Standing in the middle of the Amasya bazaar, on the southern bank of the Yeşilırmak and immediately south of the old bedesten, the Taşhan is one of the largest civil buildings to survive from the city's Ottoman commercial life. Named after the cut stone used so generously in its construction, the han was completed in the last year of the seventeenth century, with a square courtyard framed by two storeys of arcades, vaulted shops opening onto the street and an inscription above its gate. For some two hundred years it sheltered merchants, travellers, caravan drivers and their animals; after the fire of 1915 it fell into ruin and survived only by being divided into storerooms and craftsmen's workshops, until a comprehensive restoration completed in 2012 turned it once again into a place of lodging. Today, with coffee served in its courtyard and guests once more staying in its rooms, the Taşhan is a building that was founded as the pious gift of a provincial governor, kept alive as a family endowment and for centuries shared the burden of the Amasya bazaar.

Location and Surroundings

The Taşhan lies on Özkan Yalçın Caddesi in the quarter formerly called Hoca Süleyman and known today as the Dere neighbourhood. To the west, where its entrance gate stands, now stretches the municipality's open car park; to the east runs Taşhan Sokağı, the lane that takes its name from the building, to the north stands the Kilari Süleyman Ağa Mosque, and to the south the Burmalı Minare Mosque, with its twisted minaret, one of the best-known works of the Seljuk period. The han thus sits squarely within the historic bazaar district of Amasya, which leans against the southern side of the river, as part of a fabric woven from mosques, the bedesten and rows of shops. Because the city was built in a narrow valley and settlement concentrated mostly on the flatter southern bank, its commercial buildings also developed in a tight, crowded arrangement. That the Taşhan was able to open a broad courtyard in the middle of this congested bazaar is itself a sign of how much importance was attached to it when it was built.

The bedesten just to the north of the han had been built, according to its inscription, in 1483 by the chief white eunuch (kapı ağası) Hüseyin Ağa to provide revenue for his endowments. This covered market for valuable goods, with four piers and nine domes, was badly damaged in the earthquake of 1668; in the nineteenth century, under the governor Ziya Pasha, its lead was stripped and its domes pulled down, and in the 1950s part of it was demolished to make room for an office block, though the remaining section was saved and re-roofed with domes around 1970. The Kilari Süleyman Ağa Mosque to the north is a small single-domed building recorded with the date 1489. The Taşhan was added to this same commercial core two centuries after these fifteenth-century buildings, and became a large unit for lodging and storage that shared the load of the bazaar around the bedesten.

Its Founder, Rahtvan Hacı Mehmed Pasha

The man who commissioned the han, as the gate inscription tells us, was Rahtvan Hacı Mehmed Pasha, governor (mutasarrıf) of Amasya and warden of Jeddah. His name appears in the sources as Rahtvan, Rahtuvan or Rahtuvan Hacı Mehmet Pasha. The mutasarrıf was the official who administered a sanjak, and at the end of the seventeenth century Amasya was a sanjak capital governed by officials appointed from the centre, the princes no longer being sent there. That the pasha also bore the title of warden of Jeddah suggests that he served in this port city, regarded as the gateway to the Hijaz, and that he had risen considerably in the service of the state. The epithet "Hacı" shows that he had performed the pilgrimage to Mecca.

The epithet "Rahtvan" is a familiar word from the organisation of the Ottoman palace. In the imperial stables, the Istabl-ı Âmire, there was a raht treasury where saddles and horse trappings adorned with precious stones were kept, and at the head of the saddlers' companies stood the rahtvan ağas. The sources do not say clearly whether the pasha's epithet derived from this office or was used as a family name. Indeed, some travel writings state that the han was built by "the Rahtuvans, one of the leading families of Amasya"; this account suggests that the name may in time have become a family name, but it is not supported by documentary evidence. It was an established tradition in the Ottoman world for a pasha who had risen in state service to turn his wealth into a lasting charitable work; alongside religious buildings, economic and public structures such as hans, bedestens, bridges and fountains were part of this idea of pious giving. The Taşhan is an economic charitable foundation of this kind, left to the city by a sanjak governor.

