Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Other principles applied to the organi-
sation of shops in a market took into
account nontopographical considerations.
For instance, Ibn al-
⁄
awzī (d. 597/1200),
writing about the markets of Ba
∞
dād,
noted that in the markets of al-Kar
¶
the
perfumers did not associate with traders
selling noisome goods nor with sellers of
fancy or of secondhand goods. People of
refined culture lived in special residen-
tial areas. No working-class people lived
in the Saffron Road (
darb al-zafarān
) in
Kar
¶
; the only residents there were the
cloth merchants and perfume traders.
The segregation of the traders in prod-
ucts that smelled nice (perfumes, sweets,
jewellery, silk cloth, etc.) from those deal-
ing in smelly things, such as tanners,
dyers, garbage collectors and bric-à-brac
merchants, was a principle which seems
to have been widely applied in laying
out these markets. Such social custom,
according to Massignon, was responsible
for the practice of housing the markets of
the jewellers (
sū al-ā
∞
a
) with those of the
money-changers (
sū al-ayārif
). Another
reason for grouping the shops of jewel-
lers and money-changers together was
probably the fact that these commercial
enterprises were monopolised by Jews and
Christians.
Al-
·
ayzarī's views on the topographi-
cal organisation of markets, in which shops
and workshops were grouped together for
manufacturing or selling similar goods,
reflect the broadly-accepted principles
followed by Arab town-planners in the
early Islamic period. Our knowledge of
the early Irāī markets goes back to the
1st/7th century, when Bara and Kūfa
were laid out using these principles,
according to al-abarī.
Bara was founded in 16/637 on the
site of the base camp established by Utba
b.
fi
azwān, whose first action was to
select the site of the mosque. At the same
time, Bilāl b. Abī Burda marked out a
makeshift market, which was gradually
expanded, thus contributing to Bara's
success as a trading centre.
It seems that a site for the town's mar-
ket was not originally allocated. The gov-
ernor Abd Allāh b. Āmir later chose a
particular site, which came to be known
as
sū Abd Allāh
. His successor Ziyād b.
Abīhi encouraged the settlers to establish
a permanent market. The
sū Abd Allāh
,
which was located within the residential
quarters, proved inadequate for a rising
population, and the old market was trans-
ferred to the Bilāl canal (
nahr Bilāl
). Most
of the early markets of Bara were on des-
ignated open space, and permanent shops
(
ānūt
) were not built until the 3rd/9th
century.
During the 1st-2nd/7th-8th centu-
ries Bara's markets selling specialised
wares were located in a single space or
road; for instance, the leather market
(
sū al-dabbā
∞
īn
(lit. tanners' market), the
camel market (
sū al-ibl
), market of the
straw sellers (
sū al-tabbānīn
) and the lock-
smith's market (
sū al-affālin
). The Mir-
bad market was situated at the caravan
station on the edge of the desert, where
town-dwellers and Bedouin gathered to
sell camels and other animals and to lis-
ten to poets reciting poems and orators
speaking on current affairs. By the 3rd-
4th/9th-10th centuries, the great market
(
sū al-kabīr
) was located at the junction
between the Mail Canal and the Ibn
Umar Canal, where a variety of prod-
ucts, including glassware, bottles, combs,
textiles, cooked food, flour, fish, fruits and
vegetables were sold. Carpenters and tai-
lors also had their shops there. The shore
market (
sū al-kallā
) lay in the residential
area along the Fayl canal. It also had a
food market (
sū al-ām
), which sold flour,
rice, dates, meat, vinegar and secondhand
goods. In addition, there was a money-
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