HAN AND CARAVANSERAI

Term ‘hān’ draws origin from Persian, and its basic meaning is 'house'; however, it can also refer to 'court' and 'caravanserai' (Sadri Afšar, 322; Moin, I, 1393). Besides, the term has another semantic course where it refers to a title which was, in some periods and regions, used to address tribe leaders or heads of the family, landowners and great men; i.e. it is a “title granted to shahs and emirs in Turkestan” (Sadri Afšar, 322; Moin, I, p. 1393) and to rulers in Mongolian and Turkic communities. This title entered many languages as the term 'khan' (e.g. Genghis-khan, Kublai-khan), or in derived forms 'hakan', 'hagan', 'kagan' etc., and their state properties were referred to by terms 'hanate' or 'khanate'. However, this semantic field is completely separated from the meaning of 'han' as a business building which is the focus of this text.

In Persian, term 'sarā' or 'sarāi' refers to the 'house', 'a place where something is found' (Sadri Afšar, 458), or the 'room', 'high building', 'court' (Moin, II, 1848, 1849), while 'kār(e)wān is a group of people or means of transport which moves toward the same destination'. Thus, in the new morphological and semantic junction the compound “caravanserai is a building which has rooms, storages, stables and yard where in the times past travelers stopped and rested during their journey”. (Sadri Afšar, 607).

By their character, hans and caravanserais are primarily business facilities, buildings which served for receiving and accommodating merchants and travelers, and for conducting trading activities. However, the han was a facility where merchants and merchant caravans paid for lodging, unlike the caravanserai where travelers did not pay for overnight stay, but the travelers had to take care of their food and fuel in the winter by themselves. Thus, Kreševljaković includes hans into business, profit-making facilities, while he considers caravanserais charity institutions (Kreševljaković, 29). Both hans and caravanserais were often built from waqf funds, though rents of hans and their revenues were used for funding other waqf institutions or charity activities while the caravanserai was funded from other waqfs.

Hans and caravanserais were built in cities and along major roads, often in the marketplace itself or in its immediate vicinity. Hans had large storages for keeping and storing merchants' goods, and some of them had separate, fireproof storages.

They were commissioned by high-ranking state officials as their endowments. It is believed that the oldest han in these regions is Gazi Isa-bey (Kolobara-han) from 1462. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, endowments in the form of hans and caravanserais were commissioned by: Isa-bey Ishaković, Skender-bey, Gazi Husrev-bey, Rustem-pasha, Turali-bey, Mehmed-pasha Sokolović and many others. Travel writer Evlija Čelebija recorded that in the 1660s there were 23 hans in Sarajevo, while there were 1,080 shops at the marketplace. In some periods of history Bosnia was an important and strategic point between the East and the West, where merchandise from many parts of the world: India, Iran, Arabia, Poland, Venice Dubrovnik etc. Arrived and passed through. This, in turn, resulted in the development of trade infrastructure which, among other things, included hans. Roads where hans could often be found are: Sarajevo – Podromanija – Zvornik; Sarajevo – Tuzla – Brčko; Sarajevo – Brod; Travnik – Skender-Vakuf – Banja Luka etc.

Besides traveler hans, which were typically built by significant roads, there were separate merchant hans where only merchants with their goods lodged. Almost every bigger town had merchant hans. Merchants widely brought merchandise to these hans and sold it to local merchants who, in turn, sold it to local population. Merchant hans accommodated merchants from the country and bought from various products from local merchants, and if there were not enough of them, the merchants would stay in hans for as long as several weeks. Such hans could be found in Sarajevo, Foča, Mostar, Banja Luka, Kreševo, Fojnica and Vareš (Kreševljaković, 31). Merchants mostly came from Serbia and Albania. Hans were particularly visited on market days. Hans in town which had well-known fairs: Banja Luka, Livno, Tuzla, Prijedor, Bosanski Petrovac, Travnik and Zenica were particularly busy.

