Following the Silk Caravans Through Bursa's Hans and Bazaar

Begin the route at the Irgandı Bridge over the Gökdere valley, because it is one of the most personal traces the silk trade left in the city. The bridge was built in 1442 by a merchant named Hoca Muslihiddin. The Bursa Site Management office writes that he made his fortune buying silk from Azerbaijan and selling it to Italian merchants. Sources name the builder as Timurtaş, son of Abdullah. So at the very first step of the route you are standing on the investment of a middleman who stood between the silk coming along the Tabriz road and the silk going to Mediterranean ports.

What sets Irgandı apart from an ordinary stone bridge is that it is an arasta bridge carrying two rows of shops. Sources describe it as the only arasta bridge the Ottomans ever built. The Osmangazi Municipality presents it as one of the few examples of its kind in the world. According to the Site Management office the bridge had thirty two shops in all, and the income of the five at the north eastern end was set aside for the foundation's staff. The TDV Encyclopedia of Islam reports that in his endowment deed of 1559, Muslihiddin's grandson Ahmed Çelebi turned one of these five shops into a small prayer room. Evliya Çelebi wrote in the 17th century that he counted about two hundred cotton fluffers' shops on the bridge, but a city plan of 1861-62 shows between thirty two and thirty five. English Wikipedia notes that in Ottoman times the bridge was also closed at night to control passage between two neighbourhoods.

It is worth knowing how new the rows of shops you walk past today really are. The 1855 earthquake badly damaged the bridge. During the War of Independence, the Greek army that had occupied Bursa destroyed it as it withdrew from the city in 1922. The municipality repaired the bridge in 1949, but the shops were not rebuilt and the structure lost its character as a bazaar. Today's rows of shops came back with the reconstruction and restoration that the Osmangazi Municipality completed in 2004. After this work the bridge was arranged as an Art Bridge and the shops became workshops.

First stand at one end of the bridge and look across to the far bank between the two rows of shops; this street view, which makes you forget you are on a bridge, is the whole idea of the structure. Then walk slowly past the shops and look at the handicrafts made in the workshops that are open. In these small workshops it is especially important to ask before photographing craftspeople at work. The bridge rests on a single pointed stone arch, and according to sources its span is between fifteen and sixteen metres. Because of the rows of shops above, the arch goes unnoticed from the bridge itself. The TDV notes that the bridge is built of regular cut stone and that the height of the arch is close to its span. Today the bridge sits on the boundary of two districts, Osmangazi and Yıldırım, and according to the TDV the valley below divides the Yeşil quarter in two.

For a photograph, a frame running the length of the passage between the rows of shops shows best that the bridge is a bazaar. Half an hour here is enough to walk the bridge in both directions and look into a few workshops. From here walk west towards Heykel; the second stop, the Bursa City Museum, stands south of the Atatürk Monument, next to the Governor's building.

Source: Bursa Alan Başkanlığı; TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi, Irgandı Köprüsü; Kültür Portalı.

The City Museum is a good stop for gathering the city's overall story in a single building before you enter the hans. The museum occupies a symmetrical building with wide eaves, built as a courthouse in 1926. Sources attribute its design to the architect Kemalettin Bey and its construction to Ekrem Hakkı Ayverdi. After the courthouse moved to its new building in 1999, the building was restored between 2001 and 2004 and the museum opened to visitors on 14 February 2004. Give the facade a minute before going in; the emphasis on the central entrance axis and the combination of arched and rectangular windows show that the building carries the architectural language of the 1920s.

Tour the museum starting from the ground floor, because the ground floor follows a chronological order. Its first gallery runs from prehistory through the Ottoman period to the War of Independence. The same gallery also has information on the disasters the city suffered in the 18th and 19th centuries. Look at this section carefully, because the present state of the hans and the bazaar you will see on the rest of the route is largely the result of repairs after earthquakes and fires. The second gallery covers the Republican period, the growth of the city, migration and Uludağ. The museum also has a topographic model of the city; give it a few minutes to see how the han district, the Gökdere valley and the mountain relate to one another.

The first floor is arranged by theme and describes the city's daily life, from its hot springs and food culture to the tradition of Karagöz and Hacivat. According to Wikipedia this floor also hosts exhibitions that change from time to time, so what you see may differ depending on when you visit. The museum also displays wax figures of six Ottoman sultans.

For this route the most important section is the Crafts Bazaar in the basement. The bazaar is laid out to recreate an 18th century Bursa market, and according to Wikipedia it consists of sixteen shops. The museum's own description says the layout was prepared on the basis of old photographs of the bazaar taken by European travellers who came to Bursa. The shops include crafts such as towel making, saddlery, pack saddle making, yemeni making, knife making, coppersmithing and tinning, felt making, basket weaving and tile making. The silk section is designed separately from the other shops, and the museum presents it as one of its most remarkable sections. Stop in this section before heading to the hans, because the silk trade held a central place in the hans you are about to see.

