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THE COVERED BAZAAR (THE GRAND BAZAAR)
The oldest and-largest covered marketplace in the world is in Istanbul at the center of the old city. A giant labyrinth with about sixty streets and more than 3 thousand shops, the Covered Bazaar is a unique sight every visitor to Istanbul must see. The huge complex resembling a town under a roof grew to its present size over a long period of time. The 15th century bazaar, a structure of two parts with thick walls and a series of domes, was gradually expanded in the following centuries by roofing-in the adjoining streets, thus forming the peculiar oriental marketplace.
In the past, the Covered Bazaar was the business and crafts centre of the city of Istanbul where members of different guilds clustered around certain streets. These guilds by tradition, had very strict rules and ethics governing business practice. Such rules dictated, for example, that lodge members be totally alert with regard to quality of merchandise they produced and sold, and forbade them to pass any defective items to the customer knowingly.
All sorts of valuable fabrics, jewellery, weapons, and antiques were sold by merchants from families which for generations dealt in the same trade. The trust so generated in the public would even lead some customers to deposit their savings with the tradesmen of the Covered Bazaar, solely on their word of honour, to be used in business for profit, the way one buys stock shares today.
The Covered Bazaar of Istanbul was badly damaged during the earthquake towards the end of the 19th century and by a number of big fires afterwards, and although the structures were restored to what ,they had been, other characteristics of the Bazaar could not be. Consequently, the Covered Bazaar lost its status as the major business centre of Istanbul and continued its existence during the last decades as a large and nostalgic marketplace, appealing especially to those interested in Turkish handicrafts.
The world's oldest and largest covered bazaar is in Istanbul. Some of the domes and roofs o the bazaar are visible at lower right. |
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A view of one the Bazaar's many streets.
The change in the identity of the Covered Bazaar is evidenced by the changes in its streets. Nowadays, almost every street is a conglomerate of shops dealing in the trade of different goods, and the street names like Yorgancilar (Quilt makers), Terlikçiler (Slipper makers) and Fesçiler (Fez makers) have come to be street names only. The couple of exceptions to this are the main street of the Covered Bazaar where there is a clustering of jewellers and one of the streets opening to it, occupied entirely by goldsmiths.
Another change is that the shops in the Covered Bazaar today, many of them small, do not offer fixed or definite prices to customers, and a sale is made at the true worth of an item only if the buyer is good at bargaining. A chance to bargain over the price of an item -something new for many foreigners- and the sheer quantity of the works of Turkish artisans displayed in the shops do appeal to some visitors but the majority prefer to spend their money and limited shopping time more efficiently. This has led during the 1970's to the emergence of large, modern stores near the main entrance of the Bazaar.
Today, the Covered Bazaar is more of a tourist attraction with its romantic historical outlook, its lively atmosphere unique with shopkeepers personally and adamantly inviting passers-by into their shops, its continuous hum and the flow of people through its streets. More serious shopping for Turkish carpets and jewellery as well as handicrafts such as silver, cooper, brass and bronze gift items, ceramics, onyx, leatherwear and other souvenirs is often done at the new stores which adhere to contemporary business standards to the point of providing certificates of quality and origin for their wares, and offering delivery guaranteed shipment to any address abroad.
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