Life in the Khans: The Venetians in Early Ottoman Aleppo

Abstract

In the second half of the fifteenth century, Aleppo became increasingly important as a center of the Levant trade. The Venetian merchant community grew, and the consulate was eventually transferred there. The Venetians’ base of operations was the khan, a commercial building type that can be found in various forms across the Mediterranean and the Middle East. How did the khan accommodate the day-to-day life of Venetians in Aleppo—and how did it mediate their relationships with local authorities, merchants, and residents? This essay explores these questions through a study of khans used by Venetians in sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It shows that they utilized a network of khans that extended throughout the city. Khans were highly adaptable structures, and Venetians used them for multiple purposes, including trade, lodging, socializing, worship, and diplomacy. The portrait of Venetian life that emerges from this study provides an interesting micro-history. It also sheds light on the wider process of cultural reception and translation: how a group of foreigners makes the exotic familiar, and how this impacts notions of self and other.