Aim Souq

[Chiquita Mcnicholas]

A bazaar[a] or souk[b] is a marketplace consisting of multiple small stalls or shops,[1] especially in the Middle East,[2][1] the Balkans, North Africa and South Asia.[1] They are traditionally located in vaulted or covered streets that had doors on each end and served as a city's central marketplace.[3]

The term bazaar originates from Persian, where it referred to a town's public market district.[4] The term bazaar is sometimes also used to refer collectively to the merchants, bankers and craftsmen who work in that area. The term souk comes from Arabic and refers to marketplaces in the Middle East and North Africa.[5]

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 muḥtasib, 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.

The origin of the word "bazaar" comes from New Persian bāzār,[6][7] from Middle Persian wāzār,[8] from Old Persian wāčar,[9] from Proto-Indo-Iranian *wahā-čarana.[10] The term spread from Persian into Arabic, now used throughout the Middle East and in the Indian subcontinent.[11]

In North American 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 (e.g. charity bazaar).[12][13][11]

In Turkish, the word was borrowed as pazar, but it refers to an outdoor market held at regular intervals, not a permanent structure containing shops. English place names usually translate "arşı" (shopping district in a downtown or downtown itself) as "bazaar" when they refer to an area with covered streets or passages.[citation needed]

The word "souk" in the Arabic-speaking world is roughly equivalent to "bazaar".[14] The Arabic word is a loan from Aramaic "šūqā" ("street, market"), itself a loanword from the Akkadian "sūqu" ("street").[15][16] The Arabic word sūq was then borrowed into English via French (souk) by the 19th century.[17][18] The English word can also be spelled "suq" or "souq".[19][20]

In Israel, the term shuk or shuq (Hebrew: שׁוּק, romanized: šūq) shares a common Aramaic origin of the Arabic souk, and holds a prominent role in everyday life.[citation needed] 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.

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.[28] He also described The Babylonian Marriage Market.[29][relevant?]

Sassanid rule in Iran was an important period for the development of urbanization and commerce.[30] 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.[30]

Historically, souks were also held outside cities at locations where incoming caravans stopped and merchants displayed their goods for sale.[citation needed] Souks 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 souk may serve a social function as being a place for people to meet in, in addition to its commercial function.[31]

In pre-Islamic Arabia, two types of bazaar 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 bazaars, 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.[24]

According to traditional Muslim narratives, Muhammad established a market place (sūq) 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.[14] Eight years later, he is said to have appointed a market inspector ('āmil 'alā l-sūq), a position that likely evolved into the later muḥtasib in Islamic cities, an official in charge of overseeing public morality and regulating weights and measures.[14]

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.[14] Most of the surviving urban commercial structures in the Islamic world date from the 16th century or later, though some preserved urban caravanserais (commonly known as a funduq, khān, or wakāla) date from earlier periods.[32] The oldest of these is the Khan al-Mirjan in Baghdad, built in 1359 as part of a larger architectural complex.[33]

During the Islamic period in Iran, bazaars developed along the same lines as those of the Sassanid period.[30] Up to the 11th century, the bazaar developed more commonly in the suburbs outside the city walls that enclosed the shahristān, 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.[34] 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.[34]

In the Mamluk Sultanate (13th to 16th centuries) and in the Ottoman Empire (14th to 20th centuries), 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 (legal endowment).[35][36][37]

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."[38] 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 (e.g. Tala'a Kebira) and bazaar areas (e.g. Kissariat al-Kifah), was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981.[39] Al-Madina Souk in Aleppo is the largest covered historic market in the world, with an approximate length of 13 kilometers.[40][additional citation(s) needed] It is part of the Ancient Aleppo, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1986 in Syria.[41] The Bazaar complex in Tabriz, Iran, was listed by UNESCO in 2010.[42] The Bazaar of Qaisiyariye in Lar, Iran, is on the tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites since 2007.[43] Kemeraltı Bazaar in İzmir was placed on tentative list in 2020.[44]

Bazaars or souks are traditionally divided into specialized sections dealing in specific types of product, each usually housed in a few narrow streets and named after the product it specializes in such as the gold souk, the texitle souk, the spice souk, the leather souk, the booksellers' souk, etc. This promotes competition among sellers and helps buyers easily compare prices.[47] Merchants specialized in each trade were also organized into guilds, which provided support to merchants but also to clients. The exact details of the organizations varied from region to region. Each guild had rules that members were expected to follow, but they were loose enough to allow for competition. Guilds also fulfilled some functions similar to trade unions and were able to negotiate with the government on behalf of merchants or represent their interests when needed.[47]

Though each neighbourhood within the city would have a local souk selling food and other essentials, the main bazaar was one of the central structures of a large city, selling durable goods, luxuries and providing services such as money exchange. Workshops where goods for sale are produced (in the case of a merchant selling locally-made products) are typically located away from the souk itself.

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