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The Bezistan in Skopje
The Bezistan (Bedestan) is one of the most interesting objects of the Old Skopje Bazar and witness to the great economic importance of this part of the city with a covered market, with narrow, covered and half-dark streets. It always consisted of large number of craftsmen shops with manufactured goods and textile fabrics brought from the East. The Bezistan, id certain periods, had functions depending on the size of the city and its needs. The Bezistan was the center of the trade life of the city. The bazaar was formed around him. From the incomes that were collected, for instance from the rented shops, the Skopje bezistan maintained the endowments of the legator.
Bezistans, in general, were structures of Oriental type. They were massive and impressive objects built mostly from stone. The very word bezistan, which is of Arab-Persian origin: bez, meaning cloth in Arabic and Persian word stan meaning shop, place, indicates that it was at the beginning exclusively dedicated for selling of cloth. But in time, the bezistan begun to include shops for selling of other materials and even to lodge craftsmen workshops. The Skopje bezistan, as we see it today, is a relatively new building. Nevertheless, both the original records as well as the literature tells us that the spot where the Skopje bezistan is situated today, another older building existed from early times.
The date of the construction of the initial Bezistan can be found on the inscription which is placed at the main doorway of the bezistan. The inscription is engraved on a stone panel with dimensions 0.92 m x 0.45 m and it is written in verses in Ottoman-Turkish.
As it may be seen, the inscription gives more data. From this inscription we find out that it is not the original one and that on its place there was another bezistan and that the Bezistan, as the city of Skopje itself and the Old Bazaar, were not immune to destruction and calamities. Thus, the present Bezistan with its outlook, it’s build on the very spot of the original one built by Ishak Beg, the duke of Skopje and it was waqf or endowmend of his mosque, the Ishak Beg or the Decorated Mosque also built in the 15th century.
It is interesting to note that in the waqfnamah of 1445 regarding the Decorated Mosque in Skopje, endowment of Ishak Beg, among the entire property that Ishak Beg dedicated or endowed for the maintenance of the imarat and the madrasah that he built in Skopje, the Bezistan is not specifically mentioned. Nevertheless, the text of the waqfnamah mentions 24 shops which are endowed, and which are situated at the center of the Bazaar, surrounded on all sides by streets. Elezovic considers that these shops relate to the present Bezistan at the Skopje Old Bazaar. But, in the waqfnamah of the madrasah and of the guest house, endowments of Isa Beg in Skopje dating 1469, the bezistan is specifically mentioned as an endowment of his father Ishak Beg. In it it’s written: “Again, also, the abovementioned donor (legator) endows for the needs of the abovementioned madrasah and the guest house within Skopje 19 of his big shops in front of the Hammam, by the very Bezistan, endowment of the abovementioned deceased Ishak Beg...”
Beside the fact that the inscription determines indirectly the time of the construction of the Bezistan it, also, give us records about the time of reconstruction and who made the reconstruction. Contrary to the opinion by Salih Asim, former mayor of the city of Skopje, who wrote that there was only two mutewalli who reconstructed the Bezistan , the inscription gives us the names of three mutawallis: Haji Husein, Osman and Yashar Beg, as those who reconstructed the present Bezistan.
In the records of some travelers who visited Skopje we notice short remarks about the Bezistan. Hence, for instance, Evliya Chelebi, who was in Skopje by the mid 17th century, in his travel memoirs noted in his typical language: “There is a Bezistan which is beautiful that tongues and pens can not describe. It is as strong fortress with iron gates on both entries, and built with cupolas. The tradesmen who work in the Bezistan with imported goods, burn incense for the visitors in sparkle them with rose oil. Thus one’s mind is even more drunk by the aroma of musk, grey amber, camphor and hyacinth.
The English traveler Dr. Edward Brown, who traveled around the countries of the Ottoman Empire in 1669, in his description of Skopje among others notes that there is a beautiful Bezistan in the city covered with lead, while his compatriot, Evans in 1885 regarding the Skopje Bezistan noted that it is in ruins and that it is Byzantium building. He also gives a drawing of the image of the former Bezistan but, unfortunately, in ruins.
