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Rahva Pass and the Caravan Hans of Bitlis

The road between Bitlis and Tatvan reminds everyone who descends into the Lake Van basin, or climbs out of it, of one thing: travel in this geography has never been easy.

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Rahva Pass and the Caravan Hans of Bitlis

The road between Bitlis and Tatvan reminds everyone who descends into the Lake Van basin, or climbs out of it, of one thing: travel in this geography has never been easy. This mountain route is a highway today; in the past it was lined with hans where travelers and caravans stopped for the night. This article describes the great caravanserai at Rahva and the chain of hans around it, using the inventory records of the Bitlis Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism and the Turkish Culture Portal. The aim is to tell readers who speed past along the roadside what is out there and what to look for.

Getting to know the Rahva area

The Culture Portal inventory places El-Aman Han on the Bitlis-Tatvan road, in the Rahva locality, and gives its address as Rahfa Düzü. The same record says the building stands close to the Muş junction of the Bitlis-Tatvan highway and that no other building or ruin lies around it. That description sums up the setting well: a large structure standing alone on a wide plain, noticeable from far away because of its scale. Encyclopedic records also place the han on the Rahva plain. The plain can be read as a midway stop on the road that drops from Bitlis's mountainous side toward the Lake Van shore.

Why hans existed

A han, or caravanserai, is a roadside building where travelers and loads spent the night safely and animals were sheltered. In mountainous country the weather changes quickly, so shelters along the road were not only part of trade but part of the infrastructure of travel itself. The hans page of the Bitlis Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism lists the hans within the province one by one. The page describes Hatuniye, Papşin, Başhan and El-Aman in some detail and also names Şerefiye, Arasa, Yusufiye, Duhan and Kokoz Zal Paşa among the other hans and caravanserais. So many names suggest how heavily the region's transit routes were used.

El-Aman Han

The Culture Portal describes El-Aman Han as built in the 16th century by Hüsrev Paşa and as one of the largest caravanserais in Anatolia in terms of the area it covers. The general description section of the same inventory entry gives the century as the 15th, while its detailed description and the provincial directorate page give the 16th. We follow the 16th century. The provincial directorate page describes the han as a complex made up of shops, a mosque and a bathhouse. The inventory record also says the han has no inscription. So when speaking of the building it is more accurate to say the sixteenth century than to give an exact year.

Size and plan

According to the inventory, the han measures roughly 90 meters from east to west and roughly 70 meters from north to south. The best way to grasp this size on site is to walk slowly along the outer wall. Together with a broad courtyard, the plan has five main parts. The first part, in the far west, is described as having the look of a ribat, with thick cut-stone walls and half-cylindrical buttresses. Inside, six cruciform piers set in two rows along the east-west axis divide the space into three sections. A cruciform pier is a support whose cross-section is shaped like a cross; these piers carry the weight of the vaults to the ground and set the rhythm of the space.

The second part is the covered hall northeast of the first building. The record states that it has four piers and five pointed arches in each row and is divided into three long aisles. A large doorway in the middle of the south side opens the covered hall onto the cruciform section. The south iwan is described as the smallest iwan and separates the spaces to the south from the other parts of the han. The fourth part consists of the bathhouse south of the courtyard and the cells attached to it; this section forms an indented and projecting plan at the southeast corner.

Stone and covering

The record says the whole caravanserai was built of cut stone and that stone and brick were used in the vaulting. This detail helps when taking photographs: look at the color of the stone and the order of the joints on the wall surfaces, and try to tell where stone gives way to brick in the vaults. The wide facade looks flat when the light is high; raking light close to sunset brings out the texture of the stone and the shadows of the buttresses.

A han with a bathhouse

One of the most interesting features of this han is the bathhouse south of the courtyard. The inventory record is clear on this point: the bathhouse stands south of the courtyard together with adjoining cells. For a traveler coming from a long road, a bathhouse suggests the building offered more than simple lodging. This is also why the provincial directorate page calls the building a complex. The han can therefore be imagined not just as a place to sleep but as a small settlement at the roadside.

How to read the building

Following the order in the inventory record makes the visit easier. First look at the ribat-like section in the west and examine how the thick walls are supported by half-cylindrical buttresses. Then move to the covered hall in the northeast and count the long aisles formed by piers and pointed arches. After that, turn to the small iwan in the south and the bathhouse section south of the courtyard. This order follows the descriptions of the sections in the records and helps you understand the building as a whole rather than piece by piece. Even without a plan, your own steps will give you a rough sense of the dimensions.

Papşin and Başhan

The provincial directorate places Papşin (Hüsrev Paşa) Han on the Bitlis-Tatvan highway and writes that it is said to have been built in the sixteenth century by Beylerbeyi Hüsrev Paşa. Başhan Han also appears on the same highway, attributed to Van Beylerbeyi Hüsrev Paşa in the same century. Note that for both hans the page speaks of tradition, not of a firm construction record. Thinking of these three hans, El-Aman, Papşin and Başhan, as links at different points of the same crossing makes the road easier to understand.

Hatuniye Han and the bridges

Another link in the chain is Hatuniye (Hazo) Han. The provincial directorate places it beside the bridge of the same name and writes that it is said to have been built in the eleventh century by Hamu Hatun, daughter of the Abbasid Sultan Evhadullah Han. The directorate also has a separate page on bridges. The Narlıdere (Kasrik) Bridge on the Bitlis-Baykan road has no inscription, so it is unknown when and by whom it was built; judging by its architecture and the history of the region, it is thought it may have been built in the late sixteenth or during the seventeenth century. The Emir Bayındır Bridge in Ahlat was probably built in the thirteenth century and may have been repaired or renewed in the fifteenth century under the Akkoyunlu. Considering han, bridge and road together makes the geography of passage in Bitlis easier to grasp.

Tradition and record

The most important thing to watch in writing about hans is where the information comes from. On the provincial directorate page, the person who had Papşin and Başhan hans built is given as a matter of tradition, and the founder of Hatuniye Han is likewise mentioned in the language of report. The Narlıdere Bridge and El-Aman Han, by contrast, are listed as buildings without inscriptions. An inscription is the text carved on a building that states the year of construction or the patron; when it is missing, the date rests on estimation. For this reason it is wise to treat years that look certain in guidebooks with caution and to repeat the wording of the official record as it stands. Knowing the century and the account in the language of tradition leads the reader to a more accurate place than memorizing a wrong date.

How to visit

The best way to see this route is to start from Bitlis or Tatvan and stop along the way. Because the han buildings stand on or near the highway, choose a safe parking area before stopping. Do not stop suddenly at the roadside; use the widened points of the road. Whether you can enter the buildings may change with their maintenance and restoration status. Ask the Bitlis Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism about entry conditions before your visit. Do not climb the walls, do not pull out stones and be careful beneath vaults.

Photography and timing

In a region with mountain crossings the weather can change fast. Check road and weather conditions before leaving, and in winter look at announcements from the responsible authorities about access. In summer, early morning and late afternoon help you avoid both heat and harsh light. Wind can blow hard on the wide plain, so a light jacket is useful. Bring water and a snack, because the inventory record states that no other building or ruin lies around El-Aman Han.

The next stop

After seeing the hans of Rahva, going back to Bitlis and looking at the cut-stone facades of its madrasas and mosques shows you the counterpart, inside the city, of the stone language of this article. Han, bridge and city buildings speak with the same material, the region's cut stone. If you continue toward Lake Van, the road descending to Tatvan gives you the first view of the lake. Setting aside one full day for both sides is far more rewarding than rushing through.

Sources

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