Tashkent bazaars
A bazaar (from Persian (ba-za-r), meaning "market"; from Middle Persian (baha--cha-r), 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.
In North America and the United Kingdom, the term can be used as a synonym for a "rummage sale", to describe charity fundraising events held by churches or other community organizations, in which donated used goods (such as books, clothes, and household items) are sold for low prices, or else the goods may be new and handcrafted (or home-baked), as at a church or other organisation's Christmas bazaar.
The East ... How many things this single word connonates, and eastern bazaars dawn up first and foremost. Even in ancient times bazaars were a place where people gathered not only to trade but also to exchange news, share joys, meet with friends in the many tea houses, spread in all bazaars. Many bazaars in the East were not only centers of commercial life, but also the city life. They were the places where the firmans (decrees) of rulers were announced, where the criminals were punished or pardoned, where folk celebrations were held. The Registan Square in Samarkand is one of examples of such bazaars, in the 19th century it hosted trade rows and Bukharan trade domes, that were was not only a place for purchase and sale, but also a place to meet and exchange news.
Bazaars were astonishingly diverse. There were rows of silk, which sold a variety of silk from India and China, as well handicraft rows, where one could buy ceramic, copper, iron ware, precious metals, and it was only a small part of what the Eastern bazaars were rich with. Most of the old bazaars of Uzbekistan are located on the branches of the Silk Road and have a very ancient history. So many of the Khorezm bazaars have a history dating back to the 6-10th century, some of Samarkand, Bukhara bazaars can also be referred to the same period.
As a capital of Uzbekistan Tashkent has a couple of huge bazaars and many smaller neighborhood ones. Here you see more of the real Asian environment. Especially in summer it is a joy to visit the bazaars with all their colors and nice spicy smells. Sometimes they are noisy and crowded. There you can buy everything i.e. vegetables, fruit, potatoes and meat. But also beer, soft drinks, liquor, clothes, shoes, carpets etc. You have to visit them regularly to know what they sell and to find what you are looking for. It is common to bargain a little bit about the prices. Check your own neighborhood there will be at least a "mini-bazaar".
