Bazaar
A bazaar or souk is a marketplace consisting of multiple small stalls or shops, especially in the Middle East, the Balkans, Central Asia, North Africa and South Asia. They are traditionally located in vaulted or covered streets that have doors on each end and served as a city's central marketplace.
The term bazaar originates from Persian, where it referred to a town's public market district. Bazaari refers collectively to the merchants, bankers and craftsmen who work in a bazaar. The term souk comes from Arabic and refers to marketplaces in the Middle East and North Africa.
Although the lack of archaeological evidence has limited detailed studies of the evolution of bazaars, the earliest evidence for the existence of bazaars or souks dates to around 3000 BCE. Cities in the ancient Middle East appear to have contained commercial districts. Later, in the historic Islamic world, bazaars typically shared in common certain institutions, such as the position of the Muhtasib|, and certain architectural forms, such as roofed streets and courtyard buildings known in English as caravanserais. The exact details of their evolution and organization varied from region to region.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, Western interest in oriental culture led to the publication of many books about daily life in Middle Eastern countries. Souks, bazaars and the trappings of trade feature prominently in paintings and engravings, works of fiction and travel writing.
Shopping at a bazaar or market-place remains a central feature of daily life in many Middle-Eastern and South Asian cities and towns and the bazaar remains the beating heart of West Asian and South Asian life; in the Middle East, souks tend to be found in a city's old quarter. Bazaars and souks are often important tourist attractions. A number of bazaar districts have been listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites due to their historical and/or architectural significance.
Terminology
Bazaar
The origin of the word "bazaar" comes from New Persian bāzār, from Middle Persian wāzār, from Old Persian wāčar, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *wahā-čarana. The term spread from Persian into Arabic, now used throughout the Middle East and in the Indian subcontinent.In North America and Europe, the English word "bazaar" can denote more generically a shop or market selling miscellaneous items. It can also refer in particular to a sale or fair to raise money for charitable purposes.
Souk
The word "souk" in the Arabic-speaking world is roughly equivalent to "bazaar". The Arabic word is a loan from Aramaic "šūqā", itself a loanword from the Akkadian "sūqu". The Arabic word was then borrowed into English via French by the 19th century. The English word can also be spelled "suq" or "souq".In Modern Standard Arabic the term refers to markets in both the physical sense and the abstract economic sense.
In Israel, the term shuk or shuq shares a common Aramaic origin with the Arabic souk, and holds a prominent role in everyday life. Markets such as Mahane Yehuda in Jerusalem are often covered rows of stalls much like those seen elsewhere in the region, selling produce, spices, halvah, and even clothing.
Variations
In northern Morocco, the Spanish corruption socco is often used as in the Grand Socco and Petit Socco of Tangiers.File:Mahane Yehuda .jpg|thumb|Shuk Mahane Yehuda, a popular shuk in Jerusalem, often simply called the Shuk
History
Origins in antiquity
Scholar Mohammad Gharipour has pointed out that in spite of the centrality of bazaars in Persian history, relatively little is known due to the lack of archaeological evidence. Historical records document the concept of a bazaar existing in Iran as early as 3000 BCE, where some large cities contained districts dedicated to trade and commerce. Archeological data also suggests the existence of market districts in ancient Mesopotamia. Markets centers must have existed in Egypt to conduct international trade, but no archeological evidence for them has been found. In Achaemenid Persia, documents indicate that crafts were sold in markets close to Persepolis. A network of bazaars had sprung up alongside ancient caravan trade routes. Bazaars located along these trade routes formed networks, linking major cities with each other and in which goods, culture, people and information could be exchanged. Sources from around the same era also indicate that ancient Greeks regulated trade in areas at the center of their cities around stoa buildings. The ideas of Greek city planning were spread to the Middle East during the Seleucid period, following the conquests of Alexander the Great.The Greek historian, Herodotus, noted that in Egypt, roles were reversed compared with other cultures and Egyptian women frequented the market and carried on trade, while the men remain at home weaving cloth. He also described The Babylonian Marriage Market.
Sassanid rule in Iran was an important period for the development of urbanization and commerce. In Sassanid Iran, the bazaar was usually the heart of a town or city, where it spread outwards and affected the development of other neighbourhoods. The bazaar usually contained, or was adjoined by, an open-air plaza that served as a forum of socio-economic activity.
