from the International Journal of Turkish Studies, I/1 1979-80, pp. 1-17.
Mehmed the Conqueror, in rebuilding Istanbul after its conquest, followed
the patterns laid down by his Middle Eastern predecessors.In its physical
structure the city was to have an "Islamic character" so that
the Muslim community could live in accordance with the prescriptions of
the Sharia. Thus a religious center with a congregational mosque was built
to be the focus of city life. Next to it were placed charitable institutions
directed toward the fulfillment of religious obligations. These included
imarets, or hospices for the poor and for travelers, and hospitals. To
finance these religious charitable institutions, a number of revenue-producing
establishments came into being on the principle of wakf (pious endowment).
These revenue-producing establishments were designed also to meet the social
and economic needs of the Muslim community.
In accordance with the traditional Middle Eastern view of state and society, the social structure of the city followed a set pattern. The city population was composedofthree major groups: the upper class attached to the Palace, including the military and the ulema, the merchant class engaged in both interregional and international trade; and the craftsmen. The latter two groups were reaya, the productive urban taxpayers. They differed from each other, however, not only in their economic activities but also in their legal status. The craftsmen were subjectto hisba, or market regulations; their supply of raw materials and rate of production was controlled, and their prices were fixed by the state. The merchants were not only exempt from hisba but were also encouraged to accumulate wealth by whatever activities they deemed proper.
The merchants were themselves divided into two classes: 'resident" and "travelling". The bedestan was the resident merchants' place of business; nearby were the khans or caravanserais where the traveling merchants lodged. Also nearby were the rows of shops (dukkan, hanut) where the craftsmen worked, each craft having its own row. Altogether these constituted the bazaar or suk). These two key groups -- merchants and craftsmen -- determined the social and economic character of every Ottoman city and of Islamic cities in general. Slaughter-houses, tanneries, oil presses,dye-houses and the like were established to provide materials and services needed by the craftsmen, while the population in general was served by wholesale markets (kapans or kabban) built to provide sources for flour, fruit, honey, oil, fish, vegetables, salt, coal, horses and slaves.
Apparently originating in the Greco-Roman basilica or kaiserion, the bedestan (or bazzazistan or qaysariyya, as it was called in Arab lands, Eastern Asia Minor and Iran) was the central building of the commercial part of the town. Because the bedestan was an institution linked to international trade, it existed in only the most important cities, and in Ottoman survey books the bedestan was always listed among the prominent institutions of a city. In fact, Evliya Celebi, in his work describing Ottoman cities, divides them into two classes -- cities with, and cities without a bedestan.
As a rule, the city with a bedestan was a center for international trade. It was generally densely populated and numbered among its inhabitants wealthy members of the ruling class and successful capitalist merchants who imported valuable wares. The construction of a bedestan in an otherwise unimportant town could assist considerably in the development of that town as a commercial center by attracting the big merchants, to whom the protection provided by a bedestan was vital. In fact, in many instances a bedestan was built on the initiative of the Ottoman government, or of some vizir or governor, for the purpose of promoting trade. On the other hand, a bedestan was sometimes built in response to the demands of merchants who, because of their economic success, felt the need for a place in the city in which they could conduct business with security.,As a rule, bedestans were built as wakf to provide revenue for charitable projects and the bazaar around it were constructed by the Sultan to foster the city's economic life and were part of the reconstruction of the city after its destruction during the conquest.
The specific economic functions of a bedestan were three. First, it was the place where the merchants' valuable imported wares, primarily textiles, were safely stored and sold. Second, it was the center where the resident merchants conducted their financial transactions and organized their overland caravans and commercial sea voyages. Third. the bedestan was the place where all sorts of valuables belonging to individuals -- principally jewelry and money -- were safely guarded under state protection in especialiy designed safes. In addition, the coffers of the bedestan served as the place of sakeeping for items held in trust; these included the fortunes of missing persons being held until a legal time period (bayt al-mal) had elapsed, trust funds for legally-protected minors such as orphans (yetim mali), and important documents concerning the city's inhabitants. In sum, the bedestans in many respects played the role of modern banks and exchanges. (As such, they were a favorite target of robbers.