Silk's importance to the city did not end with the age of the hans. The TDV Encyclopedia of Islam writes that steam power began to be used in the local silk industry in 1837, that within twenty five years the number of spinning mills rose to thirty five, and that raw silk production reached a thousand tonnes in 1914. So the trading buildings of the caravan era and the spinning mills of the factory era represent two different ages of the same commodity.

Wikipedia writes that traditional craftspeople give demonstrations at the museum at weekends; it is a good idea to check the current programme with the museum. The museum is wheelchair accessible, with lifts, ramps and adapted toilets. Groups must make a reservation, and you should check the official website for current opening days and hours. When you leave the museum, walk west along Atatürk Caddesi; the third stop, the Koza Han, lies north of the Orhan Mosque, between it and the Ulu Mosque.

Source: Bursa Büyükşehir Belediyesi Müzeleri; Bursa Alan Başkanlığı, Adliye Binası; Wikipedia, Bursa Kent Müzesi.

Enter the Koza Han through the gate on the Orhan Mosque side. According to the Culture Portal one ground floor gate opens towards the Orhan Mosque and another to the bazaar in the north; in other words the han is a passage between two trading worlds of the city. The han was built by Bayezid II; according to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam construction began in March 1490 and the han opened on 29 September 1491. Its architect was Abdülula bin Pulad Şah, and the Culture Portal names Şuca bin Karaca as the official in charge of construction. Most sources say the han was built to provide income for the complex of Bayezid II in İstanbul; the TDV also notes that this endowment link is debated. In documents it appears under other names such as Yeni Han, Beylik Han and Simkeş Han, while its present name comes from the cocoon, koza, that dominated its trade.

At this stop, look at the han not as a work of architecture but as a machine for trade. According to the Bursa Site Management office the courtyard measures about 46 by 38 metres and is surrounded on both floors by arcades about three and a half metres wide. According to most sources there are fifty rooms on the ground floor and fifty one on the upper floor; the numbers vary slightly from source to source. According to Wikipedia merchants rented the rooms in stacked pairs, using the upper room for business and lodging and the lower one as a storeroom for goods. Every upper room has two windows looking outward, which shows that the rooms above were meant for living and working.

What made the han the centre of the silk trade was the people who stayed in it. The TDV Encyclopedia of Islam writes that the han housed merchants from Azerbaijan and Iran and that the office of the silk intendant, who collected customs duty from silk merchants, was also here. So the trade in which raw silk from the Tabriz road met its buyers was also supervised from this courtyard. According to English Wikipedia, in the early 16th century the Medici family of Florence also kept an office in the han.

First walk a lap of the courtyard under the ground floor arcades and notice how closely the room doors follow one another. Then climb to the upper floor and look down at the courtyard from the arcade; the octagonal pavilion prayer room in the centre rises on eight piers and, with the fountain beneath it, forms the focal point of the courtyard. On the east side of the han lies the İç Kozahan, formerly used as a stable, connected to the main han by a wide opening in its east wall. Animals arriving with the caravans and heavy loads were kept apart from the main courtyard, in this second single storey courtyard; it is the invisible half of how the han worked. The İç Kozahan is used today for food and drink; passing through it, you can compare the size and character of the two courtyards.

Do not leave without looking at the main gate on the north facade. According to the TDV, the tympanum inside the arch of neatly cut stone is decorated with a facing of coloured stones worked into a geometric pattern. The han was repaired in 1671-72 and 1785, and around the 1950s a major restoration cleared it of later additions. The Osmangazi Municipality states that new restoration projects were prepared in 2011.

Today the upper floor shops sell silk fabric, scarves and textiles, and the ground floor has cafeterias and gift shops. If you want to buy silk, take your time; walking round several shops and comparing textures and patterns is like repeating the han's five hundred year old business on your own scale. For a photograph, a wide frame from a corner of the upper arcade that takes in both the courtyard and the prayer room works well. Leave through the han's north gate and head into the bazaar; the next stop, the Bedesten, is very close.

Source: TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi, Koza Hanı; Bursa Alan Başkanlığı; Kültür Portalı; Osmangazi Belediyesi.

The Bedesten is a sturdy building whose gates could be shut, standing in the middle of the hans and open markets; it was conceived as the district's strongroom. The Bursa Site Management office writes that when it was built it formed the core of banking and brokerage, and that the country's most valuable goods were stored, bought and sold here. The building was commissioned by Bayezid I at the end of the 14th century, and the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam gives the date 1400 on the basis of endowment records. Sources describe it as the first bedesten of the Ottoman period. Because Orhan Bey's Emir Han had earlier served this purpose, the building was also called Bezzazistan-ı Cedid, the New Bedesten.

Pay attention to the gates as you go in. There is a gate in the middle of each of the building's four facades, and according to the TDV, Evliya Çelebi described the bedesten in the 17th century as a large building with four iron gates. The Culture Portal notes that above the entrance gate there is an inscription mixing Kufic and Naskh scripts, and that the inscription on the west gate names the building as Bazestan.

