The Social Life of the Urban Caravanserai in Egypt: A Literary Survey

Abstract

This paper examines the urban caravanserai in Egypt (Cairo and Alexandria) not much as an architectural type nor in a strictly urbanistic context, but as a socially dense and culturally dynamic space embedded in the everyday life of a city. Through a literary survey, it investigates how “caravanserais”, in their various forms and typologies, were described, experienced, and imagined across a range of textual sources, with particular attention to travel accounts, topographical descriptions, and narrative observations produced by both European and Egyptian authors. The study considers the ways in which texts reveal the caravanserai as a site of exchange extending beyond trade to include hospitality, sociability, negotiation, religious encounter, as well as political violence.