With regard to the Skopje Bezistan, it must be noted that frequently the word bezistan is frequently mixed up with the word charshi (bazaar), han (inn) and caravan-saray. Thus, in the literature we have examples when the Kurshumli-han is called bezistan. Also, in the literature we encounter examples when the Skopje Bazaar is named bezistan. Probable due to this mixing up, Hadji Vasilevic in his book wrote that in previous centuries, during the Turkish time, Skopje had several bezistans.
For this mixing up tells us the waqfnamah for the madrasah and the guest house, endowments of Isa Beg, son of Ishak Beg in Skopje of 1469, which says: “And the abovementioned legator enacted as follows: to the ministrant who takes care about the cleanness of the saka-hane built on Serava near to his Bezistan, one aspra per day...” This information clearly tells us if the mentioned Bezistan is the one of Ishak Beg that Isa Beg inherited with the remaining property from his father, or is it maybe a newly-constructed bezistan by him, for which we have no other data. It may well be the Suli-han, analogously to the above notice about mixing up the terms han with bezistan. In the waqfnamah of Kaçanikli Mehmed-Pasha dating from the beginning of the 17th century, while enumerating the property which was endowed, also, it is written that he has endowed the raf room in the bezistan which was built by the late vaiz Emir-efendi that is situated on the left side of the gate that opens on the both sides of the cloth-workers. From this derives that there were indeed two bezistans in Skopje. But, it is a well established that one city could have more hans and arastas, and only one bezistan. The bezistan was the center of the trade life of the city. Around it the bazaar was formed. The trade life was formed around the bezistan in the same way as the religious life was formed around the mosque. The bezistan, as the mosque, was one of the most important buildings in the city – concludes L. K. Bogojevic.
The bezistan in Skopje belonged, as we already saw, to the waqf of Ishak Beg, his founder. From the incomes collected from the Bezistan, by giving renting the shops, the endowments of the legator were maintained. It is managed, as all other endowment objects, by the mutevellis. The shopkeepers at the Bezistan had high and special prestige at the Bazaar. At the lengthy inventory book of 1453/4 of the waqfnameh of the late Ishak Beg under the title “The endowment (waqf) property of the imaret and Ishak Beg madrasah in Skopje”, among the registered incomes of the waqf properties of 88 shops and the Bezistan with 48 treasuries (vaults) in an amount of 8,316 akçe, an annual income of 11,040 akçes is recorded, and in the year 1481 the annual rent of the Bezistan with 52 treasuries (vaults) reached 12,276 akçes.
From the presented data it is clear that today’s Bezistan at the Skopje Old Bazaar is a new object, built on the foundations and walls of the old Bezistan from the 15th century, occupying the same space as the former one had. As a proof for the existence of the older Bezistan, beside the data that we find in the literature and in the inscription, remains of the old fashion masonry can be found on several spots in the massive walls of the building. The present bezistan construction has a square shape. In its interior is an open corridor from where can be entered in the two-storey shops placed side by side by the large walls of the building.
The shops are covered with twofaceted roof. At the central part of the Bezistan there are two smaller duplex isolated objects. Four large entries are open to the interior of the Bezistan from the streets: Belgrade, Drvar, 694 and 106. The entries are placed on the middle of each façade.
During the rehabilitation interventions made in 1964 and 1965, while processing the floors, the walls of the old Bezistan were discovered, his foundations as well as the remains of the bottom of the two pillars at the central area of the present bezistan. Several sounding leads were placed in the direction of the discovered remains so the outlines of the old building were drawn. Under the present level of the Bezistan appeared the walls with utterly fine and precise masonry, with alternate placing of stone and several rows in bricks which contributed to the great decoration in masonry. The masonry work was the same as in all monumental buildings of the Islamic architecture from 15th and 16th century in Skopje. The foundations of these old walls of the Bezistan from the 15th century appeared in the depth of 0.95 cm and are of the present level. At the same depth are discovered the foundations of the two great pillars at the center of the Bezistan. Also, the marble threshold of one of the entry gates of the old bezistan has been found, right under the present doorway from Belgrad str., and from it towards the interior of the Bezistan appeared some nicely arranged panels, also of marble, a part of the old-time tiling of the Bezistan. On several spots on the floors in present premises manhole covers were made, and with their lifting the walls of the old building.