Above all, the bedestan was the headquarters for the merchant guild trading in precious textiles (baz, thence bazzaz and bazazistan or bazzaziyya). The merchants of the bedestan held an imperial decree and a legal document from the cadi guaranteeing the monopoly privilege of their guild. They guarded this monopoly jealously. For example, in 1609, when wares of the type the merchants dealt in were being sold in drugstores (attar) in Galata, the merchants of that city's bedestan complained directly to the Sultan. ( In the mid-sixteenth century, however. the government eliminated the absolute monopoly over the sale of textiles, ruling that unless a special ferman were issued to the contrary, merchants could not prevent the sale of clothing outside the bedestan.)
Constructed to fill the specific functions of well-protected storage vault and major trade center, the bedestan building holds a unique place in the history of the development of Ottoman architecture. In its design it was no doubt similar to many other traditional, solid buildings of the Middle East. The oldest bedestans which survive today are those of Bursa, built under Orkhan and Bayezid I in the fourteenth century. The Ottoman bedestan was a compact stone building, square or, more often, rectangular in shape. with thick walls and lead-encased domes. It towered over the commercial district of the city like a fortress. Small windows were located in the upper part of its walls. There was usually one gate on each of its sides from which the broad streets (shahrah) of the bazaar radiated out in four directions. Inside, the bedestan was divided by thick pillars into square compartments. each of which had a dome over it. The compartments inside a bedestan numbered from four to twenty. Outside the bedestan there were shops set up against its walls, and the carsis, the rows of shops for the various crafts, were built nearby on both sides of the streets parallel to the axis of the bedestan. Outside of this complex additional rows of shops were constructed in squares or rectangles.
The Conqueror decided on the construction of the Istanbul Bedestan in 1456. Construction was completed in the winter of 1460-1461. Kritovoulos, a contemporary source, described the original bedestan as
"a very large and very fine market place near the center of the city near the Palace [the old Palace in the Forum Tauri . . . protected by very strong walls on the outside and divided on the inside into very beautiful and spacious colonnades."
In the Byzantine period, in this area on the Imperial Road (Mese) and near the Forum Constantini, there was a basilica where valuable wares were sold. However, the Bedestan and the Buyuk carsi (Great Bazaar or Covered Bazaar) of Istanbul appears to have been located to the west of the Byzantine construction. That the Bedestan and Grand Bazaar were originally built by the Conqueror is confirmed beyond a doubt by both the wakf registers and the statements of the Byzantine historian Kritovoulos. Furthermore, in its architectural features it is clearly the apex of a dcvelopment which can be followed through the earlier bedestans built in other Ottoman cities before 1453.
The first bedestan of Istanbul came to be known by various names. In the wakf registers of the Conqueror it is referred to as Dar al-Bazzaziya al-Djadida, or, simply, Bazzaziyya or Bazzdzistan. At a later period it was called the Eski-Bedestan ( Old Bedestan) or the Ic-Bedestan (Inner Bedestan) or the Djewahir-Bedestani (Jewelry Bedestan). According to the wakf register of Aya-Sofya, dated 1520, a second bedestan was built for the cotton cloth merchants (kirbascis). This was located to the east of the Old Bedestan and consisted of sixty shops inside and twelve shops outside. Later this was replaced by a larger structure with twenty domes where silks (sandal) were sold. The Sandal Bedestani, now the Auction Hall, was the largest bedestan of the Empire. The Old Bedestan remained, specializing in jewelry, furs, precious textiles and arms.
The most reliable and oldest sources on the Bedestan and the surrounding Bazaar are the wakf deeds and registers. According to a wakf deed of 1473, written in Arabic, the Bedestan contained 124 shops with coffers (sanduk), and outside it there were 72 shops occupied by various craftsmen. In the register, the rows of shops are listed as follows: the bazaar of silk merchants (suq al-kazzazin), the bazaar of the cap-makers (suq al-kallanisin or kavukcular ve takyeciler), the bazaar of used goods (bit-pazari), the bazaar of bootmakers (suq al-khaf3afin or kavaflar), the bazaar of saddlers (suq al-sarradjin), and the bazaar of cotton-wool dressers (suq al-halladjin).
According to a later "detailed" register drawn up in 1489 for the collection of wakf revenues, the bedestan then contained 126 shops inside, and there were 782 shops in the bazaars around it, for a total of 908 shops in all.
According to the register of 1520, the bedestan contained 126 shops with coffers and 15 corner shops (koshe) before it was destroyed by fire in 1516; when it was rebuilt after the fire, it housed 140 shops with coffers and 28 corner shops.
