Bazaar

For the version control system, see GNU Bazaar. For other uses, see Bazaar (disambiguation).
A Moorish Bazaar
"Bazaar at Athens", in the Ottoman Empire Edward Dodwell.
Women purchasing copper utensils in a bazaar in 19th century India.
Mozaffarieh: An alley in Tabriz Bazaar devoted to carpet selling.
Grand Bazaar, Istanbul
Troopers in the Bazaar in 19th century India.
City of Kandahar, its principal bazaar and citadel, taken from the Nakkara Khauna
Vakil Bazaar as seen by Jane Dieulafoy in 1881

A bazaar is a market: a permanent enclosed merchandising area, marketplace, or street of shops where goods and services are exchanged or sold. The term originates from the Persian word bāzār,[1] from Middle Persian wāzār,[2] from Old Persian abēcharish.[3] Souq is another word used in the Middle East for an open-air marketplace or commercial quarter. The term bazaar is sometimes also used to refer to the "network of merchants, bankers, and craftsmen" who work in that area. Although the current meaning of the word is believed to have originated in native Zoroastrian Persia, its use has spread and now has been accepted into the vernacular in countries around the world. The rise of large bazaars and stock trading centers in the Muslim World allowed the creation of new capitals and eventually new empires. New and wealthy cities such as Isfahan, Golconda, Samarkand, Cairo, Baghdad, and Timbuktu were founded along trade routes and bazaars. Street markets and arcades are European and North American equivalents.

The term

The origin of the word Bazaar comes from Persian language. Many languages have names for this concept, including Arabic and Urdu: بازار‎, Kurdish language has the same word bazaar meaning a marketplace. Albanian, Bosnian and Turkish: pazar, Bengali: বাজার,Oriya: ବଜାର, Bulgarian and Macedonian: пазар, Cypriot Greek: pantopoula,[4] Greek: παζάρι (pazari), Hindi: बाज़ार, Hungarian: vásár (term originates from Persian influence around the 7th-8th century and means a regular market, but special occasion markets also exist, such as Karácsonyi Vásár or "Christmas Market", and bazár or Oriental-style market or shop, the term stemming from Turkish influence around the 16th-17th century), Indonesian and Malay: pasar, Armenian: բազար, Georgian: ბაზარი, Polish: bazar, Russian: базар, Ukrainian: базар and Uzbek: bozor.

In North America, the United Kingdom and some other European countries, 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 either donated used goods (such as books, clothes, and household items) or new and handcrafted (or home-baked) goods are sold for low prices, as at a church or other organisation's Christmas bazaar, for example.

Examples

Australia

Afghanistan

Azerbaijan

Bangladesh

Bosnia and Herzegovina

China

Egypt

Two Egyptian women shopping at a market next to the Al-Ghouri Complex in Cairo, Egypt.

Hong Kong

Israel

India

Laad Bazaar near Charminar, Hyderabad, India

Iran

Kazakhstan

Kuwait

Kyrgyzstan

Lebanon

Macedonia

Nepal

Pakistan

Serbia (Sandžak)

Sri Lanka

Syria

Turkmenistan

Turkey

Uzbekistan

See also

References

  1. ↑ Ayto, John (1 January 2009). Word Origins. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 104. ISBN 978-1-4081-0160-5.
  2. ↑ Daryaee, Touraj (16 February 2012). The Oxford Handbook of Iranian History. Oxford University Press. p. 8. ISBN 978-0-19-973215-9.
  3. ↑ "Bazaar". Dictionary.com, LLC. Retrieved 11 March 2015.
  4. ↑ Christou, Jean, "Linguist makes the island a little smaller for all", Cyprus Mail, May 27, 2006
  5. ↑ "Bazaars of Uzbekistan". Goldensteppes.com. Retrieved 2013-06-10.

Further reading

External links

Look up bazaar in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bazaars.