Kapalıçarşı

( Grand Bazaar, Istanbul )

The Grand Bazaar (Turkish: Kapalıçarşı, meaning ‘Covered Market’; also Büyük Çarşı, meaning ‘Grand Market’) in Istanbul is one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world, with 61 covered streets and over 4,000 shops on a total area of 30,700 m2, attracting between 250,000 and 400,000 visitors daily. In 2014, it was listed No.1 among the world's most-visited tourist attractions with 91,250,000 annual visitors. The Grand Bazaar at Istanbul is often regarded as one of the first shopping malls of the world.

 The interior of the Grand Bazaar in the 1890s, by photographer Jean Pascal Sébah

The construction of the future Grand Bazaar's core started during the winter of 1455/56, shortly after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople and was part of a broader initiative to stimulate economic prosperity in Istanbul.[1] Sultan Mehmed II had an edifice erected devoted to the trading of textiles[2][3] and jewels near his palace in Constantinople.[4] It was named Cevâhir Bedestan ("Bedesten of Gems") and was also known as Bezzâzistan-ı Cedîd ("New Bedesten") in Ottoman Turkish. The word bedesten is adapted from the Persian word bezestan, derived from bez ("cloth"), and means "bazaar of the cloth sellers".[5] The building – named alternately in Turkish İç ("Internal"), Antik ("Ancient"), or Eski ("Old") Bedesten – lies on the slope of the third hill of Istanbul, between the ancient Fora of Constantine and of Theodosius. It was also near the first sultan's palace, the Old Palace (Eski Saray), which was also in construction in those same years, and not far from the Artopoleia (in Greek) (Ἀρτοπωλεῖα), the city's bakers' quarter in Byzantine times.[6]

 The Byzantine (Comnenian) Eagle outside the eastern gate of the Old Bedesten

The construction of the Bedesten ended in the winter of 1460/61, and the building was endowed to the waqf of the Hagia Sophia Mosque. Analysis of the brickwork shows that most of the structure originates from the second half of the 15th century, although a Byzantine relief representing a Comnenian eagle, still enclosed on the top of the East Gate (Kuyumcular Kapısı)) of the Bedesten has been used by several scholars as proof that the edifice was a Byzantine structure.[2]

In a market near the Bedesten, named in Turkish Esir Pazarı, the slave trade was active, a use also carried over from Byzantine times.[7] Other important markets in the vicinity were the second-hand market (Turkish: Bit Pazarı),[5] the "Long Market" (Uzun Çarşı), corresponding to the Greek Makros Embolos (Μακρὸς Ἔμβολος, "Long Portico"), a long porticoed mall stretching downhill from the Forum of Constantine to the Golden Horn, which was one of the main market areas of the city,[8] while the old book market (Sahaflar Çarşısı) was moved from the Bazaar to the present picturesque location near the Beyazid Mosque only after the 1894 Istanbul earthquake.

Some years later [9]—according to other sources,[7] this occurred in 1545 under Sultan Suleiman I—Mehmed II had another covered market built, the "Sandal Bedesten" (the name comes from a kind of thread woven in Bursa, which had the colour of sandalwood[10]), also named Küçük ("Little"), Cedit or Yeni (both words meaning "New") Bedesten, which lay north of the first.[citation needed]

After the erection of the Sandal Bedesten the trade in textiles moved there, while the Cevahir Bedesten was reserved for the trade in luxury goods. At the beginning the two buildings were isolated. According to the 16th-century French traveller Pierre Gilles, between them and the Mosque of Beyazid stood the ruins of churches and a large cistern.[7] However, soon many sellers opened their shops between and around them, so that a whole quarter was born, devoted exclusively to commerce.

At the beginning of the 17th century the Grand Bazaar had already achieved its final shape. The enormous extent of the Ottoman Empire in three continents, and the total control of road communications between Asia and Europe, rendered the Bazaar and the surrounding hans or caravanserais the hub of the Mediterranean trade. According to several European travelers, at that time, and until the first half of the 19th century, the market was unrivaled in Europe with regards to the abundance, variety and quality of the goods on sale. At that time we know from European travelers that the Grand Bazaar had a square plan, with two perpendicular main roads crossing in the middle and a third road running along the outer perimeter.[5] In the Bazaar there were 67 roads (each bearing the name of the sellers of a particular good), several squares used for the daily prayers, 5 mosques, 7 fountains, 18 gates which were opened each day in the morning and closed in the evening.[5] Around 1638 the Turkish traveller Evliya Çelebi gave us the most important historical description of the Bazaar and of its customs. The number of shops amounted to 3,000, plus 300 located in the surrounding hans, large caravanserais with two or three stories round a porticoed inner courtyard, where goods could be stored and merchants could be lodged.[11] In that period one tenth of the shops of the city were concentrated in the market and around it.[5] For all that, at that time the market was not yet covered.

