A Comparative Analysis of Architectural Proportions of Caravanserais with Courtyards in the Center of Iran during the Safavid and Qajar Eras

Due to the type of function, caravanserais are considered as important buildings in Iranianarchitecture. Research has mostly examined their functional features but caravanserais alsohave aesthetic aspects. Aesthetic analysis can be examined in two aspects: the body of thebuilding and their decoration. As such, based on the importance of caravanserai architecturein the history of Iran, it is necessary to be aware of the developments related to the proportionsof these building in different historical periods. In this regard, in order to find out the evolutionof proportions of Iranian caravanserais, the proportions of caravanserais in the central parts ofIran during the Safavid and Qajar eras have been compared. In this research, data collectionwas conducted through library research as well as examining numerous articles publishedin scientific journals, and data analysis was performed using statistical analysis methods,adopting R and SPSS software. In order to investigate the hypothesis of similarity ordissimilarity of the proportions of caravanserais in central areas of Iran during the Safavid andQajar eras, 12 samples from the Qajar era and 12 samples from the Safavid era were selectedby cluster sampling from different locations. After measuring the dimensions of each sample,the normality of the data was evaluated using Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. Finally, the datawere verified to be normal. Then, due to the normality of the data, a parametric statistical test(Levene’s Test for Equality of Variances and t-test) was used to finalize the test hypotheses. Atthe end, after performing the aforementioned test, considering that the significance level forthe variables and proportions examined at the confidence level of %95, was more than .05, thehypothesis of similarity of proportions of central Iranian caravanserais during the Safavid andQajar eras was accepted. Based on the obtained results and considering that numerous textsand articles refer to the Safavid era as the golden age of the establishment of caravanserais inIran, during the Qajar era, the construction of caravanserais in the central regions of Iran alsoutilized the same pattern of proportions used in Safavid caravanserais.