Khorasan Caravanserais
Roadside buildings in the Khorasan region of Iran
Khorasan is an ancient region on the Iranian plateau that includes portions of northeastern modern Iran, parts of modern Afghanistan, and parts of southern Central Asia. Khorasan has long served as a crossroad for vital East-West trading routes. Because trade and pilgrimage routes are so important in Khorasan, multiple caravanserais have been built there, particularly after the 12th century AD. Caravanserais are roadside structures where caravans, merchants, pilgrims, and visitors can stay temporarily. An extensive network of caravanserais and related structures connected North Africa with Arabia, Anatolia, and India via Iran and Afghanistan (Kleiss, 2012).
Caravanserai (also caravansary, caravansarai) in Persian means lodging for caravans, from caravan and Sarai (saray- “house” in Persian). It is also called Khan. In Arabic, it is mainly called Rabat (also Robat or Ribat).
Presentation of ongoing work on Caravanserais with the EAMENA database.
To access the caravanserais dataset in the EAMENA Database at the University of Oxford, you need to register here.
Map of the caravanserias in Khorasan province of Iran. Source: Kleiss, Wolfram. Karawanenbauten in Iran. Berlin: D. Reimer, 1996. Print. Materialien Zur Iranischen Archäologie.
There is evidence of pre-Islamic caravanserais in Iran from the ninth and eighth centuries B.C.E. and from the Achaemenid period (r. c. 550–330 B.C.E.) (Kleiss, 2012), but the caravanserais network was mainly developed in the Islamic period.
Explore some of these caravanserais on the tour below:
Robat Sharaf (also Ribat of Sharaf)
One of the oldest caravanserais in Khorasan is Robat Sharaf (also Ribat of Sharaf), a 12th- century caravanserai with two inter-related courtyards.
Abbas Abad
Abbas Abad caravanserai is located on the Taibad-Torbat-e-Jam road and belongs to the Timurid and Safavid periods (the 16th century). One of the special features of this caravanserai is that it has two courtyards.
Darband caravanserai
Darband caravanserai belongs to the Qajar period (the 19th century) and is located 48 km from the main road from Ravar to Mashhad. This caravanserai is located next to an older building that is now severely damaged.
Chehelpayeh caravanserai
This caravanserai was located on the Kerman-Mashhad pilgrimage route and dates back to the Safavid-Qajar periods. Next to it was an Ab-Anbar (a domed cistern) and a kiln.
Kabudan Caravanserai
This is a 19th century caravanserai from Qajar period.
Robat Sharaf (also Ribat of Sharaf)
One of the oldest caravanserais in Khorasan is Robat Sharaf (also Ribat of Sharaf), a 12th- century caravanserai with two inter-related courtyards.
Abbas Abad
Abbas Abad caravanserai is located on the Taibad-Torbat-e-Jam road and belongs to the Timurid and Safavid periods (the 16th century). One of the special features of this caravanserai is that it has two courtyards.
Darband caravanserai
Darband caravanserai belongs to the Qajar period (the 19th century) and is located 48 km from the main road from Ravar to Mashhad. This caravanserai is located next to an older building that is now severely damaged.
Chehelpayeh caravanserai
This caravanserai was located on the Kerman-Mashhad pilgrimage route and dates back to the Safavid-Qajar periods. Next to it was an Ab-Anbar (a domed cistern) and a kiln.
Kabudan Caravanserai
This is a 19th century caravanserai from Qajar period.
Condition Assessment of Khorasan caravanserais using satellite imagery. The diagram shows the percentage of each condition.
Natural factors are the main disturbance causes affecting the caravanserais in Khorasan, including water and wind actions, vegetation, and seismic activities.
Khorasan is one of the most earthquake-prone regions of Iran. Throughout history devastating earthquakes have destroyed Khorasan's cities and structures, including its caravanserais.
The village of Korit and its caravanserai were destroyed during the 1978 Tabas earthquake, which also destroyed the historic city of Tabas.
Use the slider to see the caravanserai before (2011) and after its reconstruction (2022).
Other factors, such as demolition due to development or agricultural activities, also threaten some of these historic structures.
Comparing the satellite images of this caravanserai near Sangalabad, you can see how its southern part was demolished between 2014 and 2021 for agricultural activities. Credit: Google Image 2022 CNES/Airbus
There are different forms, designs, and configurations of caravanserais. As analysed by Hillenbrand, “most of them following a 4-iwan plan (iwan, is a Persian term for a rectangular vaulted covered room with an open side), with the space in the corners serving as stables while the entrance and domed vestibules define the major axis. Features common to many caravanserais include a single massive portal, with an entrance high enough to admit a loaded camel” (Hillenbrand, 2000). Although many of the caravanserais follow the same plan, none of them are identical and differences in their features make each of them unique (Andaroodi & Andres, 2020).
The average area of caravanserais in the Khorasan region is 2588 m2.
One of the smallest caravanserais in the region is Robat-e-Miandehi with 345 m2.
Kalateh-ye Mirza Jani with 6499 m2 is among the largest caravanserais in this region.
Robat Sharaf with an area of more than 6676 square was probably used to house the rulers in addition to housing caravans.
The digital documentation of the caravanserais in the Khorasan region is part of an ongoing work by Bijan Rouhani of the EAMENA project and Hamed Rahnama (EAMENA Affiliate Researcher) to document these historic buildings in Iran and beyond in Central and West Asia.
This study aims to explore, identify, and monitor the caravanserais along the historic networks of roads and digitally record them in the EAMENA database.
The study will categorize these structures based on the building type and floor plan and analyse their preservation condition by applying the EAMENA methodology and the remote sensing techniques. This method will also help explore undocumented caravanserais (or their ruins) along the trade routes.
This dataset allows further historical, archaeological, architectural, and economic research on caravanserais and the related infrastructures along the historic trade routes in this region.
Acknowledgement: We would like to thank Rebecca Mcquone, Archaeology and Anthropology undergraduate student at the University of Oxford, who contributed to the assessment of the preservation condition of these caravanserais in 2021.
References:
Andaroodi, E., & Andres, F. (2020). Advanced Classification of Architectural Heritage: A Corpus of Desert on Rout Caravanserais. International Journal of Architectural Heritage, 14(3), 433-456. https://doi.org/10.1080/15583058.2018.1547801
Hillenbrand, R. (2000). Islamic architecture. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Kleiss, W. (1996). Karawanenbauten in Iran (Materialien zur iranischen Archäologie). Berlin: D. Reimer.
Kleiss, W. (2012). “Caravanserai, Iranian”, in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE, Edited by: Kate Fleet, Gudrun Krämer, Denis Matringe, John Nawas, Everett Rowson. Consulted online on 14 June 2022 First published online: 2012.