In a register of 19 July 1496 in which all of the wakfs of the Conqueror are listed, we find the following:
"Al-Ba_aiyya, located in Istanbul, the seat of thc Ottoman Sultanate, near the Imaret of the late Mahmud Pasha in the district of the Cakir-Agha Mosque, contains 128 sanduks with the dependent shops which are adjacent to it. Those in its environs occupied by cloth merchants, cap-makers, tailors, and others known as Bit-Pazari are altogether 849."
Fire destroyed the old Bedestan and the Great Bazaar on several occasions. On 17 Radjab 922 ( 16 August 1516), the Bedestan and about 1,000 shops around it burned down (as is indicated in the register of 1520). Most of the businessmen went bankrupt. Later fires in which the Bedestan and the Bit-Pazari were destroyed occurred on the following dates: April 25, 1546; April 19, 1588; November 20, 1652; December 4, 1701; and April 27, 1750. Following the great fire of 1701, the Bedestan itself was rebuilt, and the structure which Charles White saw in 1843 was thought to have keen a new building. E. H. Ayverdi is, however, of the opinion that in the rebuilding the basic structure of the fifteenth-century bedestan -- its walls, domes, and gates -- were preserved and still remained when Charles White saw the building.
One of the best descriptions of the bedestan of the sixteenth century is Dernschwam's. He states that there were two bedestans in Istanbul -- stone buildings with domes supported by pillars and with high windows -- in which all kinds of jewelry and silks were sold. Along the walls were wooden benches, two eln in width and one and one-half eln in height; on the benches against the walls were wooden boxes with gold-embroidered, colorful fabrics draped over them and valuable silks stored within them. The benches themselves were adorned with rugs and velvet pillows embroidered in gold, and some merchants had built annexes to their benches and spread rugs over them, making it almost impossible for three persons to walk abreast in the narrow ways between. In the bedestans were merchants of all nationalities -- Turks, Greeks, Armenians and others. They chatted amicably with each other, ate and played games together. The possession of a shop in the bedestan gave great prestige to its owner.
The two bedestans were considered the most chic and cosmopolitan places in Istanbul. As the demand for space in the Old Bedestan grew ever greater, the rents were raised accordingly. In addition, the competition for shops was so keen that one could easily sell one's right of occupancy for 5,000 gurugs--about 3,500 gold pieces. In the 1840's, however, the bedestan began to lose its central place in the city's commercial life as the new center at Beyoglu ( Pera ), where European goods were sold, gained in public favor. White states that at this time only Muslim merchants occupied the Old Bedestan, while the goodwill money customarily paid to get a shop in the Silk Bedestan dropped from 30,000 to 15,000 gurus.
Detailed information about the shop owners of the old Bedestan also is found in the survey registers nnade for the use of the djabi the collectors of wakf rents. According to the register of 1520, Muslims then occupied 123 of the total of 168 shops: 34 shops were rented by non-Muslims, and 5 corner shops and one sanduk shop were vacant. Bet'ul-maldjis (officials in charge of the properties which reverted to the state because there were no heirs) occupied two of the corner shops; a beyf'ul-mal emini (chief of the property officials) and a kassam of the kadiasker (an official whose duty it was to fix the shares of inheritances worth over 10,000 akcas and to collect taxes due the kadiasker) occupied one shop each. In another corner shop the surplus left over from the wakf revenues of the Aya-Sofya mosque was kept.
According to the registers of 1489 and 1520, the distribution of non-Muslims in the old Bedestan was as follows: 1489: Jews-5, Armenians-10, Greeks-3, Europeans-0, total-18; in 1520: Jews-18, Armenians-13, Greeks-2, Europeans-1; total-34.
The increase in the number of Jewish shopkeepers must be related to the arrival, after 1492, of large numbers of Jews from Spain, Portugal and Italy. Although it is noteworthy that the number of non-Muslims doubled in the thirty-one years between the registers, in the period as a whole the overwhelming majority of merchants in the Bedestan were Muslim.
It is not possible to show completely the distribution of Muslim merchants according to their social origins because in most cases no title is given next to the names in the register. In the register of 1520 there are no titles given for 66 of the 123 Muslim shop owners. It will be seen that twenty-seven of the identified members of the Old Bedestan society were members of the elite class. Besides the beys and ulema, there were two soldiers, i.e., the kapikulu who belonged to the ranks of artillerymen and of yayabashis (officers of a Janissary unit). Kaikulus are listed as shop owners (solaks and mehters) even in the register of 1489. In addition, the 1520 register lists thirteen celebis, i.e., the sons of persons in the elite class. Thus it appears that a rather high percentage of Muslim shop owners were probably from the upper classes.
