Places of Trade in the Ottoman Empire: From the 1417 Edirne Bedesten to the Kapan

The places of trade in the Ottoman Empire consisted of the bedesten, the arasta, the bazaar (çarşı), the han, the caravanserai, the kapan and the market. Each had its own function. Valuable goods were sold in the bedesten, grain and provisions were weighed at the kapan, and merchants lodged in the han. Most of these buildings were built to provide income for a pious endowment (waqf) and stood at the center of urban life.

Quick Summary

Because they resemble one another, the places of trade in the Ottoman Empire are often confused.
The bedesten was a covered market where expensive goods such as jewelry and fine fabrics were sold.
The arasta was a market street lined with the shops of tradesmen practicing the same craft.
The word kapan means “large scale, steelyard” and was the center of the grain trade.
Most bedestens and arastas were sources of income for a mosque or an endowment.

What were the places of trade?
The bedesten
The arasta
The han and the caravanserai
The kapan
Markets and fairs
The link between endowments and trade
Supervision and the narh
Frequently asked questions

What Were the Places of Trade in the Ottoman Empire?

Because their functions were close to one another, the places of trade in the Ottoman Empire are often confused today. The TDV Encyclopedia of Islam also notes that the bedesten is often mistaken for a bazaar, a han or even a caravanserai. It is therefore necessary first to know what each building was for.

According to the encyclopedia, a bazaar consisted of one or more streets lined on both sides with shops. In cities, commercial areas and the mosque formed the center of social life. Bazaars usually clustered around the bedesten, and the fabric of the city took shape accordingly.

The Bedesten: The Market of Valuable Goods

Among the places of trade in the Ottoman Empire, the bedesten was where the most valuable goods were sold. According to the encyclopedia, the word derives from “bezzazistan” or “bezistan.” In Arabic, a “bezzaz” is a seller of cloth. Jewelry, precious stones, weapons, ornate harness and expensive fabrics were sold in the bedestens.

Bedestens were thick-walled, domed buildings with iron doors. According to the encyclopedia, merchants kept not only their valuable goods there but also their strongboxes, papers and account books. The documents of the craft guilds were also kept in the bedesten. Some bedestens even provided services similar to those of today’s banks.

According to the encyclopedia, the interior of a bedesten was divided into sections by arches resting on thick square piers, and the sections were covered with domes. Light entered through a few upper windows with iron shutters. In the Grand Bedesten in Istanbul, eight massive piers divide the interior into fifteen equal bays.

According to the encyclopedia, the Bursa Bedesten was built by Bayezid I to provide income for his charitable foundations. The Edirne Bedesten was built in 1417–1418, in the reign of Mehmed I, as an endowment of the Old Mosque (Eskicami). Mehmed II built the Grand Bedesten in Istanbul between 1453 and 1481. Also called the Cevahir (Jewel) Bedesten, this building became the core of the Grand Bazaar that grew up around it over time. Mehmed II also built a bedesten in Galata attached to his own endowment.

Interior of a historic Ottoman bedesten, one of the main places of trade, with pointed-arched stone vaults

The Arasta: The Market of a Single Trade

According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, the word arasta comes from the Persian verb “arasten” (to arrange, to put in order). At first it was used in the sense of “a market set up in an army camp.” Arastas usually consisted of shops selling the same goods, so they were known by names such as “the furriers’ arasta” or “the spice sellers’ arasta.” Unlike bedestens, they had no storerooms or cellar cells.

According to the encyclopedia, the arastas of the Selimiye in Edirne and of Payas also had a prayer dome, where the tradesmen swore every morning to trade honestly. Arastas were smaller than bedestens, and less valuable goods were sold there. The arasta in Lüleburgaz is nearly 250 meters long. Covered arastas had a gate at each end of the street.

The Han and the Caravanserai

According to the encyclopedia, hans and caravanserais were originally built as staging posts on roads outside the cities. The first examples were not built for commercial purposes but as charitable works, to earn religious merit by serving travelers. After the caravanserais of the Seljuk period, large staging complexes were also built along the roads. According to the encyclopedia, towns and even cities grew up around some of these complexes over time. Among the local people, the caravanserais in such places were mistakenly called bedestens as well.

Hans inside the cities, on the other hand, were buildings where merchants bringing goods from elsewhere lodged with their goods and animals. According to the encyclopedia, they were mostly buildings housing a particular group of tradesmen or merchants together. Craftsmen also worked and sold their goods in the hans. Bursa, the center of the silk trade, is known for hans of this kind.

