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Concept
Bazaar
Summary
A bazaar (بازار) or souk (سوق; also transliterated as souq or suq) is a marketplace consisting of multiple small stalls or shops, especially in the Middle East, the Balkans, North Africa and South Asia. However, temporary open markets elsewhere, such as in the West, might also designate themselves as bazaars. The ones in the Middle East were traditionally located in vaulted or covered streets that had doors on each end and served as a city's central marketplace. Street markets are the European and North American equivalents.
The term bazaar originates from Persian, where it referred to a town's public market district. 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.
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.
Official source
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