It is not attested, but it is presumed that due to the preservation of the outlines of the old bezistan during the construction of the new one, the present four entries of the Bezistan correspond to the old entries, and this is proven Evans’ drawing in which one of the side entries can be noticed, as well as the information which tells that since the time of its foundation the Bezistan was situated on four streets. Accordingly, the old Bezistan had also four entries.
The Skopje Bezistan as well as the Brusa bezistan in Sarajevo was vaulted with 6 cupolas which were supported by two pillars and side walls. It is unknown whether our Bezistan over the two pillars had small cupolas like the Brusa bezistan. The space around the two huge pillars and four walls was divided by wooden screens creating shops, which were also covered by wooden ceilings. The wooden screens between the shops were easily movable, they could move by nexessity and hence the space could became wider or narrower. On the outside of the Bezistan, by all four façades, vaulted shops were constructed at the same time as the Bezistan.
The destruction of the old Skopje Bezistan was due to war destructions which Skopje suffered by the end of the 15th century, during the great disastrous fire in 1689. Remains of this disaster – sooty walls, cindered girders, ashes and pieces of charcoal were found continually during the diggings and discovering of the walls of the old object. The Ishak Beg’s Bezistan had a square shape and was of the vaulted type of bezistans, covered with a system of multiple cupolas. This is proved by the discovered lecterns of pillars, as well as from the remains of the vaults presented on the Evans’ drwaing. The thickness of the walls is around 2.6 m. The new Bezistan, erected upon the ruins of the former one, have the same dimensions as the old bezistan, i.e. it preserved the general dimensions of the walls , whose thickness now is around 0.5 m. The remaining width of the walls with a part of the corridor is used for the selling space – shops which are situated at bezistan’s interior. Around the remains of the two great pillars are constructed two duplex objects. The level of the old Bezistan was around 1 m deeper than the present level of the Bezistan and of the street. In a word, the present Bezistan in Skopje totally differs from the Bezistan build at the same location in the 15th century.
According to the inscription by Husein Beg, Osman Beg, Jashar Beg the present Bezistan is reconstructed from 1892-1893.
From what was said above, it may be rightfully concluded that the present Bezistan has been erected over the ruins of the former one and has the same dimensions as the old Bezistan, by preserving the old outside dimensions of the walls.
The Bezistan (Bedestan) is one of the most interesting objects of the Old Skopje Bazar and witness to the great economic importance of this part of the city with a covered market, with narrow, covered and half-dark streets. It always consisted of large number of craftsmen shops with manufactured goods and textile fabrics brought from the East. The Bezistan, id certain periods, had functions depending on the size of the city and its needs. The Bezistan was the center of the trade life of the city. The bazaar was formed around him. From the incomes that were collected, for instance from the rented shops, the Skopje bezistan maintained the endowments of the legator.
Bezistans, in general, were structures of Oriental type. They were massive and impressive objects built mostly from stone. The very word bezistan, which is of Arab-Persian origin: bez, meaning cloth in Arabic and Persian word stan meaning shop, place, indicates that it was at the beginning exclusively dedicated for selling of cloth. But in time, the bezistan begun to include shops for selling of other materials and even to lodge craftsmen workshops. The Skopje bezistan, as we see it today, is a relatively new building. Nevertheless, both the original records as well as the literature tells us that the spot where the Skopje bezistan is situated today, another older building existed from early times.
The date of the construction of the initial Bezistan can be found on the inscription which is placed at the main doorway of the bezistan. The inscription is engraved on a stone panel with dimensions 0.92 m x 0.45 m and it is written in verses in Ottoman-Turkish.
As it may be seen, the inscription gives more data. From this inscription we find out that it is not the original one and that on its place there was another bezistan and that the Bezistan, as the city of Skopje itself and the Old Bazaar, were not immune to destruction and calamities. Thus, the present Bezistan with its outlook, it’s build on the very spot of the original one built by Ishak Beg, the duke of Skopje and it was waqf or endowmend of his mosque, the Ishak Beg or the Decorated Mosque also built in the 15th century.