We discussed the place of the caravan routes in world trade in our article on the Silk and Spice Roads.

The Kapan: Where Provisions Were Weighed

The kapan was the place where provisions arriving in the city, such as flour, oil and honey, were weighed and distributed. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, the word literally means “large scale, steelyard.” It is suggested that the word passed from the Latin “campana” into Persian and from there into Arabic as “kabban.” The explanation “meeting place” found in some sources is therefore incorrect.

According to the encyclopedia, large kapans were built in Istanbul after its conquest. The Flour Kapan (Un Kapanı), established in the reign of Mehmed II, survives today as the name of a neighborhood. The oil kapan was in Galata. Merchants who traded in provisions were called “kapan merchants.” According to the encyclopedia, in the mid-eighteenth century these merchants met more than ninety percent of Istanbul’s grain needs.

The grain arriving at the kapan was sorted by type and recorded in the kapan registers. Once its price had been set, it was distributed in the presence of the guild representatives. According to the encyclopedia, the weighing fee that municipalities collect today is a continuation of the old kapan tax. Kapan operations were at first carried out on behalf of the state by officials such as the emin, the naib and the kethüda. Because of financial crises, the kapans were eventually farmed out (iltizam).

Markets and Fairs

In small towns and rural areas, markets were held on certain days of the week. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, the large markets where goods brought from distant places were sold were called “panayır,” a word of Greek origin. The word “piyasa,” which came from Italian, also refers to the market in a broad sense.

The taxes collected at markets were generally known as “bac.” According to the encyclopedia, the records of market dues (bac-ı pazar) and market inspection (ihtisabiye) are of great importance for establishing that a market existed. We described the tax burden of villages and towns in our article on tax units.

The Link between Endowments and Trade

The places of trade in the Ottoman Empire were often built to provide income for an endowment. According to the encyclopedia, arastas were built to provide income for mosques and other charitable works. One reason they were built next to mosques was to draw congregations to the mosque and bring life to the area. The shop rents, in turn, covered the expenses of institutions such as mosques, madrasas and public kitchens (imaret).

Thanks to this system, trade and social services were linked. Every rent payment in the bazaar indirectly supported a charitable institution as well. We discussed how the endowment system worked in detail in our article on the waqf system.

Supervision and the Narh

The places of trade in the Ottoman Empire were under strict supervision. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, the narh was the setting of an official price ceiling to keep prices from exceeding certain limits. In a broad sense, the narh also covers the setting of minimum and fixed prices. According to the encyclopedia, the market inspector (muhtesib) also took part in setting prices and the narh in the markets.

The kadi announced the narh, and tradesmen were checked for compliance. The tradesmen, for their part, took part in this process through representatives such as the kethüda and the yiğitbaşı. We described the kadis’ duties in the bazaars and markets in our article on the duties of the kadi.

A Brief Comparison

The functions of the main commercial buildings are summarized in the table below.

Place	Function	Example
Bedesten	Sale and storage of valuable goods	Grand Bedesten, Istanbul
Arasta	Shops of a single trade	Selimiye Arasta, Edirne
Bazaar	Streets lined with shops	The bazaar of Bursa
Han	Lodging for merchants and trade in goods	Emir Han, Bursa
Caravanserai	Lodging on the road	Seljuk caravanserais
Kapan	Weighing and distribution of provisions	Flour Kapan, Istanbul
Market	Place of sale held on certain days	Weekly neighborhood markets

Frequently Asked Questions

What were the places of trade in the Ottoman Empire?

The main ones were the bedesten, the arasta, the bazaar, the han, the caravanserai, the kapan and the market. Each met a different commercial need.

Why were the places of trade in the Ottoman Empire linked to endowments?

Most bedestens and arastas were built to provide income for charitable institutions such as mosques and madrasas. The shop rents covered the expenses of these institutions.

What is the difference between a bedesten and an arasta?

Valuable goods such as jewelry and expensive fabrics were sold in the bedesten. In the arasta, less valuable goods were sold, and the shops were usually lined up along a single street.

What does kapan mean?

Kapan means “large scale, steelyard.” The name was given to the places where provisions were weighed and distributed.

Conclusion

The places of trade in the Ottoman Empire were cornerstones of urban life and the economy. The bedesten protected valuable goods, the arasta brought tradesmen together and the kapan regulated the city’s provisions. Hans and caravanserais made merchants’ journeys safe. By providing income for endowments, most of these buildings also brought trade together with social services.