Inside, a rectangular hall is divided into fourteen bays by six massive piers, and according to the TDV each bay is covered by a dome. To see the sequence of domes, walk slowly along the long axis inside and look up; this walk shows best how the piers share the domes between them. The shops inside lean against the walls, so the central passage stays open from end to end. According to sources there are thirty two shops inside and sixty eight outside. According to the Bursa Metropolitan Municipality the income of twelve of the outer shops went to Orhan Gazi's foundation and the rest to Bayezid's foundation. So in the same market the foundations of two different periods collected income side by side.

The title of Özer Ergenç's article on this building describes the bedesten as a place uniting East and West. That description sums up why a building where valuable goods could be kept safe mattered so much at a time when the Iranian silk merchant and the Italian buyer met in the same city.

Behind the building you see today lies a great fire. According to Salih Budakoğlu's study, the fire that broke out in the covered bazaar on 24 August 1958 was the worst disaster the city had suffered since the great earthquake of the mid 19th century. Along with the hans and markets, the fire hit the bedesten hard. The bedesten was repaired in 1960 in keeping with its original form; according to the TDV, in this repair the outer shops and the outer rows of shops of the surrounding markets were rebuilt in reinforced concrete. Keep this in mind as you look at the walls and the outer shops: the form of the building is old, but some of its parts are the work of the 1960s.

Today the Bedesten is used as the jewellers' market, and the fact that it still hosts the trade in valuable goods recalls its original function. In a market selling gold and jewellery, photographing shop windows and shopkeepers may not be welcome; point your camera at the domes and piers instead. The covered streets around it are part of the market fabric that the TDV names with titles such as the Sipahi Çarşısı, the Gelincik Çarşısı and the Uzun Çarşı. Leave the bedesten and walk towards the Ulu Mosque; the last stop, the Emir Han, is at the mosque's north eastern corner.

Source: TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi, Bedesten ve Büyük Çarşı; Bursa Alan Başkanlığı; Kültür Portalı; Bursa Büyükşehir Belediyesi.

The last stop of the route is the Emir Han, the first Ottoman han built in Bursa. Orhan Bey had it built after the conquest of Bursa to provide income for his own complex. The inscription on the mosque of the same complex gives the date 1339-40. So in this courtyard you are inside a trading system founded more than a century before the Koza Han. Sources record it under names such as Bezzaz-ı Atik, Eski Bezzazistan, Bey Hanı and Sultan Hanı; according to the Culture Portal the name Emir Bey Hanı took hold after 1522. When Bayezid I built the new bedesten, this han was for a while called the Old Bedesten; in other words, the building you have just seen took over one of this han's jobs.

When you enter, first take in the size of the courtyard; according to the Bursa Site Management office the inner courtyard measures 46 by 50 metres. In this two storey building the Site Management office counts 36 units on the ground floor and 38 upstairs, while the Culture Portal gives 37 rooms on the upper floor. The ground floor rooms were used for storage, and the upper rooms, with windows and fireplaces, for merchants to stay and work in. The Site Management office writes that the han served the trade in silk and silk fabrics and also had a stable section for the merchants' animals.

Compare this layout with what you saw at the Koza Han: in both, the two storey arcade around the courtyard and the division between storerooms below and living rooms above are the same. Look for the differences in materials and detail. The Emir Han is built of cut stone and brick, and its barrel vaults rest on thick piers of stone and brick. Notice that the four corners of the first floor arcades are covered with domes.

The story of the Emir Han is a chain of fires and repairs. According to English Wikipedia the building suffered fires in 1544, 1788 and 1958 and earthquake damage in 1674 and 1855. The same source gives 1634 and 1963 as dates of repair. The Bursa Site Management office also stresses that the han burned or collapsed many times and was repaired at great expense each time. So do not assume that every wall you see survives from the 14th century; the present building is a han renewed over the centuries while staying faithful to the same plan.

The han still works today through its shops; as you walk the arcades, take care not to get in the way of the shopkeepers. Sit in the courtyard for a while and think back over what you have seen since the start of the route. The merchant who built the bridge, the silk section in the museum, the silk intendant at the Koza Han and the trade in valuables at the bedesten are all later links in a trading system that began in this courtyard.

For a photograph, a frame from one corner of the courtyard that takes in both floors of arcades shows the basic scheme of the Ottoman city han in its simplest form. The route ends here; the Ulu Mosque is right beside you and the Ulu Camii stop of the T1 tram is close by. If you want to extend the day, you can also call at the other hans of the district. According to the TDV, the Pirinç Han, completed by Bayezid II in July 1508, is the largest han in the district, and the Geyve Han from the reign of Mehmed I also stands within the same market fabric.

Source: Bursa Alan Başkanlığı, Emir Han; Kültür Portalı; TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi, Büyük Çarşı; Wikipedia, Orhan Gazi Mosque.