It is noteworthy that Bali Bey and Sinan Bey each had two shops. Unless they had retired, it is unlikely that such members of the elite class conducted the business of their shops themselves. We know that usually slaves were employed in such capacity. The members of this upper class usually invested their capital in interregional trading ventures, either by overland caravans or by ship.
Other named members of the Bedestan included an 'amil (tax-farmer), a mutevelli (superintendent of a wakf), and a former muhtesib (market inspector). Tax-farmers and mutevellis usually invested their capital in interregional trading and acquired first-hand experience in commerce.
The professional merchants, the hodja, made up the largest group of tenants next to the elite amateurs. These invested their capital in trading expeditions for which they employed agents, both free men and slaves. The Ottoman hodjas, big merchants who, after the conquest, came to Istanbul from Edirne, Bursa and Ankara, played a central role in the development of Ottoman Istanbul by fostering the city's economic life through their business activities as well as by establishing wakfs, mahalles and commercial districts. Seven merchants of the Old Bedestan were originally craftsmen: they included three booksellers (sahhafs), one watchmaker, one coppersmith, one carpenter, and one tailor.
One shop owner was a woman, Gulnar Badji. In later registers women were frequently found on the list of craftsmen and traders owning shops in the bedestan. In the female slave trade women were conspicuously active.
As for foreign occupants, among the non-Muslims the name of an efrendj Djoromi is listed. Here the term efrendj obviously refers to an Italian. Foreign Muslim merchants were referred to as Arabs or Persians. We know that in this period merchants from Damascus and Aleppo and silk merchants from Iran occupied an important place in Ottoman commercial life. From the time of the Conqueror on, the Ottomans strongly encouraged the settlement of foreign merchants in the capital.
The Bedestan was under the general supervision of the imperial endowments de- partment; however, the merchants doing business there had formed a guild corporation and, according to Evliya Celebi (ca. 1638) the Bedestan was under the direct administration of an elected body composed of "shaykhs, nakibs, duadjis and one kethuda. In addition it is stated that there were 300 [?] broker-criers (dellal) operating inside the Bedestan and 200 [?] outside; that 70 [?] night watchmen (pasban) patrolled the building; and that 300 [?] porters (hammal) were in service outside the Bedestan. It should be remembered, however, that the figures given by Evliya are usually grossly exaggerated. In the wakf deeds of 1496 the number of night watchmen is given as 4 only.
Because of the importance of their respective services, the broker-criers and the night watchmen were appointed by the Sultan's diploma (berat) and kept under constant supervision by the public authorities. Other workers were required to show guarantors (kefil) at the time of their appointment.
According to Charles White, who left a first-hand, detailed report of the organization and operation of the Bedestan corporation, those in direct charge included one shaykh or kahya, one deputy inspector (nakib) and six elders:
"The kahya receives a small salary from the company, and other emoluments, such as may be derived from fines levied on those who transgress rules or attempt to pass off spurious articles, calculated to bring the trade into disrepute . . . The intendent and deputy are charged with matters of policy and are chosen by the Esnaf (members of the guild), to watch over their interests. They determine factory and market prices."
The kayha was responsible before the government for the good behaviour of the guild members and for their strict compliance with the regulations and with the Sultan's orders. Whenever there was an infringement of their rights, or the rights of members of associated trades around the Bedestan, guild representatives went to the court of the eadi, who usually sat at the Mahmud Pasha mosque nearby, to make their representations. As a rule, the cadi then reported the matter to the Sultan and awaited his orders before taking action.
The Bedestan was open for business every day from early morning until noon (during Ramadan until the time for afternoon prayers). The watchmen cried out the call to noonday prayer and patrolled inside the Bedestan to make sure that no one remained inside. A prospective seller would seek out the chief broker-crier, inform him of the minimum price he would accept, and register the sale. Then the seller's goods would be caMied around the market by a one of the numerous broker-criers who would try to get the highest price by asking for bids. "Half of the broker-criers sell goods by auction within the walls, and others perambulate the contiguous arcades for the same purpose."
When valuables were deposited for safekeeping in the Bedestan, an inventory was made and the goods were delivered in trust to the syndics. In return for this scrvice, the syndics collected a small fee from the owner at the time of withdrawal. Sometimes goods were unclaimed and became the property of the Bedestan. (However, in 1843 a new regulation required that unclaimed fortunes be turned over to the government.)
