The Seljuk Han of Anatolia
Raised Platforms
An ingenious system of raised platforms in the covered section was a great benefit to the travelers to a han.
The presence of a system of raised platforms was an important element in the covered section, and they were especially useful for the traveling merchants. These berm-like platforms, alternately called loading docks, raised platforms, or by the Turkish word seki, were 0.6 to 1.5 m high from the ground (they were generally waist high). They were comprised of cut-stone walls. About 20 hans have these loading platforms intact, but for the most part they are missing, but their original traces can be seen in the faces of the arches that were in contact with them. In view of their utility to the life of a merchant, it can be assumed that they were present in all hans. The platforms are all flat and their bases are wider than the tops. The highest part of the platforms were always nearer the entrance, which makes sense since it was here that goods were unloaded before proceeding to the depths of the covered section. The platforms were constructed between the bearing piers in hans with several naves. The feeding troughs and tethering hooks were arranged near the platforms.
These raised platforms had several functions:
-They made it easier to unload and reload goods from the backs of camels or other animals. Unpacking or repacking a heavy load from the back of a tall animal was not an easy thing to do, and these raised areas made it less back-breaking.
-Goods could be stored on top of these platforms for the duration of the merchant's stay in the han, protecting them from the dirt of the floor, which was usually covered with hay to make mucking easier.
-People spread out their kilims and bedding on these platforms and hunkered in for a good night’s sleep, your head resting upon the bundles of your most valuable goods. They were like terraces or porches in this sense.
-The raised wall kept the sections where the men slept at a higher level than the stable section. The raised area would offer some degree of cleanliness from the animals tethered in the area, serving as a sort of haha wall.
-They could include stone basins under the arches of the platform area, probably holding water and fodder for the animals. In addition, a few examples, notably the Kargi Han, show a series of stone bases underneath the arches, which served as water or fodder basins for the animals.
-Some platforms show remainders of tandir ovens for cooking and heating. This is a clay oven, sunk into a pit in the ground or in the platform. This is one of the most elementary forms of an oven.
-They were multifunctional areas: merchants could sit on them, sleep on them, eat on them, etc, all the while keeping dry and clean from the mud and dirt below.
In the majority of the hans, each platform area was covered by a barrel vault. It was common to have a wide platform area with a stable area on each side. The layout of the raised platform system was determined according to the number of backing lines. In hans with a single nave and no backing lines, the platform was in two parts along the long wall. In hans with one backing line, the section was divided into two parts which created two different use areas. In hans with two backing support lines, the area between the two lines included the platform, and the sides served as the stables. In hans with four backing lines, the outermost sections and the central nave constituted the stables, and the two sections between them contained the platforms. When there are five bays, the raised platform forms a U-shaped band, but the vaults may change direction. This was the typical layout for the larger hans, such as the Aksaray Sultan, Ağzikara and Sari hans.
Ogier de Busbecq, the Flemish diplomat in service to the Austrian Hapsburgs, describes his initial voyage to Turkey (Constantinople and then onto Amasya) in early 1555 in a series of letters he writes home to fellow diplomat Nicolas Michault. Not only do his Turkish Letters provide rich details on the political activities of the Ottoman Empire at its zenith under the rule of Suleyman the Magnificent, but they also include interesting insights into daily life – including hans. On the road down to Turkey, he describes a stay in an Ottoman han in Serbia. Although it would have been built 300 years later than a Seljuk han, the han he stayed in still incorporates the raised platform as an invaluable element of the han. His description gives insight onto how it was used:
I must now tell you something as to the inns we make use of, for that is a subject on which you have been some time wanting information. At Nissa (Nis in present day Serbia) I lodged in the public inn, called by the Turks a caravanserai – the most common kind of inn in those parts. It consists of a huge building, the length of which somewhat exceeds the breadth. In the centre is an open space, where the camels and their baggage, as well as the mules and wagons, have to be quartered.
This open space is surrounded by a wall about three feet high, and this is bonding into the outer wall surrounding the whole building. The top of the former is level, and about four feet broad. This ledge serves the Turks for bedroom and dining-room, and kitchen as well. For here and there fireplaces are built into the outer wall, which I told you encloses the whole building. So they sleep, eat, and cook on this ledge, three feet high and four feet broad; and this is the only distinction between their quarters and those of the camels, horses, and other beasts of burden.
Moreover, they have their horses haltered at the foot of the ledge, so that their heads and necks come right over it; and as their masters warm themselves or take their supper, the creatures stand by like so many lackeys, and sometimes are given a crust or apple from their master’s hand. On the ledge they also make their beds; first they spread out the rug which they carry for that purpose behind their saddles, on this they put a cloak, while the saddle supplies them with a pillow. A robe, lined with skins, and reaching to the ankles furnishes their dress by day and their blanket at night. And so when they lie down they have no luxuries wherewith to provoke sleep to come to them.
In these inns there is no privacy whatever; everything is done in public, and the only curtain to shield one from people’s eyes is such as may be afforded by the darkness of the night.
Busbecq, O. G., Forster, C. T., & Daniell, F. H. B. (1971). The life and letters of Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq [by] Charles-Thornton Forster [and] F.H. Blackburne Daniell. Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, p. 97-8.