Besides, there were seasonal hans which were active in certain periods of the year and where people gathered for medical treatment or great parties; this is true of hans at Ilidža or in Kiseljak surroundings.

Although hans primarily served for rest and lodging of travelers (merchants) and their caravans, storing merchandise and trading, they eventually also acquired features of coffeehouses and inns, where coffee and brandy were served. They were visited by people from surrounding places for chatting or obtaining, from travelers, news from other parts of the Ottoman Empire and the world. Particularly on winter nights, there were singers in some hans who sang heroic songs accompanied by gusle of tambura. Travelers would narrate anecdotes from their journey or from distant lands.

Settling of Jews from Spain in Bosnia and Herzegovina, particularly in Sarajevo, in the late 15th and in the 16th century affected building hans for their accommodation. During his stay in Sarajevo in about 1580, Sijavuš-pasha, governor of Rumelia (European part of the Ottoman Empire), ordered that for accommodation of Jews a big han should be built with 48 rooms near the old Sarajevo synagogue. This han provided accommodation of Jews of Sarajevo. This han, known as Big Han (Sijavuš-pasha Daira or Big Front Yard), provided lodging for Jews expelled from Spain. When it became overcrowded, another, smaller hand was built.

Gazi Husrev-bey caravanserai, known under the name Tašlihan, was a monumental building of this kind in Bosnia and Herzegovina of the time. The caravanserai was a two-story building built of stone (which is indicated by its name, from Turkish word taš, which means stone), and the roof structure was built in the form of domes and a barrel vault covered with lead. Gazi Husrev-bey caravanserai consisted of a square yard with a big stable and a storage on the ground floor, and rooms on the upper floor of the caravanserai. Storages of this stone caravanserai were rented to local and foreign merchants. Every room in the caravanserai had its own heating, and there were 30 rooms in it. The caravanserai could accommodate up to 90 people, and the stay was free of charge. Tašlihan burned down several times through history and was re-built. The last time it burned was in 1879 and it has not been renewed since. Today, stone remains of this caravanserai are visible near hotel “Evropaˮ. Archeological research was conducted in a part of the summer garden of the hotel in 1998, which discovered foundations and massive walls of Tašlihan, and their conservation was conducted. Tašlihan is one of three caravanserais which were situated at. It was built in the period between 1540 and 1543.

Several people were in charge of the han's operation. Han was the responsibility of its lessee (handžija). He was in charge of providing heating fuel in winter, of purchasing and owning the basic furniture and inventory and food (in rich hans). Besides the handžija, staff of the han was composed of: kafedžija (who brewed coffee, delivered it to rooms by order and lit chibouks for guests), odadžija (who fed fire in rooms, cleaned rooms and provided lighting), podrumdžija (who took care of horses in the basement and their food, of cleaning the yard, opening and closing the gate) and other servants for tasks which were necessary for operation of the han.

The spread of hans in BiH is supported by the data that as many as 134 places were named after these institutions or were related to them (Kreševljaković, 9).

View from the sky on Morića han i preserved remains of Tashlihan

Sources:

• Kreševljaković, Hamdija (1957), Hanovi i karavansaraji u Bosni i Hercegovini, Naučno društvo NR Bosne i Hercegovine, Sarajevo.

• Sadri Afšar, Golamhossein, Hakami, Nasrin, Hakami, Nastran (1377), „Farhang-e farsi-ye emruz“, Kalame, Tehran.

• Moin, Mohammad (1375), „Farhang-e farsi“, Amir Kabir, Tehran, volume I, II.

• Bejtić, Alija, ,,Sijavuš-pašina daira u Sarajevu“, Prilozi za proučavanje istorije Sarajeva, year II, volume II, Muzej Grada Sarajeva, Sarajevo 1966, 61-102.

• Husić, Aladin, „Razvitak jevrejske zajednice u Sarajevu do kraja 17. stoljeća“, Anali Gazi Husrev-begove biblioteke, 2017; 46 (38), 105-132.