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markets of the Islamic cities are one of the greatest achievements of the Islamic civilisation and are not to be found in other countries. At the time Islam ruled over a large part of the world, Bazaars had become a common feature of the cities governed by Islam. Economy and religion are the two principal pillars of the Islamic Bazaars, which symbolise their difference from other markets.

Upon mentioning the word BAZAAR, any Easterner unconsciously is reminded of a place where the ceiling lets beautiful rays of sun shine from the ceiling downward at given intervals. On either side of it is situated a collection of stores. The delicious smells of various spices, the cries of sellers of goods and their customers, and the rhythmic sound of hammers of artists are associated in the mind.

The word "Bazaar" was used in the Sassanid Pahlavi texts in the form of WAZAR, and in combinations such as WAZARG (of the bazaar), WAZARGAN (business person), WAZARGANIEH (Commercial), WAZARBAD (head of the bazaar). Afterwards, this Farsi word was introduced in other languages and found similar linguistic application. As a sample the equivalent of the word BAZAAR is given below several living languages, which are in fact the same word in other forms:

English: BAZAAR, French: BAZAR, Portuguese-Spanish: BAZAR, Arabic- Hungarian: Pazar, and VAZAR, Indian: BAZAR, Turkish: Bazar and Pazar.

It would appear that the universal fame of the Constantinople markets and the significant part they played in the trade between countries and, in particular, the trade between West and East had an important part in the widespread usage of this word in European languages.

The rise of city and the advent of urbanisation in the East has a very long history and, in certain regions, it reaches the Neolithic age. It is certain that the creation of cities was based not only on the growth of population but also on the increase of production which brought about the growth of trade and accumulation of wealth. In Iran, together with the growth of population and joining together of villages, in the fourth millennium, urbanisation took shape, and thereafter, we have witnessed economic growth and trade even with far away lands.

Specialisation of occupations and the requirements of the primary societies brought about transactions and over time a special place was specified for this purpose that eventually gave form to Bazaar. These Bazaars were expanded and were turned into the place for transaction of the goods of several villages close together. By its expansion a specific district was created whose inhabitants were experts in various professions and merchants. Such districts were conventionally called the Bazaar of the city. The ancient Shush at its inception was a good example. Thus the Bazaar became the inseparable part of each city and the place for the exchange of commercial goods from near and far off places.

Certain significant and primary parts of a collective Bazaar, such as Rasteh, Chaharsou, the dome ceiling and Caravanserai go back to the oldest dates of history, The Bazaar plan in the form of Chaharsou (Crossway), with two roofed perpendicular corridors and ceramic bricks ceilings remain from the fourth millennium B.C. Archaeological discoveries provide reliable evidence of the remnants of the districts of tradesmen of two thousand years ago at Shush. Caravanserai whose construction principles led to the development of the city bazaar and some of its branches are very old. Sufficient historical evidence assure its existence at the edge of great Caravan Roads at the time of Akhamenids.

Following the Muslim conquest and formation of the Islamic Caliphate, very expansive lands with varying races were governed by a single government. Thereafter, the new and dynamic period of Islam commenced. Upon commencement of this period the motives for urban growth and the new arts of city construction found more efficiency in the new combination of urban growth in Iran, Egypt and Anatolia with the spirituality of Islam.

Scholars studying the characteristics of the Islamic cities, in trying to present an ideal type, have compared cities with the pre-Islamic examples or such cities that were built up contemporaneously with Islam, and have pointed to characteristics common among them which show the identity and singularity of these cities. The Bazaars of the Islamic cities are among the greatest products of the Islamic civilisation which were without similarity in the ancient east, as well as in Greece, ancient Rome or the Europe of Middle ages. At the time Islam gained control over a large part of the world, Bazaar became a common feature of the cities under its government.

It follows that the speciality and originality of an Islamic city was in the commercial constructions that are gathered in a compressed space in a uniform and continuous form in the centre of the city. Even today, despite the apparent changes, it still brings to mind the originality of an Islamic city. It follows that the Islamic Bazaars were a self-grown phenomenon that were shaped on the basis of the material necessities of the society, economy and religion in the city texture along a longitudinal line, with one or several axes. In this connection economy and religion may be considered the two basic elements which, from the very beginning of the establishment of Islamic Bazaars, intervened together in the expansion of the Bazaar. They remain the basic element of difference between the operation of this kind of Bazaars and other Bazaars (luxury and modern markets in the Islamic countries and the markets of non-Islamic nations).

Local research, based on scientific methods in the conditions of the present Bazaars in the cities which have adopted very little from the western cities and have further preserved the method of their past and their traditional form of economy, will very probably identify the conditions of the Bazaars after the 13th (19th Century). The architecture and form of buildings in these Bazaars today scarcely go back beyond the 10th/17th Century. Nevertheless, it is certain that the perfected form of the Bazaars in the 13th/19th century is the outcome of long and gradual development and evolution over several centuries ago. However, our knowledge of the physical and functional specialities of the Bazaars prior to these centuries is very little and depends somewhat on archaeological evidence and a little more on historical and geographical references and literary texts.

a) The historical context

Tehran, one of the northern villages of the historic city of Rey, had an indeterminate existence prior to Islam. After Islam, where reference is made to Doulab and Aliabad and Tarasht no mention is made of Tehran. Ibn Balkhi for the first time refers in 510/1131 A.D. to Tehran when describing the good quality of its pomegranates. Then little by little the name of the greatest present city of Iran is mentioned in history and historical geography texts.

