Sarai

Sarai, Serai, or Saraj may refer to:

Places

Afghanistan

Macedonia

India

Caravanserai

A caravanserai (/kærəˈvænsəri/;Persian: کاروانسرا‎‎; Turkish: Kervansaray) was a roadside inn where travelers (Caravaners) could rest and recover from the day's journey. In the Middle-East, it is often called by its Turko-Mongolian name khan, (خان). In Bengal, it is known by the term katra. Caravanserais supported the flow of commerce, information, and people across the network of trade routes covering Asia, North Africa, and southeastern Europe, especially along the Silk Road.

These were found frequently along the Persian Empire's Royal Road, a 2,500-kilometre (1,600 mi) long ancient highway that stretched from Sardis to Susa according to Herodotus: "Now the true account of the road in question is the following: Royal stations exist along its whole length, and excellent caravanserais; and throughout, it traverses an inhabited tract, and is free from danger." Major urban caravanserais were also built along the Grand Trunk Road in the Indian subcontinent, especially in the region of Mughal Bengal.

Sarai (city)

Sarai (also transcribed as Saraj or Saray) was the name of two cities, which were successively capital cities of the Golden Horde, the Mongol kingdom which ruled much of Central Asia and part of Eastern Europe, in the 13th and 14th centuries. Located in present-day Russia, they were among the largest cities of the medieval world, with a population estimated by the 2005 Britannica at 600,000.

Sarai is Persian for "palace". There is also a variation meaning home (Saraa), similar to Sarajevo in the Balkan peninsula.

Old Sarai

"Old Sarai", or "Sarai Batu" or "Sarai-al-Maqrus" (al-Maqrus is Arabic for "the blessed") was established by Mongol ruler Batu Khan in the mid-1240s, on a site east of the Akhtuba river, near to the modern village of Selitrennoye.

This site was most probably located on the Akhtuba River, a channel of the lower Volga River, near the contemporary village of Selitrennoye in Kharabali District, Astrakhan Oblast, Russia, about 120 km north from Astrakhan.

Sarai was the seat of Batu and his successor Berke. Under them Sarai was the capital of a great empire. The various Rus' princes came to Sarai to pledge allegiance to the Khan and receive his patent of authority (yarlyk).