Incir Han

The İncir Han (Turkish: İncir Hanı) is a Seljuk caravanserai south of Burdur in the eponymous Turkish province.

Location

The han lies about five kilometres north‑west of the centre of Bucak and 35 kilometres south‑east of the provincial capital Burdur, three kilometres west of the D‑650 highway from Afyonkarahisar via Burdur to Antalya. It is the fourth han on the old road that connected Antalya via Burdur with Konya, the capital of the Sultanate of Rum‑Seljuks. Earlier lie Evdir Han, Kırkgöz Han and Susuz Han.

Construction history

According to the construction inscription placed above the main portal of the covered part, the caravanserai was built in 1238–1239. The builder is named as the Seljuk sultan Giyaseddin Keyhüsrev II (reigned 1237–1246). The inscription attributes to him numerous honorific titles, including “great king of kings”, “ruler over the bowed heads of the people”, “lord of the sultans of the Arabs and non‑Arabs”, “sultan of the land and the two seas” and “second Alexander the Great”. The latter title is particularly unusual and otherwise unattested. From 1992 to 2000 R. H. Unal and the Burdur Archaeological Museum carried out excavations, during which the foundations of the open courtyard were uncovered and identified.

Structure

The han consists of an open and a closed part, the closed part measuring 29 × 36 metres being slightly smaller than the open courtyard measuring 31 × 36 metres. The building is oriented from north‑west to south‑east, the entrance being on the south‑east. The open part was completely buried by sediments washed down from the eastern Kocadağ, but the ruins were uncovered during the excavations of the 1990s. The courtyard could be entered through a portal in the south with an iwan. On both sides of the portal were two rooms, the eastern one probably being the quarters of the han manager. Along the eastern outer wall seven identical rooms, probably with barrel vaults, opened onto the courtyard. On the opposite side remains of an arcade were found, behind which were seven open rooms, each separated from the others by wall arches. They were covered by pointed‑arch vaults that opened toward the courtyard.

From the courtyard one enters the covered part through another portal that lies on the same axis as the courtyard entrance. The interior has, in a north‑south direction, a higher central nave with two side aisles on the right and left. In the transverse direction the space is divided into seven aisles. In the fourth transverse aisle the building was probably crowned by a central dome, of which however nothing remains, as the barrel vault of the central nave has partially collapsed. In addition to presumed windows in the dome, the interior was illuminated by seven slit windows in the longitudinal walls and one in the rear wall. The exterior walls are reinforced by eight towers, two on the outer walls and two at the northern corners. The towers have different shapes, from square over polygonal to round.

The upper part of the richly decorated portal is almost completely lost. It is framed by several bands with different floral and geometric patterns. The iwan is covered by a shell‑shaped vault arch that rests on two columns with capitals of double‑row acanthus leaves. Above the capitals each bears a rosette of palmettes and lotus leaves with an octagonal star in the centre. Above the door is the well‑preserved building inscription. In the right door frame another, incomplete inscription can be seen with the meaning: “The steward of this blessed Hans is …”. To the right and left of the portal, at the lower ends of the vault arch, two lions in high relief are visible, above the backs a sun disc with a human face. Lion and sun are known as the coat of arms symbol of the sultan and also appear on Seljuk coins from his reign.