The Inscription and the Date of Construction

The inscription that gives the han's date is set in a long, narrow rectangular frame above the main entrance gate, which projects outward from the façade. A rosette motif appears both in the middle of the inscription and on the keystone of the gate arch. According to the inscription, the han was completed in 1110 of the Hijri calendar, that is, 1699 AD. The name of the master builder who carried out the work, however, appears in two different forms in the sources: most publications, relying on the inscription, attribute the building to the architect Mehmed Kalfa, while one of Amasya's official promotional texts names the builder as "Ferman Kalfa". It is not clear whether this difference stems from a different reading of the inscription or from an error in transmission; since the endowment deed of 1771 is also reported to give the architect's name, a definitive reading could be made by comparison with that document.

There is also a dissenting voice regarding the date of construction. Some popular travel writings state that the Taşhan was built in 1758 and had thirty-four rooms. When the inscription, the endowment deed and the endowment transaction of 1700 are considered together, the date 1699 appears secure. It is unclear which document the figure 1758 rests on; it may have been confused with the fountain and prayer room added to the courtyard in 1761 or with one of the later repairs. The building is therefore accepted as a work of the late seventeenth century, and both its craftsmanship and its plan are consistent with that date.

The Endowment and Its Deeds

A few months after the han was completed, in January 1700, Rahtvan Hacı Mehmed Pasha endowed the Taşhan to his descendants. Under this arrangement, known in Ottoman law as a family endowment (evlatlık or zürrî vakıf), the founder's descendants took over the management of the endowment and received a fixed share of its income, while the property itself was no longer anyone's private possession but became a trust bound by the conditions of the waqf. This allowed the founder to provide for his family while preventing the building from being sold and broken up. This legal framework played a large part in the Taşhan's survival as an intact and living part of the bazaar through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

The second important document relating to the han is the endowment deed of 1771. This deed names the building's founder and architect, gives the numbers of rooms and shops, and lists the ground-floor spaces one by one. It thus allows the han's arrangement in the second half of the eighteenth century to be traced through documentary evidence. Alongside the endowment deeds, information on the han's history has been gathered from the studies of researchers, the notes of travellers and the traces of natural disasters and later additions to the building. Read together, this evidence shows that the Taşhan went through three separate phases of repair between its construction and the twentieth century.

Architecture

The Taşhan is a two-storey building on a nearly square rectangular plan, with arcades on both floors. It is a typical example of the single-courtyard, two-storey, arcaded Ottoman urban commercial han found in many Anatolian cities. It bears all the elements characteristic of the building tradition of its age, such as vaults rising on load-bearing masonry walls, arcades surrounding the courtyard and mirror (cloister) vaults. At the centre of the plan lies an open square courtyard; all the spaces of the building are arranged around it, with commercial and service functions emphasised on the ground floor and lodging on the upper floor.

Façade and Entrance

The façade walls rise in an alternating pattern of a single course of cut stone followed by two or three courses of brick. This arrangement of stone and brick is both a construction technique that gives the wall flexibility and a decorative element that lends the façade a movement of horizontal bands. The main entrance is on the west façade. This gate, which projects outward, is closed by a wooden leaf under a depressed segmental arch; a small niche stands on either side of it, and shops line both sides of the gate. On the inner west façade there is also a crown gate opening outward, connected with the rooms on the ground and upper floors. Birdhouses can be seen on the west façade and on some of the spaces facing the courtyard; these small stone cavities, common on Ottoman buildings, are the Taşhan's trace of a view that regarded providing shelter for birds as an act of charity. The façades were left unplastered, while the shops, arcades and interiors were plastered.

Ground Floor

On the ground floor, an arcade resting on massive stone piers surrounds the central square courtyard. Behind this arcade are lined twenty-nine rooms facing the courtyard. Behind these rooms, along the west, north and east façades, are twenty-nine vaulted shops running the length of the ground floor and opening outward. Two separate commercial rings are thus formed on the same floor, one facing inward and the other outward: the rooms facing the courtyard were spaces where merchants stored their goods and conducted their business, while the outer shops opened directly onto the bazaar street and served local tradesmen. The latrines and stable are also on the ground floor; being able to shelter a traveller's animal inside the han was, as in caravanserais, one of the basic functions of urban hans as well. The floors of the rooms and outer shops are paved with floor brick, and the courtyard with stone. The upper floor is reached by stone staircases rising to the right and left of the entrance arcade. In the southwest corner are washrooms set aside for washing and ablutions.

