Bazaar

A bazaar (from Persian بازار (bāzār), meaning "market"; from Middle Persian بهاچار (bahā-chār), meaning "place of prices") is a permanent enclosed merchandising area, marketplace, or street of shops where goods and services are exchanged or sold. (A souq, by contrast, is an open-air marketplace or commercial quarter.) The term is sometimes also used to refer to the "network of merchants, bankers and craftsmen" who work that area. Although the current meaning of the word is believed to have originated in Persia, its use has spread and now has been accepted into the vernacular in countries around the world. The rise of large bazaars and stock trading centers in the Muslim World allowed the creation of new capitals and eventually new empires. New and wealthy cities such as Isfahan, Golconda, Samarkand, Cairo, Baghdad, and Timbuktu were founded along trade routes and bazaars.