It is interesting to note that in the waqfnamah of 1445 regarding the Decorated Mosque in Skopje, endowment of Ishak Beg, among the entire property that Ishak Beg dedicated or endowed for the maintenance of the imarat and the madrasah that he built in Skopje, the Bezistan is not specifically mentioned. Nevertheless, the text of the waqfnamah mentions 24 shops which are endowed, and which are situated at the center of the Bazaar, surrounded on all sides by streets. Elezovic considers that these shops relate to the present Bezistan at the Skopje Old Bazaar. But, in the waqfnamah of the madrasah and of the guest house, endowments of Isa Beg in Skopje dating 1469, the bezistan is specifically mentioned as an endowment of his father Ishak Beg. In it it’s written: “Again, also, the abovementioned donor (legator) endows for the needs of the abovementioned madrasah and the guest house within Skopje 19 of his big shops in front of the Hammam, by the very Bezistan, endowment of the abovementioned deceased Ishak Beg...”
Beside the fact that the inscription determines indirectly the time of the construction of the Bezistan it, also, give us records about the time of reconstruction and who made the reconstruction. Contrary to the opinion by Salih Asim, former mayor of the city of Skopje, who wrote that there was only two mutewalli who reconstructed the Bezistan , the inscription gives us the names of three mutawallis: Haji Husein, Osman and Yashar Beg, as those who reconstructed the present Bezistan.
In the records of some travelers who visited Skopje we notice short remarks about the Bezistan. Hence, for instance, Evliya Chelebi, who was in Skopje by the mid 17th century, in his travel memoirs noted in his typical language: “There is a Bezistan which is beautiful that tongues and pens can not describe. It is as strong fortress with iron gates on both entries, and built with cupolas. The tradesmen who work in the Bezistan with imported goods, burn incense for the visitors in sparkle them with rose oil. Thus one’s mind is even more drunk by the aroma of musk, grey amber, camphor and hyacinth.
The English traveler Dr. Edward Brown, who traveled around the countries of the Ottoman Empire in 1669, in his description of Skopje among others notes that there is a beautiful Bezistan in the city covered with lead, while his compatriot, Evans in 1885 regarding the Skopje Bezistan noted that it is in ruins and that it is Byzantium building. He also gives a drawing of the image of the former Bezistan but, unfortunately, in ruins.
With regard to the Skopje Bezistan, it must be noted that frequently the word bezistan is frequently mixed up with the word charshi (bazaar), han (inn) and caravan-saray. Thus, in the literature we have examples when the Kurshumli-han is called bezistan. Also, in the literature we encounter examples when the Skopje Bazaar is named bezistan. Probable due to this mixing up, Hadji Vasilevic in his book wrote that in previous centuries, during the Turkish time, Skopje had several bezistans.
For this mixing up tells us the waqfnamah for the madrasah and the guest house, endowments of Isa Beg, son of Ishak Beg in Skopje of 1469, which says: “And the abovementioned legator enacted as follows: to the ministrant who takes care about the cleanness of the saka-hane built on Serava near to his Bezistan, one aspra per day...” This information clearly tells us if the mentioned Bezistan is the one of Ishak Beg that Isa Beg inherited with the remaining property from his father, or is it maybe a newly-constructed bezistan by him, for which we have no other data. It may well be the Suli-han, analogously to the above notice about mixing up the terms han with bezistan. In the waqfnamah of Kaçanikli Mehmed-Pasha dating from the beginning of the 17th century, while enumerating the property which was endowed, also, it is written that he has endowed the raf room in the bezistan which was built by the late vaiz Emir-efendi that is situated on the left side of the gate that opens on the both sides of the cloth-workers. From this derives that there were indeed two bezistans in Skopje. But, it is a well established that one city could have more hans and arastas, and only one bezistan. The bezistan was the center of the trade life of the city. Around it the bazaar was formed. The trade life was formed around the bezistan in the same way as the religious life was formed around the mosque. The bezistan, as the mosque, was one of the most important buildings in the city – concludes L. K. Bogojevic.
The bezistan in Skopje belonged, as we already saw, to the waqf of Ishak Beg, his founder. From the incomes collected from the Bezistan, by giving renting the shops, the endowments of the legator were maintained. It is managed, as all other endowment objects, by the mutevellis. The shopkeepers at the Bezistan had high and special prestige at the Bazaar. At the lengthy inventory book of 1453/4 of the waqfnameh of the late Ishak Beg under the title “The endowment (waqf) property of the imaret and Ishak Beg madrasah in Skopje”, among the registered incomes of the waqf properties of 88 shops and the Bezistan with 48 treasuries (vaults) in an amount of 8,316 akçe, an annual income of 11,040 akçes is recorded, and in the year 1481 the annual rent of the Bezistan with 52 treasuries (vaults) reached 12,276 akçes.
