The Seljuk Han of Anatolia
Courtyards
After passing through an impressive crown portal, the merchants and their animals would enter a vast courtyard, where they would be welcomed and settled in for the night.
The courtyard area was the busy transit zone, much like the lobby of a modern hotel. The courtyards of the larger hans are about the size of a soccer or football field, and could hold up to 400 people and animals. The courtyards of Seljuk hans are generally rectangular and oriented longitudinally, although there are courtyards which are square or have differently-shaped plans. The middle of the courtyard was a high traffic area for animals. Courtyards were not paved with stone, but rather were made of packed earth, which was softer and more practical for mucking. Many renovated hans, such as the Sari and the Pazar Hans, have paved over the courtyards with paving flag stones, but this was not originally the case. The open courtyard was ringed by various semi-open or closed cells. In these cells were the located the various service sections for the han. All of the hospitality services offered to the travelers and their animals were carried out in the courtyard (although technically speaking, it must be said that the covered sections of hans did provide service areas as well, such as loading platforms, latrines and feeding troughs.) These service areas were designed as rooms or cell-like areas to respond to the needs of the travelers for food, water, hygiene and religious rituals. The rooms of the courtyard were used as storage areas, the mosque, kitchens, fountains, latrines, baths and rooms for the staff. In general, the cells opened directly onto the courtyard, but in some larger hans, such as the Karatay and Zazadin Hans, the rooms were interconnected en suite, and such sections were believed to have been reserved for special guests, such as the sultan or other dignitaries.
How were these service spaces arranged? There is no rhyme or reason for the setup of the service areas, which varied with each han, but their layout shows a wide variety of creative responses to needs. However, it can be said that the majority of the service areas were located in the courtyard. The courtyard is a circulation area, which allows a greater flexibility with plan elements, since there was no superstructure. Researchers now know that the courtyards were established in a second construction phase after the building of the covered section. As the services are very important – imagine a modern hotel without restrooms, a reception desk or a parking garage – the courtyards must have been added fairly soon after the construction of the covered section.
The services may all have been basically the same in every han, but no two hans show the same arrangement of the service spaces. However, it can be said that the han keeper’s rooms and the guard rooms were generally located on the entry side of the courtyard. In hans with both a covered section and a courtyard, the service areas are attached to either side of the courtyard, which can be equal or larger than the covered area. The courtyard spaces are always on one level, although some hans have a partial upper level, such as at Sari and Pazar and were usually the location of the mosque space.
Another aspect of courtyards is that they were never symmetrical, as were the covered sections. Very few Anatolian han courtyards display symmetry, and when they do, it is on one axis and in medium sized hans, such as the Kuruçeşme, Kizilören, Ertokuş and Obruk Hans. The larger hans do not show symmetry in their courtyards, although their covered sections are symmetrical in plan.
As in medreses, the courtyards of certain hans have iwans (space closed on three-sides, open on one side) facing the courtyard. Some iwans were planned as a fountain iwan, while others were designed as special guest rooms, but were most probably areas where the travelers could congregate, rest and eat away from the busy central courtyard area.
If a mosque was included as a service space, it could be placed in the middle of the courtyard as a free-standing structure (the “Kiosk” mosque), or, in other hans, it can be located either next to the entrance, in one of the rooms on the both sides of the entrance, or on the second storey (Sari and Pazar Hans).
An important aspect of the courtyard was the open arcades, and they are found in the courtyards of most hans. An arcade is a series of contiguous open rooms, located on one or both of the long sides of the courtyard, borne by the main wall and with a roof supported by arches resting on either one or double lines of square support piers, similar to the system seen in the covered section. Arcades were either single or double with vaults parallel or perpendicular to the exterior wall. They were generally on one side of the courtyard, and the other side of the courtyard had rooms aligned side by side. There are rare variations on this, such as the Cirgalan and Kızılören Hans, but the arcades are generally set up on one side of the courtyard only. In some hans, a band at the rear of the arcade was used as the stables (Alara, Sari, Kargi). Apart from the exceptional application seen in the Kayseri Sultan Han, there are no arcades in front of covered rooms or kiosks. These open arcades were highly-functional all-purpose spaces to accommodate people, goods, and animals. A primary function was as a “parking lot” or transit zone, for animals when they entered the han. In addition, the open arcades were used by merchants and their animals in the hot summer months, when sleeping outside of the covered section was more comfortable.
Lastly, the courtyards were often built on a slight incline in order to ensure a natural drainage means for the water used to clean out the courtyards of the han. In the flat Anatolian plains region, even a small embankment was used for this purpose, as can be seen at the Zazadin and Pazar Hans, where the courtyard and some sections of the covered section sit on a mound.