SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF OTTOMAN INNS BUILT IN THE 15TH AND 16TH CENTURIES

Abstract

During the 15th and 16th centuries, developing of cities and growing of population led to new significant changes on both municipal and commercial frameworks of Anatolian cities. In this process, new streets that have a centralized mosque and a domed market building surrounded by inn and covered market street also specialize according to commercial activity branches began to appear. Also known as “bazaar”, which demonstrated a distribution from central to surrounding, commercial activities were made in the shops which were positioned in the wayside of the streets. Inn structures of these streets were found to be taking place in city centers as well as covered market streets, domed market buildings and bazaars. Particularly in these centuries, many commercial districts in some cities such as Edirne, İstanbul, İzmir and Bursa, were rigged with “commercial inn” structures and turned into significant commercial centers. Inn, bazaar, grand bazaar, covered bazaar, arasta bazaar, and shops are commercial structures with different functions. Inns of Anatolian historical cities have reached today as basic structures that form the patterns of commercial districts. In this study, spatial analyses of the 15th and 16th century commercial inns that have significance on Turkish urbanism and folk culture as well as commercial life are going to be conducted. Selected inns within the context of study were chosen from historical cities of Ottoman period that located on significant trade axes. These inns are going to be investigated in accordance with their layout distributions and evaluated based on plan variations. The common and diverse characteristics of these structures and their relationship are going to be analyzed in final Ottoman inns are structural forms that consist of covered bazaar, commercial shops, bath, mosque, and hospital, which were formed in accordance with the Seljuk period trade routes. One of these trade routes, which also used during Ottoman period, is “Hac Road”, the second one is “Basra-Baghdad Road”, and the third one is the road which starts from Merzifon and ends in both Kars and Tabriz. Plenty of commercial structures were constructed in the city centers of these trade routes and inns are known as one of these significant commercial structures. Inns are the structures that were constructed in trade centers of cities with the purpose of protecting and resting traders. Despite being used synonymously with caravanserai, there are certain differences between two structural forms. Caravanserais were constructed in trade routes between cities for the purpose of sheltering needs of passengers and their animals, whereas inns were constructed mostly during 15th and 16th centuries having the same purpose of sheltering people, in this time in city centers. Inns are divided into two categories according to their functions; passanger inns and trade inns. Passanger inns were mostly used by people who lived out of cities and needed accommodation for short periods. Strengthening of Ottoman Empire with the beginning of 15th century, the number of passanger inns increased and turned into spaces where merchants from different cultures meet, trade, spend the night and and store their products. Development of cities, growing of population and increase of settled trade culture in 15th and 16th centuries resulted as huge changes in both urban and commercial pattern of cities. Especially in these centuries, important trade centers emerged in cities that consisted of trade streets including commercial structures such as inn, grand bazaar, and covered bazaar and “trade inns” were constructed in the same area with other commercial structures of trade centers. Having similar layout with passanger inns, trade inns are known as the inns which do not have an accomodation function, as a new way of thinking during Ottoman period. Trade inns formed their own layout plans according to the needs of the era which emerged with the progress of cities and growth of population during 15th and 16th centuries. These inns were named in accordance with the products that were traded inside or the functions they have and by the way public could easily understand which merchant group was being served in each inn. Mostly constructed as two-storey buildings, trade inns could have square, rectangular, or organic plan type according to the form of the land. Only trade functioning shops were available in these inns. They could divide into groups as “two courtyard”, “theree courtyard”, or “non-courtyard”. The most important feature of trade inns was being nonresidential. Trade inns consisted of remarkable entrance doors, shops all around the courtyard and colonnades. Along with the shops facing with courtyard, these inns could also have shops facing with outside. Shops around the courtyard that were formed as two-storey generally used with store, office, and depot functions. In the center of courtyards, there were usually fountain or small mosque. In some of them, there were barns that could be located in courtyard spaces or outside of the inns. Today, 15th and 16th century inn structures are found in the Anatolian cities that are located in these trade routes. Preservation and restoration of these structures in accordance with the preservation rules of law are supported by experts and particularly for the last 10 years, preservation and restoration of inn structures have been staying on the agenda. In the content of this study, 7 trade inns from Bursa, Ankara and Izmir were analyzed and evaluated in accordance with their layout plans, materials, and construction methods. Architectural typologies and spatial characteristics of these structures were identified after evaluating similar and different characteristics of these buildings.According to the spatial analyses of trade inn structures, although they were constructed between 15th and 17th centuries, it was found that there were no difference in layout plans depending on centuri

Özet

15. ve 16. yüzyıllarda kentlerin gelişmesi, nüfusun artması ve yerleşik ticaret kültürünün ilerlemesiyle Anadolu kentlerinin hem kentsel, hem de ticari yapısında önemli değişikliklere sebep olmuştur. Bu süreçte genellikle merkez camii ve bedesten merkezli gelişen, han ve arasta gibi yapı çeşitlerinin bu merkez noktaları sarmalamasıyla, ticaret faaliyetlerinde dallara göre uzmanlaşan sokaklar oluşmaya başlamıştır. Merkezden çevreye doğru bir yayılım gösteren bu sokakların yol kenarına sıra sıra konumlanan dükkânlarında, ticari aktiviteler yapılmıştır. Han, çarşı, kapalı çarşı, bedesten, arasta ve dükkânlar farklı fonksiyonlarda ticaret yapıları olarak karşımıza çıkmaktadır. "Han" yapıları, ticaretin merkezini oluşturan arasta, bedesten ve çarşı yapıları gibi kent merkezlerinde yer almıştır. Özellikle 15. ve 16. yüzyıllarda Edirne, Bursa, İzmir ve İstanbul gibi pek çok kentte, birçok ticari bölge, "ticari han" yapılarıyla donatılarak önemli ticari merkezler haline getirilmiştir. Anadolu'nun tarihi kentlerindeki hanlar ise, ticari bölgelerin dokusunu oluşturan temel yapılar olarak günümüze ulaşmıştır. Yapılan bu araştırmada, hem Türk şehircilik kültüründe, hem de ticari yaşamında önemli mimari öğeler olan 15. ve 16. yüzyıllara ait ticari hanların mekânsal analizi yapılacaktır. Araştırma kapsamında seçilen hanlar, Osmanlı döneminde önemli ticari yol akslarında yer alan tarihi kentlerden seçilmiştir. Çalışma dâhilinde, bu tarihi kentler içinde yer alan hanlar, plan şemaları bağlamında incelenerek değerlendirme yapılacaktır. Bu yapıların genel olarak birbiriyle olan ilişkileri, ortak ve farklı özellikleri araştırılacaktır