Upper Floor

The second storey rests on the arches of the lower floor surrounding the courtyard. On this floor, behind the arcades running all around the courtyard, are thirty-three rooms, along with four spaces facing the courtyard and a wet area on the south façade. The noisy and crowded commercial life of the lower floor was in this way separated from the more sheltered lodging arrangement of the upper floor. A merchant would secure his goods in a room or storeroom below and stay himself in one of the rooms above. The upper-floor arcades serve both as a corridor giving access to the rooms and as a shaded sitting place overlooking the courtyard. This floor of the han was neglected for most of the twentieth century and had fallen into a very poor state before the restoration.

Roofing System and Materials

When the han was built its roof was a flat earthen one; in later repairs this was removed and the building was covered with traditional Turkish (alaturka) tiles. Vaults and domes were used to cover the interior spaces. Cut stone and brick appear in the walls, floor brick and stone in the paving, and timber in the door and window leaves. This measured variety of materials is a traditional solution chosen for a building expected to last a long time in an earthquake-prone region, balancing heavy load-bearing walls against a light covering. Considering that Amasya is a city that has frequently suffered earthquakes and floods, the Taşhan's survival for more than two centuries demonstrates the success of this building technique.

The Taşhan Among Ottoman Urban Hans

In older sources the words caravanserai and han were often used interchangeably. Over time it became established to call the large buildings erected on the roads between cities for the lodging and security of caravans caravanserais, and those built within cities for lodging and trade hans. In urban hans the production of goods and trade often went on side by side, and hans were sometimes known by the name of the goods made or sold in them. In contrast to the closed, high-walled, fortress-like appearance of Seljuk caravanserais, the Ottoman period saw the emergence of commercial buildings with stronger ties to the outside, with shops set into their façades. The Taşhan's twenty-nine outward-facing shops are a clear example of this Ottoman innovation.

In the Ottoman period a plan consisting of mostly two-storey spaces arranged around a square or rectangular arcaded courtyard became widespread. The quarters where travellers stayed had hearths and raised benches, while stables, storerooms and administrative units were placed around the courtyard. Among the various Anatolian applications of this scheme are the Hasan Pasha Han in Diyarbakır, the Kurşunlu Han in Manisa and the Taşhan of Tokat, built between 1626 and 1632. Within the borders of the sanjak of Amasya, the Taş Han in Merzifon, which stands opposite the bedesten and displays the character of the seventeenth century, is a close relative of the Amasya Taşhan, with its walls of cut stone with brick bands, its two storeys and its courtyard surrounded by arcades on thick stone columns. The Kara Mustafa Pasha Caravanserai in Merzifon, from the same century, is a four-storey building with each floor given a separate function, and offers a more ambitious example of the type. The Amasya Taşhan is a measured, balanced member of this family, well fitted into the urban fabric.

The Han's Place in Amasya's Trade

The city in which the Taşhan was built had lain since antiquity on the trade route between Tarsus, Kayseri, Zile and Samsun, and in the Ottoman period it became an important centre of trade and production in the region. In the sixteenth century Amasya had a dyehouse, a candle workshop and a mint, and silk weaving was widespread. Because the city lay on the road from Azerbaijan to Bursa, it was also an important market for silks coming from Iran. It is known that in 1554-1555 the quantity of silk entering the city through the official weighing station over ten months reached 10,632 lodra, or about fifteen tonnes. In the seventeenth century Evliya Çelebi wrote that there were some 1060 shops in Amasya and that its bazaars were busy and rich. The end of the seventeenth century, when the Taşhan was built, was a period in which this commercial vitality continued and merchants coming to the city needed a safe place to stay and store their goods.

