Travel and Caravanserais in the Seljuk World

From the eleventh through the thirteenth centuries, Seljuk rule reached across Iran and Central Asia, while the Sultanate of Rum governed much of Anatolia. Merchants, pilgrims, soldiers and other travelers moved between towns by planning each stage around terrain, water and a place to stop. Cargo traveled on pack animals: Persian caravans commonly used camels, with a bell-wearing donkey walking ahead to signal their approach. A caravanserai was an enclosed roadside lodging for people, animals and goods. In a town, an urban khan offered merchants a base for storing cargo, arranging sales and preparing the next leg.

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Routes and stages

In Anatolia, the first surviving Seljuk caravanserai dated by inscription was built in 1188 on the route between Konya and Kayseri. During the 1210s, Rum Seljuk patrons extended the chain of roadside stops beyond their borders; after they captured the Mediterranean port of Antalya, construction also followed the road between Konya and Antalya and later toward Alanya and the Black Sea. This building activity dwindled after the Rum Seljuqs’ defeat by the Mongols in 1243. The roads also connected inland travelers to maritime departures from ports such as Antalya, Alanya and Sinop.

East of Khorasan, the main overland route ran from Nishapur and Merv across the Amu Darya, also called the Oxus, through Bukhara and Samarkand. This crossing linked the Iranian stages to the roads of Central Asia. A travel day was measured by what people and animals could cover before they needed water, fodder (animal feed) and shelter. On his 1052 journey from Garma toward Tabas in eastern Iran, Nasir Khusraw described water tanks beside small domed markers at intervals of two farsangs, a Persian measure of distance. The tanks were intended to supply travelers; the domes helped mark their way. Iran’s long-distance routes could cross dust storms, salt bogs (soft, marshy salt flats) and extreme temperatures, where water, animal feed and provisions were scarce. Travelers often followed desert margins or moved between oases, which served as staging points.

Routes also needed visible markers and usable crossings. In Persia, piles of stones or wooden posts marked roads and helped travelers find them after snow or sandstorms. When bridges fell into disrepair, a low-water river might be crossed at a ford. Military campaigns and brigands could make a route dangerous. In winter, animals were sometimes driven ahead of caravans to clear snow from the road.

Ribat-i Sharaf, in northeastern Iran’s Khorasan region, stood on the route from Merv to Nishapur. Sultan Sanjar’s vizier Sharaf al-Din ordered it built in the early twelfth century. It comprised two linked sections, each arranged around a courtyard; the inner square courtyard had a large pool. Its rooms, water storage and stables made the complex a place where travelers and their horses or mules could rest and take on supplies before continuing across the long eastern Iranian route.

How a caravanserai worked

At day’s end, a caravan entered through a gate and brought its people, animals and cargo into the enclosed court. The open space allowed handlers to unload packs, move animals and sort goods; roofed halls and rooms sheltered travelers and loads from weather. Stables provided separate accommodation for animals. Food, fodder, water and care for injured animals helped a caravan prepare for the next stage. The size and services varied by foundation, but the route’s needs shaped the basic arrangement.

The layout of Ağzıkarahan, near Aksaray in central Anatolia, shows how one stop connected the road to several kinds of space. Its covered section was completed in 1231 and its open courtyard in 1240 under Hoca Mesud’s patronage. It stood on the Konya–Kayseri road, about fifteen kilometres northeast of Aksaray. A pair of fountains was built back-to-back in the wall, one facing the courtyard and one outside; a small raised mosque in the courtyard could be reached by stairs. Travelers entering from the road could draw water, find lodging and pray within one compound.

Roadside foundations and urban inns

Roadside caravanserais and urban khans served different moments in a journey. Outside towns, an endowed foundation offered shelter and animal care at a road stage. In a city, merchants could stay longer while selling goods, making purchases and arranging transport. When Nasir Khusraw visited Isfahan in June 1052, a year after the Seljuks took the city, he described a lane containing fifty caravanserais filled with merchants and shopkeepers. These urban inns linked sleeping quarters and cargo storage with the city market.

Who paid for hospitality?

A waqf, or charitable endowment, assigned income-producing property to maintain an institution. For rural Rum Seljuk caravanserais, agricultural and pasture lands paid for upkeep, staff wages, provisions and other expenses. The continuing income helped a foundation serve travelers after its patron had paid for construction.

The surviving endowment deed for Karatay Han in Anatolia describes the services its founder intended to provide: meals for travelers, a doctor for horses, a pharmacy, a cobbler, cleaning, prayers, care for the sick and burial of the dead. Such a list shows that hospitality involved organized work as well as a building: people had to prepare food, tend animals, clean rooms and manage supplies.