Dayahatyn

There are several legends related to the construction of Dayahatyn. One of them is that the Rabat of Dayahatyn was built by a local ruler, who wished to hide from a beauty named Daya. Another version is about a rich man named Bai, who suspected his wife in infidelity and left home in the cloth of poor dervish. His wife Bai-Hatyn waited him to return for many years. In order to ease his suspicion, she built this beautiful Dayahatyn to show her love and fidelity to her husband. After years of wandering, Bai finally came back to the homeland as a worker in the caravanserai construction. Bai-Hatyn recognized him and they lived happily ever after.[1]

Based on the archaeological finds and historic records, it is believed that Dayahatyn was originally the Tahiriya fort. The construction of the Tahiriya fort (which is also spelled as Takhiria) is attributed to Tahir ibn Husayn, founder of the Tahirid dynasty, in the 9th century[2][3] This kind of fortresses of army detachments, or simply called as “Rabat”, were used for military training of the Ghazi Warriors. They studied the Koran and carried out military exercises and prayer offerings all within the fort.[3]

Because of the frequent international trading activities, large groups of people were travelling along the Silk Road. Caravanserais were built in every 25-35 kilometres in cities and deserts along the ancient Silk Road to provide a shelter for travellers. As some areas are in the desolate steppes, walls and towers are needed to protect the coaching inn. Therefore, fortresses were sometimes transformed into caravanserais.[3] In the 11th century, the Tahiriya fort was turned into a brick-caravanserai, which is the present Dayahatyn.

Interior arcade and chambers of the Dayahatyn caravansaray.

Dayahatyn caravanserai, with an adobe brick foundation and high-quality burnt brick structure on top, has a typical caravanserai- style square plan. It is enclosed by fortress walls of 53 metres long at each side with a round tower at each corner. Two mutually perpendicular axes are marked by projections and arches in the inner yard and medium towers on the outer wall. Towers at the corners and at intervals along the curtain walls conveyed a powerful and forbidding impression.[4] The entrance on the eastern wall is also located on the perpendicular axis and is stressed by a high arch portal. The rooms along its perimeter are separated by an arch gallery from the four-avian yard. There was also a mosque, an oblong hall to the right of the lobby. This kind of plan structure and its spatial perception have been specified and developed in the architecture of the later Timurid epoch,[2][5]

At the stretches between the towers, there are symmetrically situated small rectangular towers excluding the pre-portal part. By archaeological investigations, these fortress walls are found be the residues of Tahiriya fort of the 9th century,[2] As the fortress changed its function into a caravanserai in the 11th century, the former fortress was being modernized during the 11th and 12th centuries to meet the aesthetic of that time,[3] The walls, masonry of arches, roofs and domes were all built during that period. The way of decorating walls with plain bricks reflects a typical Seljuk style of the 11th and 12th centuries.[5] Decorative stucco moulding is applied in some places in the interiors. Dayahatyn is certainly a masterpiece of the architect skill of the Northern Khorasan School of the “Golden Age”.[5]

On both sides of the entrance, the names of first successors to Prophet Mohammed (Ali, Omar, Osman and Abu Bakr) were found in kufic made by brickwork. By mentioning the names of four important caliphs, Dayahatyn, certainly, was not simply a caravanserai for caravans. It was indeed also served as a royal stopover for elites during the long trips across the expanses of their powers [3] Rooms with unusual layout and exceptionally inventive design are believed to be for the elites.[3]

Between the names of the four caliphs, there were some empty frames with traces of a missing outer layer. The missing parts are believed to be with some inscriptions on the history of the building and be removed in the later time for unknown reasons.[3]

Another reconstruction of Dayahatyn was held in the 15th and 16th centuries. The high arched portal at the entrance was the product of that time. Its style is completely different from filigree brickwork of Seljuk period. The portal, without any decoration, is also made of bricks but in a larger size and yet not as high quality as the one in the 11th and 12th centuries.

Along with the fall of the Silk Road, The Dayahatyn caravanserai lost its importance and was being abandoned. Since then, the former coaching inn became the shelter of no longer caravans, but sometimes military units and rare wanderers passed by.[3] The gorgeous structure was forgotten by the history. Not until the year of 1840, an officer of the East India Company rediscovered the buildings during his trip from Herat to Khiva. He was the first European making a note on the caravanserai. In 1887, Leo Evgrafovich Dmitriev drew a picture of the caravanserai from the river side. Dayahatyn has its first photograph taken by Mikhail Chernyshevsky in 1899 and was first examined in 1920s by Alexander Marushchenko who laid the foundations of Turkmenistan archaeology. The first detailed study of Dayahatyn was carried out in 1950 by Anna Maksimovna Pribytkova, an architectural historian. Later, her colleague Galina A. Pugachenkova wrote the most fundamental work on the architectural history of Turkmenistan. She devotes many pages on the Dayahatyn and regards it as “a sample of the mature style, which requires a functional rationale, constructive feasibility and artistic excellence as an integral whole” [3]

• Caravanserai
• Rabati Malik