After the Mongul, Ilkhanid, and Timurid era, Tehran gained fame during the Safavids period as a village comprising 12 small districts not at peace with each other, whose inhabitants passed their time by marauding and stealing the properties of caravans. What may be extracted from historic texts is that the first houses of Tehranis were underground, mostly in the form of refuges in which the inhabitants concealed the properties and foodstuffs they plundered. Around this pleasant, habitable, yet warm village, beautiful gardens with tall and mingled plane trees gradually were grown. As a result, a number of European travellers referred to it as the city of plane trees, just as Istanbul was referred to as the city of Cypress. Following the rise of the Qajar dynasty and its choice of Tehran as the Capital, its dignity and glory increased day by day until today that it is one of the greatest cities of the world.

It is probable that a small section of the present day Bazaar complex in Tehran was the original nucleus of the Tehran habitable village prior to the Safavids and Shah Tahmasb period. During the reign of this king, along with the building of towers and fortifications the Bazaar was also built up. At the time part of the Bazaar was enclosed and the other part was open. In this connection, Thomas Herbert who visited the Bazaar of Tehran in 1039/1660 A.D. described it in the following two fashions. The original Bazaar of Tehran stretched from Sabzeh Meidan to Molavi Avenue, and two well-known Chaharsous (crossway), named the Big and the Little Chaharsous were built in 1228/1849 and 1243/1864 respectively. Gradually , caravanserais, timchehs (arcades), SARAs, BARANDAZ, GOZARs and DALANs (closed bazaars, houses, docks, passages and corridors) were constructed in the Bazaar. Included in this category are: the Mahdieh Timcheh, with a two storey quadrangle building which is probably the oldest Timcheh of Tehran; Saray-e-Amir, known as Atabakieh with 336 chambers that was built in 1267/1888 by the order of Mirza Taghi Khan Amir Kabir; the Rasteh Bazaar of Mirza Taghi Khan that was built in 1268/1889, with two rows of hat makers and shoe-makers; Hajeb-od-doleh Timcheh, remaining from Haj Ali Khan Hajeb-od-doleh (Etemad-os-Saltaneh); and Nasser-ed-Din Shah's Executioner, a very famous and most beautiful Timcheh of Iran.

All were built in the lower Bazaar of Tehran. Thus, the wide and expanded network of the Bazaar of Tehran was extended from the south of Arg up to Molavi Avenue. In this expanded network, the components of the Bazaar (Timchehs, houses, rows, corridors, docks, caravanserais) appeared together with buildings such as mosques, schools, bath-houses with beautiful patterns. In the course of expansion of the city and changes in city structures, a number of passages disappeared. From the 36 Bazaars of that time, a number of bazaars, including the Khandag (moat) Bazaar, the Perfume Sellers Bazaar, the Chicken Sellers Bazaar and the Galoubandak Bazaar disappeared with the avenue constructions at the time of Reza Shah. A number of these bazaars, including the can makers and the goldsmiths, were shortened and rendered smaller. Likewise, a number of them gave way to other occupations due to changes in the mode of life of the society. Such were the Bazaars of Weavers and the Boat Scribers which were close to the leather Bazaar on the southeast of the Larger Chaharsou.

The most important existing bazaars of Tehran include Udlajan, cloth sellers, shoemakers, goldsmiths, ironsmiths, copper smiths, Abbas-Abad, Bein-ol-Haramein, Cheheltan (the oldest row dating to Fath-Ali Shah's reign), the Larger Chaharsou, Masjed Jame, Hazrati, Pachenar etc.

In the buildings of the rows and other units related to the Tehran Bazaar complex, we witness the creation of functional and beautiful spaces of architecture, as regards the patterns, volume and facade. This phenomenon, unfortunately, suffered from the beginning of the 14th/20th century onwards because of the unharmonious growth of the Bazaar, with unprincipled alterations and the use of materials without harmony. The Bazaar has suffered greatly. The attention paid by designers and architects to the creation of coverage over certain sections of the Bazaar, including the crossways and specifically the Timchehs, for the purpose of eliminating monotonousness is quite apparent. In this connection various methods have been employed. These include decorative portals of houses and Timchehs, decorative and colourful plaster moulding under the dome-like ceilings which include various plant designs and beautiful brick decorations.

In conclusion, I quote a comment by Ursels, a European tourist who visited the Bazaar of Tehran in 1261/1882: "From Sabzeh Meidan the Bazaar may be entered from two glorious entrances. The Bazaar in itself was one city as regards the population. It took in during the day twenty to twenty-five thousand people... The wide and labyrinthine passage ways stood under brick domes with small windows." Ursell continues in detail to describe the Bazaars of the coppersmiths, perfume-sellers, fruit-sellers, carpet-sellers, arms and antique sellers, and the volume of a great many and diverse transactions.