ReSIA – Darka Bilić – Mobility on the borders of the Empire: Shared Spaces in Ottoman Balkans
Channel: SOAS University of London
Date: 25/03/2022

(17th March 2022) The process of Islamization and integration of western Balkans within the Ottoman-Islamic cultural norms during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was, among others, conducted through urbanization. The central government in Istanbul stimulated the construction and maintenance of roads, bridges, and caravanserais, as well as the broader infrastructure that enabled both the development of trade and fulfilled key military functions in this border province. The proposed talk will focus on the different types of buildings built along the trade routes in the geographic area of western Balkans from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century. Various examples of caravanserais as the ones in Sarajevo, Skopje, Počitelj and Vrana will be examined from the aspect of architectural design, their formal and functional characteristics. The recounts of many travellers - members of different religions, cultures and social classes - who used caravanserais for lodging are a valuable source of information about their aspect and conditions of lodging, but also in general of the conditions of travel through the Ottoman Balkans.