A 'caravan' in Persian means a group of travelers or merchants banded together and organized for mutual assistance and defense while traveling through unsettled or hostile country. Caravan trade is associated with the history of Iran and the Middle East.

When you inquire the age of a caravansary in modern Iran, you are generally told that it dates from the time of Shah Abbas. This is a deceptive generalization and a term applied indiscriminately to all caravansaries built between the late 16th-19th centuries AD.