The caravanserai at Rivad-i Bustan is located along the road between Isfahan and Na'in some 23 kilometers west of Na'in. It is thought to have been built during the reign of Safavid Shah 'Abbas I (r. 1587-1629/995-1038 AH) based on its style, and then restored in ca. 1642/1052 AH.
The building is constructed from stone and baked brick. It is nearly square in plan with an interior central courtyard. The exterior features three-quarters-round towers at each corner. Half-round towers mark the middle of the facades on all sides but the northeastern, where a projecting entrance portal takes its place.
The entrance portal leads onto a wide vestibule and then through an iwan onto the courtyard. This iwan is flanked on each side by two shallow iwans that lead onto cells. The opposite facade of the courtyard (southwestern) is identical, with a large central iwan leading onto a hall behind it that likely served as a mosque (a half-octagonal apse marks the qibla). On the two side facades of the courtyard (southeast and northwest), three shallow iwans leading onto three cells are flanked on either side by arched passageways giving onto corridors that give access to stables and storage areas along the inside of the exterior walls.
Sources:
Kleiss, Wolfram. Karawanenbauten in Iran, 5:123. 5 vols. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer, 1996.
Kiyānī, Muḥammad Yūsuf. Fihrist-i kāravānsarāhā-yi Īrān, 188. Tehran: Sāzmān-i Millī-i Ḥafāẓat-i Āsār-i Bāstānī-i Īrān, 1983.
Siroux, Maxime. Anciennes voies et monuments routiers de la région d’Ispahân, 128. Cairo: Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale du Caire, 1971.
