The Grand Bazaar, a significant structure within history...
The Grand Bazaar is synonymous with history. It represents one of the most important pages in history. It is the place where we can most vividly and effectively witness and analyze the reflection of 565 years into the present day. Examined by many historians and analyzed with great admiration, the Grand Bazaar still asserts its presence, continuing to live and thrive today. According to the observations of Prof. Dr. Önder Küçükerman, while Topkapı Palace was the brain of the empire, the Grand Bazaar was its economic heart. In the early 19th century, when banks and bankers started to settle across the Golden Horn in Galata, the empire’s economic heart shifted there, followed by the brain, as the palace relocated to Dolmabahçe, Yıldız, and Çırağan. Until the Constitutional Monarchy period, the guild system remained functional in the Grand Bazaar, where every craft was learned and operated through the master-apprentice relationship. After the Constitutional Monarchy, the guild system deteriorated due to changing circumstances and trade began to reorganize in accordance with the needs of the era. The Grand Bazaar and the Bedesten (vaulted market) endured over 20 disasters, including fires and earthquakes, from the fire of November 20, 1651, during the reign of Mehmed IV, to the fire on November 26, 1954. After the earthquake of 1894, renovations gave the Bazaar its present form. According to Evliya Çelebi’s account in his “Book of Travels” (Seyahatname), in the mid-17th century, the Grand Bazaar contained 4,399 shops, 2,195 rooms, 497 small kiosks, two restaurants, twelve treasury rooms, one mosque, ten prayer rooms, one bathhouse, nineteen fountains, eight wells with pumps, 24 inns, a school, and a tomb. The reason for the fewer shops and inns today is that some of the inns and streets, such as Sarnıçlı Han, Paçavracı Han, Alipaşa Cami Han, Yolgeçen Han, Tığcılar Street, Örücüler Street, and Çadırcılar Avenue, were left outside the Bazaar during the renovations that began after the 1894 earthquake and were completed in 1898. During the Imperial era, the Grand Bazaar was known as the Great Bazaar (Çarşu-ı Kebir) to distinguish it from other covered markets in the country. Ottoman-era deeds held by families that have been merchants in the Bazaar for three or four generations still bear this record.
The streets and avenues of the Grand Bazaar were named according to the trades practiced there, such as Kalpakçılar (furriers), Kuyumcular (jewelers), Aynacılar (mirror makers), Fesçiler (fez makers), and Yağlıkçılar (scarf sellers). In every era, the Grand Bazaar has been portrayed as a magical world in the books of foreign travelers and the paintings of foreign artists.
Semavi Eyice describes the Grand Bazaar as follows: "The Grand Bazaar, also known as Çârşû-yı Kebîr or popularly as the Kapalıçarşı (Covered Bazaar), was not built as a single structure at one time. Rather, it emerged through the concentration of inns around two bedestens, with the streets between them gradually being covered with vaults, and the shops transformed into stone structures. Securing specific entrances with gates led to the formation of a large, covered market as a single unit. Therefore, while the Turkish public generally refers to it as the Kapalıçarşı, foreigners prefer to use the term 'Grand Bazaar' (Grand Bazar, Great Bazaar, Grossbazar)."
Önder Küçükerman once said, "If the Grand Bazaar could speak, what would it say?" Indeed, if the Grand Bazaar could speak today, it might describe itself in a single sentence: "I have been doing the same work in the same place for 563 years, with great mastery that holds great secrets."
Önder Küçükerman adds, "The large doors of today’s Grand Bazaar protect a wealth of valuable knowledge. When you enter through these doors, leave behind the measures and values you know. You cannot unlock the secrets of the craftsmanship inside with the standards you use in daily life. The standards inside are completely different."
The Grand Bazaar in Literature...
Some of the most well-known names in Turkish literature; Ahmet Rasim, Mina Urgan, Peyami Safa, Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar, Tarık Buğra, Kemal Tahir, Edip Cansever, Orhan Pamuk, Orhan Veli, Sezai Karakoç, Ece Ayhan, Mithat Cemal Kuntay, and Refik Halid, have mentioned the Grand Bazaar in their works and poems.
Sometimes it appears in Orhan Veli’s Kapalı Kutu or in Kemal Tahir’s Yol Ayrımı, where he writes: “Even those with only one cabinet in the Cevahir Bedesteni were counted among the lucky ones who lived in prosperity from their income. Many would say, 'I wish I had two cabinets in the Bedesten rather than three wives, a bathhouse, five mansions, and four fields!', because the inns could be without guests, the baths without patrons, the mansions could be empty, and the fields neglected, but the tenants of the cabinets were always present."
Edip Cansever, who spent 30 years of his life in the Grand Bazaar, would observe its regulars with admiration, including acquaintances like Cihat Burak, and remark, "I wish I could learn about the Grand Bazaar from them in other words, indirectly learn about myself." Sezai Karakoç, with the verse "dream bazaars within the Grand Bazaar," expands the boundaries of the Grand Bazaar to infinity, freeing it from being merely an enclosed space.
Despite being featured in many poems, stories, and novels, the Grand Bazaar remains underappreciated in modern literature. One could even say that contemporary literature is lacking in Grand Bazaar references.