A Trade Center for 558 Years: Grand Bazaar
With a history of more than five hundred years, Grand Bazaar is an important trade center of Istanbul and Turkey. Though its contemporaries are now used as a museum, the Grand Bazaar continues to be a frequently visited place for many people, still maintaining the importance of the first day. Fatih Kurtulmuş, Chairman of the Grand Bazaar's Executive Board, whose family has been trading in the Grand Bazaar for three generations told us the journey of Grand Bazaar from the past to the present.
Kurtulmuş, who gave information about the history of the Bazaar, pointed out that it was founded 558 years ago by Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror, to meet the expenses of the Saint Sophia Mosque at the time.
"The Bazaar Through which the World Passes”
Stating that the Grand Bazaar is both a historical site and setting and one of the important centers where the Ahi tradition is still kept alive today, Kurtulmuş emphasized that the Grand Bazaar, a market place through which the world passes, is one of the three or four touristic places that one would recall when Istanbul is mentioned.
The Grand Bazaar, which has 22 gates, includes bazaars where valuable goods are sold and workshops where production is continued. The Bazaar includes a total of 2 thousand 486 workplaces belonging to 62 occupational sub-groups that can be classified under 29 main groups. A great majority of these shops are selling carpets, jewelry, leather products, touristic goods and textile products. There are also 18 inns within the Grand Bazaar.
Recently you can see shops in the Grand Bazaar selling products such as mobile phone accessories, which have entered into our lives with the advancement of technology.
“The Tradesmen of the Grand Bazaar Maintain the Traditions of the Ahi Community”
The guild system and the Ahi tradition, which were part of the Ottoman Empire's government system and controlled the opening of a defined number of shops according to the needs, were applied in the Grand Bazaar during the Ottoman period.
Kurtulmuş said that in that system, apprentices, journeymen, and masters were trained in each line of business, and a person who received his certificate of mastery could open his own shop only after a certain period of time. Kurtulmuş also stated that this was an educational process and that the traditions of solidarity and collaboration of the Ahi culture are still maintained in the Bazaar, but that the education process has now been delegated to schools.
300 thousand visitors in the Grand Bazaar
The roof restoration and infrastructural repairs of the Grand Bazaar were started in 2016 with the contributions of Governor's Office of Istanbul, Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and Fatih Municipality, and the restoration of the Grand Bazaar was completed after 603 working days.
The Grand Bazaar, which is rushed by local and foreign tourists and a popular destination for those who visit Istanbul, is visited by averagely 150 thousand people a day, and this figure may rise to 300 thousand in summer.
