Caravanserais of Bukhara

Since ancient times the centres of economic life of cities in the East were inns as well as caravanserais in the middle ages not only bazaars. In fact, bazaars were closely related to the small crafts and retail trade. And wholesale trade would almost entirely be concentrated in caravanserais. Through both of those sale of goods brought via caravan routes would be conducted. What they represented always intrigued the more inquisitive minds of humankind.

Every spring large caravans would depart from Bukhara on a long journey. They went once a year in three main routes, one to Orenburg, the second to Troitsk and the third to Krasnovodsk, and in each of these caravans up to 50 bays would participate accompanied by yatims.
Each caravan would carry a cannon and armed people to guard the caravan. In the head of each caravan was a caravan-bosh elected by the bays. There were three of them: Bukhara. Shafirkan and Kazakh.
In each caravan several hundreds of loaded camels would go. On an assigned date and time they gathered at Samarkand gates on the road as then headed towards Shafirkan where at the house of one of the bays there was a meeting point and beasts of burden waited.
From Karshi, Khisor, Shahrisabz and other locations of the khanate small caravans consisting of 10-15 camels would also make way to Bukhara. They would head for the city, to the municipal serais where they put the natural tax they brought with them – millet, barley, etc.

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