On each side of the four great streets radiating from the old Bedestan and of the streets parallel to them, rows of shops were built for traders and craftsmen. The number of these shops increased from 782 in 1489, to 849 in 1496, and to 1,011 in 1520. The monthly rent from all of these amounted in 1489 to 15,395 akca and in 1520 to 34,153 akca. The Great Bazaar was planned as an extension of the Bedestan. As the rents from the shops belonged to the Aya-Sofya endowment, the mutevelli the trustee for the endowment, was the direct supervisor of the shops. According to the register of 1520, the distribution of the shops was as shown in the table following this article. In the table, corner shops, some 74 in number, are not listed separately. It should be noted that the shops in a street facing a certain craft usually belonged to that craft and that some individuals owned more than one shop, while some shops were operated as partnerships.
In the seventeenth century, according to Evliya Celebi, the Bazaar attached to the Bedestan included the following craft guilds. European woolen cloth dealers (ukadjis), satin dealers (mostly Jews), brocade dealers (debadjls), velvet weavers (katifedjis), cushion dealers (yasdikdjis), danayi silk weavers (darayidjis), silk garment dealers (hilatdjis), shawl and girdle dealers (kushakdjis), aladja weavers (aladjadjis), bath cloth weavers (peshtimaldjis), kemkha dealers, dimi dealers, cotton cloth weavers (bezdjis), boghasi weavers, textile merchants (ba-zazan), carpet dealers (khalidjis), felt dealers (abadjis), coarse woolen cloth dealers (kebedjis), mohair cloak dealers (sof-ihramdjis), mohair dealers (sofdjis). the Soldiers' Bazaar (Sipah Pazari), the Bit-Pazari for used goods, the Women's Bazaar (Avret Pazari), and the middlemen (meyandjis); in the shops immediately outside the Bedestan were jewelers, makers of gold and silver thread (klabdandjis and sirmadjis), fine cotton textile dealers (boghasidjis), silk dealers (kazzaz), cap-makers (takyedjis) and booksellers (sahhafs).In parades each of these guilds marched as an independent group within the company of the Old Bedestan guild.
The Bit-Pazari always preserved its separate identity, although in the wakf register White, in describing the Bit-Pazari in the 1840's, states that at this lime used clothing was sold there. and retired Janissaries and Palace gardeners constituted the majority of the merchants. The merchants of the Bit-Pazari were prosperous; they sold expensive dresses, furs, and girdles and loaned money against the security of goods at rates of 10 to 20 percent. The Bif-Pazari had its own kethuda or kahya and its own criers. White also states that the street-sellers who displayed their used goods outside the Bit-Pazari were more numerous than the regular merchants inside.
It should be noted that there were also other major commercial centers and buildings around the Old Bedestan and the Great Bazaar. To the east was a block of 220 shops known as the Mahmud Pasha Dukkanlari (Counting the shops around and behind it, the total was 265.) To the south was the caravanserai called Suleyman Pasha Odalari, commonly known as the Slave Market (Esir Pazari). To the west were the Bodrum Kervansarayi, the Horse Market, and the carsi of the bow-and-arrow-makers. Crafts related to horses and horsemanship as a whole constituted a major branch of Ottoman industry. Before the Conqueror built his own mosque and the Sultan Pazari to serve as the new commercial center of Istanbul, the horse market and ancillary crafts were located to the west of the Old Bedestan. In 1470, when the sarrachane with its 110 shops was built near the Sultan Pazari, the Conqueror gave a monopoly in saddlemaking and other related crafts to the guild of the sarrachane. The register of 1493 lists 146 saddlers, all Muslims, some of them Janissaries, working in the sarrachane
. More recent statistical data on the Great Bazaar is given by Osman Ergin. In the 1940's, the Buyuk carsi covered an area of 30,700 square meters and included 3,000 shops. If those rooms in the hans used as workshops and shops are included in this total, the figure reaches 4,000. Around the Bazaar there originally existed twenty-one hans, six of which were destroyed by earthquakes. Most of these hans were connected with the streets of the Bazaar and thus became an integral part of it. In the Bazaar itself are five small mosques, one school, seven fountains, one well, one running stream, and one public fountain with a basin. The Great Bazaar has eighteen gates to the outside.
Department of History, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois