Caravanserai

The word ‫ کاروانسرای‬kārvānsarāy is a Persian compound word consolidating kārvān

"train" with sarāy "castle", "working with encased courts".[6][3] Here "band"
signifies a gathering of brokers, pioneers or different voyagers, occupied with
significant distance travel. The word is additionally delivered as caravansary,
caravansaray, caravanseray, caravansara, and caravansarai.[4] In academic sources,
it is frequently utilized as an umbrella term for various related kinds of business
structures like hotels or inns, while the genuine cases of such structures had an
assortment of names relying upon the district and the neighborhood language.[5]
However, the term was commonly favored for provincial motels worked along streets
outside of city walls.[7]

The word serai is here and there utilized with the ramifications of caravanserai.
Various spot names dependent on the word sarai have grown up: Mughal Serai, Sarai
Alamgir and the Delhi Sarai Rohilla railroad station for instance, and a large
number of different spots are likewise founded on the first importance of "palace".
[citation needed]

Khan As'ad Pasha (1751-52) in Damascus, Syria

Khan

The word khan (‫ )خان‬gets from Middle Persian hʾn' (xān, "house").[8][5] It commonly
alluded to an "metropolitan caravanserai" worked inside a town or a city.[5][9] In
Turkish the word is delivered as han.[5] a similar word was utilized in Bosnian,
having shown up through Ottoman success. Notwithstanding Turkish and Persian, the
term was generally utilized in Arabic also, and instances of such structures are
found all through the Middle East from as ahead of schedule as the Ummayyad period.
[5][9]

Funduq

Funduq al-Najjarin in Fes, Morocco

The term funduq (Arabic: ‫ ;فندق‬some of the time spelled foundouk or fondouk from the
French literal interpretation) is every now and again utilized for noteworthy
motels in Morocco and around western North Africa.[5] The word originates from
Greek pandocheion, lit.: "inviting all",[10][5] in this manner signifying 'hotel',
prompted funduq in Arabic (‫)فندق‬, pundak in Hebrew (‫)פונדק‬, fundaco in Venice,
fondaco in Genoa and alhóndiga[11] or fonda in Spanish (funduq is the birthplace of
Spanish term fonda). In the urban areas of this locale such structures were
likewise every now and again utilized as lodging for craftsman workshops.[12][13]
[14]:318

Wikala

The Arabic word wikala (‫)وكالة‬, some of the time spelled wakala or wekala, is a term
found every now and again in noteworthy Cairo for a metropolitan caravanserai which
housed shippers and their merchandise and filled in as a middle for exchange,
stockpiling, exchanges and other business activity.[15] The word wikala implies
generally "organization" in Arabic, for this situation a business agency,[15] which
may likewise have been a reference to the traditions workplaces that could be
situated here to manage imported goods.[16] The term khan was additionally
oftentimes utilized for this kind of working in Egypt.[5]

History