In this setting the han functioned as a centre where various goods were bought and sold, and where travellers, voyagers and merchants lodged and their animals were sheltered. Grain and fruit from the fertile plains around Amasya, cloth woven in the city, copperwork and goods from distant places changed hands in hans of this kind. The fact that the branches of the caravan routes descending to the Black Sea coast, especially to the port of Samsun, passed through Amasya made the city's hans a transfer point between inner Anatolia and the coast. By the nineteenth century nearly 2500 weavers are recorded as working in the city, and the opening in 1864 of a fair to be held every year in the second half of December also shows that trade revived in this period. The hans formed the infrastructure for both lodging and storage behind this activity. These courtyards were also often the places where news spread, partnerships were formed and foreign merchants met the city's tradesmen.

The Fountain, the Prayer Room and the Repairs

The first major change to the han took place more than sixty years after its construction. In December 1761 a benefactor named Hacı Yusuf Abdullah had an ablution fountain built in the middle of the courtyard, with a prayer room (mescit) above it. A raised prayer room in the middle of a courtyard was an arrangement recalling the kiosk mosques of the Seljuk sultans' hans, bringing trade and worship together in the same space; the fountain for ablutions and the prayer room for prayer met the needs of merchants staying in the han without their having to leave the building. This addition shows that the han was transformed from a mere place of trade and shelter into a space embracing the whole of daily life.

As can be understood from the endowment deeds, studies and travellers' notes, the Taşhan underwent three repairs between its construction and the twentieth century. Photographs from the third phase of repair show that the prayer room and fountain in the middle of the courtyard were no longer there. When and why these two structures disappeared is not clear. The removal of the earthen roof and its replacement with alaturka tiles must also be connected with these repairs. Through all these phases of maintenance and intervention, the Taşhan reached the beginning of the twentieth century with its original plan largely preserved.

The 1915 Fire and Its Aftermath

The heaviest blow in the han's history was the great fire that reduced the Amasya bazaar to ashes in July 1915. According to a telegram of 22 July 1915 from the divisional command in Amasya, the fire had broken out the previous evening in a shop in the Kuyumcular Çarşısı (Jewellers' Bazaar) and, spread by strong winds from the west and southwest, continued until the afternoon of the following day. One arm of the blaze reached the Bayezid Mosque and its surroundings, the other stretched from Selağzı as far as the Dere neighbourhood; nearly two thousand shops and houses in fourteen neighbourhoods were destroyed. The same telegram reports that the cause of the fire had not yet been established, that the possibility of arson was being considered and that its truth needed to be investigated; the cause of the fire has been interpreted in different ways ever since. It is reported that the Abdullatif Efendi Library, which held valuable manuscripts, also burned in the disaster. Because the burned area remained empty for many years, this part of the city came to be known locally as "Yangınyeri" (the Fire Site).

The Taşhan, standing in the bazaar in the Dere neighbourhood, was ruined in this fire. Even so, the building was not entirely abandoned. After the fire some of its spaces were used as storerooms by merchants and by the Agricultural Equipment Agency (Ziraî Donatım Kurumu), while businesses from various crafts worked in other parts. While tradesmen carried on their work in the outer shops, the upper floor fell further into neglect. Thus throughout the twentieth century the Taşhan lost its function as a han but continued to exist as a workplace and warehouse for the bazaar. By the beginning of the twenty-first century the building had become so worn that it was completely vacated for safety reasons.

The 2007-2012 Restoration

The revival of the han began in 2007 with an agreement reached between the Tokat Regional Directorate of Foundations and the Governorship of Amasya. Because the building was owned by the foundations administration, the repair was planned in cooperation between these two institutions and carried out as part of the Amasya Special Provincial Administration's project "Respect for History, Service to Cultural Heritage". The work was completed in December 2012. A book describing the restoration process, "Ribâtlardan Taşhan'a… Bir Yolculuk ve Restorasyon Öyküsü" by Mehmet Şimşek, was published by the Governorship of Amasya in 2014. The repair and strengthening methods applied to the building's structural system were also examined separately in a master's thesis prepared by Şükrü Pergel at Ondokuz Mayıs University.

After the restoration the han reopened with its inner courtyard, 53 rooms and 26 shops. The reasons for the differences between the figures in the endowment deed and the architectural studies and today's figures are not explained in detail in the published sources; it is likely that some spaces were merged or assigned new functions during the restoration. With the restoration the building regained the lodging function it had long lost, and in a sense returned to its old role. The interior began to be operated under the name Taşhan Otel, while the outward-facing shops were let to private businesses.

Present-Day Use

Today cafés and a restaurant operate in the Taşhan's courtyard and beneath its arcades, and the upper-floor rooms are used as hotel rooms. Tradesmen still at work can be found in the shops around the han. Carpenters and metalworkers spread across the courtyard and the outer shops, among them a workshop making samovars, keep part of Amasya's old bazaar crafts alive around the han. Together with the bedesten, the Burmalı Minare Mosque and the Kilari Süleyman Ağa Mosque, the building has become one of the regular stops for those exploring the city's historic bazaar district. A visitor sitting beneath the arcades, among the stone piers and brick-banded walls, can still take in an arrangement very close to the scene that met merchants who lodged in the same courtyard more than three hundred years ago.

The Taşhan's revival also offers an example of how Ottoman urban hans can be kept alive today. The building's continued status as endowment property, the carrying out of the repair through the joint efforts of the foundations administration and local government, and the use of the han for a purpose close to its original function are also in keeping with the spirit of the endowment founded by Rahtvan Hacı Mehmed Pasha in 1700. The inscription and rosettes above the gate, the birdhouses, the stone staircases and the two-storey arcades still clearly reveal, despite all the changes, the building's identity at the end of the seventeenth century.

Chronology

1483: The Amasya Bedesten, to the north of the han, is built by the chief white eunuch Hüseyin Ağa.

1489: The Kilari Süleyman Ağa Mosque, the han's northern neighbour, is built.

1699 (AH 1110): Rahtvan Hacı Mehmed Pasha, governor of Amasya and warden of Jeddah, has the Taşhan built by the architect Mehmed Kalfa; the inscription is placed above the gate.

January 1700: The pasha endows the Taşhan to his descendants.

December 1761: Hacı Yusuf Abdullah has an ablution fountain built in the middle of the courtyard with a prayer room above it.

1771: An endowment deed is drawn up giving the han's founder, architect and numbers of rooms and shops.

July 1915: The great Amasya fire spreads as far as the Dere neighbourhood; the Taşhan is ruined and afterwards used by storage and craft businesses.

2007: Restoration begins following an agreement between the Tokat Regional Directorate of Foundations and the Governorship of Amasya.

December 2012: The restoration is completed; the han reopens with 53 rooms and 26 shops, and the interior begins to be used as a hotel.

2014: "Ribâtlardan Taşhan'a… Bir Yolculuk ve Restorasyon Öyküsü", describing the restoration process, is published.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Telegram of the Amasya Divisional Command dated 22 July 1915 (General Staff, Arşiv Belgeleriyle Ermeni Faaliyetleri; quoted in Ortadoğu Gazetesi, 27 April 2015). amasya.gov.tr
  • Ayar, A. R.; Doğanbaş, M. Amasya Kitabeleri ve Mezar Taşları. Amasya: Amasya Municipality Cultural Publications, 2016.
  • Hüsameddin, Abdizade Hüseyin. Amasya Tarihi. Ankara: Amasya Municipality Cultural Publications, 2007.
  • Uzunçarşılı, İsmail Hakkı. Kitabeler. Istanbul: Milli Matbaa, 1927.

Academic studies

Official sources

Books

  • Erken, S. Türkiye'de Vakıf Abideler ve Eski Eserler. Ankara: General Directorate of Foundations Publications, 1983.

Other sources

  • Özcan, Selim. "Amasya Taşhan", Online Türkiye Turizm Ansiklopedisi (ed. N. Kozak), 2019. https://turkiyeturizmansiklopedisi.com/amasya-tashan
  • Urak, G. Amasya'nın Türk Devri Şehir Dokusu ve Yapıların Analiz ve Değerlendirmesi. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Gazi University, 1994.

Online sources