From the presented data it is clear that today’s Bezistan at the Skopje Old Bazaar is a new object, built on the foundations and walls of the old Bezistan from the 15th century, occupying the same space as the former one had. As a proof for the existence of the older Bezistan, beside the data that we find in the literature and in the inscription, remains of the old fashion masonry can be found on several spots in the massive walls of the building. The present bezistan construction has a square shape. In its interior is an open corridor from where can be entered in the two-storey shops placed side by side by the large walls of the building.
The shops are covered with twofaceted roof. At the central part of the Bezistan there are two smaller duplex isolated objects. Four large entries are open to the interior of the Bezistan from the streets: Belgrade, Drvar, 694 and 106. The entries are placed on the middle of each façade.
During the rehabilitation interventions made in 1964 and 1965, while processing the floors, the walls of the old Bezistan were discovered, his foundations as well as the remains of the bottom of the two pillars at the central area of the present bezistan. Several sounding leads were placed in the direction of the discovered remains so the outlines of the old building were drawn. Under the present level of the Bezistan appeared the walls with utterly fine and precise masonry, with alternate placing of stone and several rows in bricks which contributed to the great decoration in masonry. The masonry work was the same as in all monumental buildings of the Islamic architecture from 15th and 16th century in Skopje. The foundations of these old walls of the Bezistan from the 15th century appeared in the depth of 0.95 cm and are of the present level. At the same depth are discovered the foundations of the two great pillars at the center of the Bezistan. Also, the marble threshold of one of the entry gates of the old bezistan has been found, right under the present doorway from Belgrad str., and from it towards the interior of the Bezistan appeared some nicely arranged panels, also of marble, a part of the old-time tiling of the Bezistan. On several spots on the floors in present premises manhole covers were made, and with their lifting the walls of the old building.
It is not attested, but it is presumed that due to the preservation of the outlines of the old bezistan during the construction of the new one, the present four entries of the Bezistan correspond to the old entries, and this is proven Evans’ drawing in which one of the side entries can be noticed, as well as the information which tells that since the time of its foundation the Bezistan was situated on four streets. Accordingly, the old Bezistan had also four entries.
The Skopje Bezistan as well as the Brusa bezistan in Sarajevo was vaulted with 6 cupolas which were supported by two pillars and side walls. It is unknown whether our Bezistan over the two pillars had small cupolas like the Brusa bezistan. The space around the two huge pillars and four walls was divided by wooden screens creating shops, which were also covered by wooden ceilings. The wooden screens between the shops were easily movable, they could move by nexessity and hence the space could became wider or narrower. On the outside of the Bezistan, by all four façades, vaulted shops were constructed at the same time as the Bezistan.
The destruction of the old Skopje Bezistan was due to war destructions which Skopje suffered by the end of the 15th century, during the great disastrous fire in 1689. Remains of this disaster – sooty walls, cindered girders, ashes and pieces of charcoal were found continually during the diggings and discovering of the walls of the old object. The Ishak Beg’s Bezistan had a square shape and was of the vaulted type of bezistans, covered with a system of multiple cupolas. This is proved by the discovered lecterns of pillars, as well as from the remains of the vaults presented on the Evans’ drwaing. The thickness of the walls is around 2.6 m. The new Bezistan, erected upon the ruins of the former one, have the same dimensions as the old bezistan, i.e. it preserved the general dimensions of the walls , whose thickness now is around 0.5 m. The remaining width of the walls with a part of the corridor is used for the selling space – shops which are situated at bezistan’s interior. Around the remains of the two great pillars are constructed two duplex objects. The level of the old Bezistan was around 1 m deeper than the present level of the Bezistan and of the street. In a word, the present Bezistan in Skopje totally differs from the Bezistan build at the same location in the 15th century.
According to the inscription by Husein Beg, Osman Beg, Jashar Beg the present Bezistan is reconstructed from 1892-1893.
From what was said above, it may be rightfully concluded that the present Bezistan has been erected over the ruins of the former one and has the same dimensions as the old Bezistan, by preserving the old outside dimensions of the walls.