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For
centuries, across vast windswept deserts and through rugged
outposts, the various peoples of the Islamic world traveled
by camel caravan to trade in the ancient marketplaces of Cairo,
Istanbul, Marrakesh and Fez. Fabulous wealth flowed from the
Middle East, long before the age of oil sheiks and the OPEC
cartel. Located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa,
the Great Bazaar was the golden child of the cradle of civilization.
Today
the Great Bazaars are struggling against an onslaught of economic
and cultural changes that imperils their historic significance
within the Islamic world. Despite their threatened existence,
the bazaars are still great centers of spiritual, cultural,
and material wealth-vanishing wonders to behold.
400,000
people continue to live and work inside the 1200 year old
bazaar of Fez, a place so steeped in the ancient ways that
even the automobile is forbidden. A heavy aura of danger and
mystery surrounds the snake charmers, acrobats, and fortune
tellers of the Marrakesh bazaar, the most renown entertainers
in all of Islam. In tiny shops beyond the tourist-dominated
sections of the Cairo bazaar, traditional Egyptian garments
are still ironed by foot, a vanishing trade that has been
dominated by the same families for generations. For the past
500 years, Istanbul has been home to the greatest of the Great
Bazaars, with over 500,000 people passing through its 18 gates
every day. But despite its massive size and traffic, the importance
of the Grand Bazaar of Istanbul is diminishing, as modern
Turks increasingly shun its twisting by-ways in favor of local
convenience stores and shopping malls.
Join
us, as we take you on the journey of a lifetime, across the
green-glaze tiled rooftops of Fez, through the cobbled lanes
and blind alleys of Cairo, past the jutting minarets and bilious
domed mosques of Istanbul, into the heart of ancient Islam-the
Great Bazaars. Enter a realm where religion and commerce are
intertwined, where every transaction is a choreographed ritual
of negotiation, where merchants and craftsmen keep alive ancient
traditions in their everyday trade. Discover what makes these
commercial centers the world’s most sacred marketplaces.
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