Guide
The Spice Bazaar was built as the arasta of the Yeni Cami complex, to meet the mosque's costs. Work began in 1660 on the order of Turhan Sultan, mother of Mehmed IV, under the chief court architect Kâzım Ağa, and was completed in 1664 by the chief court architect Mustafa Ağa.
Seventeenth-century historians call it the New Bazaar and the Valide Bazaar. The name it carries now came later: the bazaar was built with revenues from Egypt, and because the goods and spices sold in its shops came mostly from there, it began to be called the Egyptian Bazaar from the middle of the eighteenth century.
In its early years the bazaar was assigned to two trades. Of its six gates, the Balık Pazarı, Hasırcılar and Ketenciler gates were given to the herbalists and the Yeni Cami, Haseki and Çiçek Pazarı gates to the cotton dealers. The upper floors of the main gates at either end housed the commercial courts that heard the legal disputes of the tradesmen with the public and among themselves.
Each shop had a wooden bench at the front and a store and workshop behind. Some carried a symbol on the eaves standing for the shop — a fire tower, a boat, an ostrich egg, a pair of scissors, a tassel — which made them easier to recognise.
The bazaar has burned twice in its history. Now about 400 years old, it was restored in 1940–43 and again in 2015–18. When a road was cut through the courtyard of the Yeni Cami in 1941, the bazaar and the mosque were separated from one another. Thousands of visitors come every day; the shops now sell mostly spices and Turkish delight, along with jewellery and gifts.