Historically, bazaars were also held outside cities at locations where incoming caravans stopped and merchants displayed their goods for sale. Bazaars were established at caravanserai, places where a caravan or caravans arrived and remained for rest and refreshments. Since this might be infrequent, souks often extended beyond buying and selling goods to include major festivals involving various cultural and social activities. Any bazaar may serve a social function as being a place for people to meet in, in addition to its commercial function.
In pre-Islamic Arabia, two types of souks existed: permanent urban markets and temporary seasonal markets. The temporary seasonal markets were held at specific times of the year and became associated with particular types of produce. Suq Hijr in Bahrain was noted for its dates while Suq 'Adan was known for its spices and perfumes. In spite of the centrality of the Middle East in the history of souks, relatively little is known due to the lack of archaeological evidence. However, documentary sources point to permanent marketplaces in cities from as early as 550 BCE.
Islamic period
According to traditional Muslim narratives, Muhammad established a market place in Medina shortly after arriving there during the Hijrah in 622 CE. He designated an open, unbuilt space as the market area and forbade both the construction of permanent structures and the levying of taxes in this area. Eight years later, he is said to have appointed a market inspector, a position that likely evolved into the later Muhtasib| in Islamic cities, an official in charge of overseeing public morality and regulating weights and measures.Despite the importance of the bazaar to economic life and the prominence of marketplace terminology in the Quran, not much is known about the early history of bazaars and it remains a topic of ongoing research. Most of the surviving urban commercial structures in the Islamic world date from the 16th century or later, though some preserved urban caravanserais date from earlier periods. The oldest of these is the Khan al-Mirjan in Baghdad, built in 1359 as part of a larger architectural complex.
File:Al-Hamidiyeh souq, Damascus, Syria - 2.jpg|left|thumb|Al-Hamidiyah Souq in Damascus
Muhammad's prohibition against constructing permanent buildings and levying taxes in the market began to be disregarded as early as the Umayyad period. The Umayyad caliphs Mu'awiya I and Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik both built structures in the market of Medina and levied taxes there, while purpose-built markets were built in early Islamic cities further abroad such as Basra in Iraq, Fustat in Egypt, and Kairouan in Tunisia. This process seems to have accelerated during the reign of Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik in particular. Markets that sold the most important or expensive goods were usually located near the city's central Friday mosque. In some cities, such as Cairo and Aleppo, the main bazaar was initially focused along one important street and then progressively grew and branched off into the surrounding streets.
During the Islamic period in Iran, bazaars developed along the same lines as those of the Sassanid period. Up to the 11th century, the bazaar developed more commonly in the suburbs outside the city walls that enclosed the, the formal city. This was especially true in Central Asia, though there were exceptions in some regions where the bazaar was grouped with the citadel and the city's Friday mosque inside the city walls. After the 11th century, the growing importance of the suburbs and the commercial districts resulted in most of them being enclosed within newly expanded city walls. From the 10th century onward, the bazaar became the financial center of a city and was heavily patronized and developed by ruling elites. The grouping of a bazaar, citadel, and Friday mosque also became more common.File:Old Bazaar of Prishtina 7.jpg|thumb|The Old Bazaar of Pristina, Kosovo
In the Mamluk Sultanate and in the Ottoman Empire, the construction of commercial buildings in and around the bazaar was often sponsored by sultans, ruling elites, or by members of the Ottoman royal family. The revenues generated by these buildings were typically earmarked to support the upkeep of religious complexes sponsored by these same patrons, through the legal framework of a waqf.
21st century
In the Middle East, the bazaar is considered to be "the beating heart of the city and a symbol of Islamic architecture and culture of high significance." Today, bazaars are popular sites for tourists and some of these ancient bazaars have been listed as world heritage sites or national monuments on the basis of their historical, cultural or architectural value.The Medina of Fez, Morocco, which includes numerous long market streets and bazaar areas, was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981. Al-Madina Souk in Aleppo is the largest covered historic market in the world, with an approximate length of 13 kilometers. It is part of the Ancient Aleppo, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1986 in Syria. The Bazaar complex in Tabriz, Iran, was listed by UNESCO in 2010. The Bazaar of Qaisiyariye in Lar, Iran, is on the tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites since 2007. Kemeraltı Bazaar in İzmir was placed on tentative list in 2020.