 A dolap in a drawing of Cesare Biseo, from Edmondo De Amicis's Costantinopoli (1882 edition)

Recurrent calamities, fires and earthquakes hit the Grand Bazaar. The first fire occurred in 1515; another in 1548.[7] Other fires ravaged the complex in 1588, 1618 (when the Bit Pazarı was destroyed), 1645, 1652, 1658, 1660 (on that occasion the whole city was devastated), 1687, 1688 (great damage occurred to the Uzun Çarşı) 1695, and 1701.[12] The fire of 1701 was particularly fierce, forcing Grand Vizier Nevşehirli Damad Ibrahim Pasha to rebuild several parts of the complex in 1730–1731. In 1738 the Kızlar Ağası Beşir Ağa endowed the Fountain (still existing) near Mercan Kapı.

In this period, because of the new law against fires issued in 1696, several parts of the market which lay between the two Bedesten were covered with vaults.[7] Despite that, other fires ravaged the complex in 1750 and 1791. The quake of 1766 caused more damages, which were repaired by the Court Chief Architect (Hassa Baş Mimarı) Ahmet a year later.[12]

The 19th-century growth of the textile industry in western Europe, introduction of mass production methods, the capitulations signed between the Empire and many European countries, and the forestalling – always by European merchants – of the raw materials needed to produce goods in the Empire's closed economy, were factors which caused the Market's decline.[13] By 1850, rents in Bedesten were ten times lower than two to three decades before.[14] Moreover, the birth of a West-oriented bourgeoisie and the commercial success of Western products pushed the merchants belonging to the minorities (Greek, Armenian, Jewish) into moving out of the Bazaar, perceived as antiquated, and into opening new shops in quarters frequented by Europeans, such as Pera and Galata.[15]

According to an 1890 survey, in the Bazaar there were 4,399 active shops, 2 bedesten, 2195 rooms, 1 hamam, one mosque, 10 medrese, 19 fountains (among them two şadırvan and one sebil), one mausoleum and 24 han.[16] In the 30.7 hectares of the complex, protected by 18 gates, there are 3,000 shops along 61 streets, the 2 bedesten, 13 han (plus several more outside).[17]

The last major catastrophe happened in 1894: a strong earthquake that rocked Istanbul.[12] The Minister of Public Works, Mahmud Celaleddin Pasha, supervised the repair of the damaged Bazaar until 1898, and on this occasion the complex was reduced in area. To the west, the Bit Pazarı was left outside the new perimeter and became an open-sky road, named Çadırcılar Caddesi ("Tentmaker Road"), while the old gate and the Kütkculer Kapi were demolished. Among all the hans which belonged to the Market, many were left outside, and only nine remained enclosed in the structure.

In 1914 the Sandal Bedesten, whose handlers of textile goods had been ruined by the European competition, was acquired by the city of Istanbul and, starting one year later, was used as an auction house, mainly for carpets. In 1927 the individual parts of the bazaar and the streets got official names. The last fires of bazaar happened in 1943 and 1954, and the related restorations were finished on 28 July 1959.[18]

The last restoration of the complex took place in 1980. On that occasion, advertising posters around the market were also removed.

^ İnalcık, H. and Quataert, D., An Economic and Social History of the Ottoman Empire, 1300–1914. Cambridge University Press, 1994, p. 14 ^ a b Cite error: The named reference mw345 was invoked but never defined (see the help page). ^ Eyice (1955), p. 26. ^ Tillinghast, Richard (2013-03-19). An Armchair Traveller's History of Istanbul: City of Remembering and Forgetting. Haus Publishing. ISBN 9781907822506. ^ a b c d e Mantran (1998), p. 177 ^ Janin (1964), p. 95. ^ a b c d e Müller-Wiener (1977), p. 346. ^ Mamboury (1953), p. 212 ^ Gülersoy (1980), p. 8 ^ Gülersoy (1980) p. 29 ^ Gülersoy (1980) p. 17 ^ a b c Müller-Wiener (1977), p. 348. ^ Gülersoy (1980), p. 31 ^ Gülersoy (1980), p. 30 ^ Gülersoy (1980) p. 41 ^ Cite error: The named reference ey27 was invoked but never defined (see the help page). ^ Cite error: The named reference mw349 was invoked but never defined (see the help page). ^ Gülersoy (1980) p. 13
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