Bazaar

A bazaar (Bengali: বাজার, Persian: بازار, Arabic: بازار‎, Urdu: بازار, Turkish: pazar, Macedonian: пазар, Serbian: pazar, Polish: bazar, Russian: базар, Uzbek: bozor, Malay: pasar, Albanian: pazar, Hindi: बाज़ार, Greek: παζάρι (pazari), Cypriot Greek: pantopoula[1]) is a permanent merchandising area, marketplace, or street of shops where goods and services are exchanged or sold. The term is sometimes also used to refer to the "network of merchants, bankers and craftsmen" who work that area.[2] The word derives from the Persian word bāzār, the etymology of which goes back to the Middle Persian word baha-char (بهاچار), meaning "the place of prices".[3] Although the current meaning of the word is believed to have originated in Persia, its use has spread and now has been accepted into the vernacular in countries around the world.[4] The rise of large Bazaar's and stock trading centers in the Muslim World allowed the creation on new capitols and eventually new empires. New and wealthy cities such as Istanbul, Isfahan, Golconda, Samarkand, Cairo, Baghdad, Timbuktu were founded along trade routes and bazaars.[5]

In North America and the United Kingdom, the term can be used as a synonym for a "rummage sale", to describe charity fundraising events held by churches or other community organizations, in which donated, used goods, such as books, clothes, and household items are sold for low prices, or else the goods may be new and handcrafted (or home-baked), as at a church's Christmas bazaar.

The bazaar has been the subject of many books, including: The Persian Bazaar: Veiled Space of Desire (Mage Publications) by Mehdi Khansari and The Morphology of the Persian Bazaar (Agah Publications) by Azita Rajabi.

Contents

Examples

Iran

Afghanistan

Azerbaijan

Bangladesh

Bosnia and Herzegovina

China

Egypt

India

Kyrgyzstan

Macedonia

Pakistan

Sri Lanka

Syria

Turkey

Kazakhstan

Gallery

See also

References

  1. ^ Christou, Jean, "Linguist makes the island a little smaller for all", Cyprus Mail, May 27, 2006
  2. ^ ("the Bazaar (the complex network of merchants, bankers and craftsmen who make up the heart of the traditional Islamic city)") from Introduction to Shi'i Islam, Momen, Moojan, (Yale University Press, 1985), p.200]
  3. ^ "bazaar". http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bazaar. Retrieved 2007-02-17. 
  4. ^ "BAZAAR s. H. &c. From P. bāzār, a permanent market or street of shops.". University of Chicago. http://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.0:1:171.hobson. Retrieved 2007-07-19. 
  5. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QY8g_IsI_gY

External links