings limited cold drafts. Wider entrances into central passages admitted pack animals, while narrower side entrances led to enclosed rooms. The plan made room for people and animals while helping keep wind and snow outside.

Fees, protection and changing conditions

Merchants paid customs duties and local charges as goods crossed borders, entered ports or passed through towns; these were distinct from road tolls. Road guards, called rāhdārs, collected road fees and secured particular stretches. Under Shah Abbas I, road security was restored after a period of instability. The system weakened after the 1660s, and travel became chaotic during the Afghan occupation of 1722–32. Conflict along the frontiers altered the routes available to merchants and other travellers.

State couriers travelled under separate arrangements. The Safavid chapar service carried official messages without a standing chain of relay stations; a courier could demand a traveller’s riding animal. This requisition gave official dispatches a direct claim on mounts used by other road travellers. Sea crossings followed a different calendar: trade at Hormuz and later Bandar Abbas generally followed the Persian Gulf’s November-to-May sailing season, as summer and autumn conditions limited shipping.