The Grand Bazaar Istanbul

Overheard conversation, woman in a tour group, ‘It’s a tourist trap. Everything’s over priced. Bargain to get the prices down. Be careful. Watch for pickpockets.’

Of course it’s a tourist trap, has been for over five hundred years. It’s also a delight, a wonder, a cornucopia of goods, an enchanting diversion with vast and endless halls. There are sixty-one covered walkways, over 4,000 shops, dozens of coffee and tea shops, restaurants, cafes, kebab houses, and a score of water fountains, some of them marble.

In the Grand Bazaar there are mountains of gold jewelry, a pasha’s wealth of silks, crystals, emeralds and diamonds, leather jackets and shoes with turned up toes, handmade leather luggage with pick proof locks, Turkish carpets – even flying carpets, an antique dagger with ivory handle once owned by one of the sultan’s wives, ancient Byzantine gold coins, an icon of St. Joseph painted by a Greek artist in 1510, Turkish Delight, a candy created for a sultan, sandalwood, frankincense and myrrh, musk, rosewater, perfumes, colored lanterns, porcelain vases, samovars and copper pots for Turkish coffee, underwear and umbrellas, lacy linen handkerchiefs, silver cigarette cases and pocket watches and sword canes from the 19th Century. If you cannot find it in The Grand Bazaar, you probably don’t need it.

The Grand Bazaar is a place to get happily lost, and to be drawn into shops by seductive merchants who have learned their trade from generations of master merchants before them, merchants who have served local people and explorers and travelers for centuries.

To engage with a merchant of the Grand Bazaar is to take a part in a play; sometimes a drama, perhaps a comedy, occasionally a tragedy; a play that has been running since Shakespeare’s work was first performed. Soft voices, cajoling and seductive, draw you in. Merchants more courteous than any diplomat invite you for tea and to sit, rest, take your time, take the merchants time. He has nothing more important in his life than to talk with you and while away the hours. If by chance, Inshalla, you happen to buy something, he will give you the best price possible and make sure the item you purchase is the very best of its kind. If you do not buy, he will be devastated, but will recover, place his hand over his heart will swear that you will always be welcome in his humble shop, whether you buy or not.

Here’s the thing – he means it. Return in a month or a year and he will remember your name, welcome you with a smile, ask about your family, send for tea, talk with you and pass the time. Maybe one day you will become a customer, Inshalla. If not, it is as it is, and you will still be welcome. Always.

Of course, there are hustlers. Beware of the kebab stands outside the bazaar. The food is good, but the prices triple if you sit at a table. There are no pickpockets. The Grand Bazaar is well policed. But do bargain. Gently. Politely.