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Aynalı Çarşı (Mirrored Bazaar), Çanakkale (Canakkale), Turkey
The Aynalı Çarşı or ‘Mirrored Bazaar’ is a covered market filled from one end to the other with shops selling anything one would hope to buy as verifiable truth of traveling. The name ‘Mirrored Bazaar’ is said to be derived from the mirrors placed at the entrance and along the walls to distribute light entering from the skylights. However, others claim this to be a romanticization, and credit the name to the selling of eyeglasses or “mirrors” as they were so called. [1]
Description
A bilingual inscription in Ladino* and Turkish upon the façade commemorates merchant Elijah Haliyo who hailed from a prominent Jewish family in Çanakkale. At a time of steady population growth of the Jewish population in the city, the bazaar was built in 1889 with Haliyo’s generous funding. [2] Modeled after the famous Spice Bazaar in Istanbul, diaphragm arches line the walls, face one another across the long walkway, and break the pattern of stones. [3]
Among the merchants who populated the marketplace, Jewish tradesmen occupied shops and sold goods. A minute’s walk south from the bazaar took one to the city’s ports. A shorter distance to the east leads to the city’s two synagogues, only one of which still functions, the Mekor Hayyim. Nearby, a fish depot once provided fresh seafood, while the local Jewish bakery still produces sweets.**
The Jewish Community of Canakkale
Sephardim settled in Çanakkale sometime in the seventeenth century, yet the Jewish population continued to grow as the city itself expanded its economic possibilities. Situated along the narrows of Dardanelles, sharing waters with the Aegean Sea, the city supported a diverse trading market and so sustained the necessary professionals, among them Jewish porters, grocers, herbalists, tailors, tinsmiths, and butchers, among others. [4]
By the end of the nineteenth century, the community more than tripled in size, from 550 in 1820 to 1,805 in 1894. [3] Amidst this growth, a fire in 1845 resulted in swaths of the city being destroyed including the entire Jewish quarter. Battles and occupation during WWI severely damaged the structure which was later occupied by the British during the Gallipoli Campaign from April 1915 to January 1916, who used the structure for horse stables. Pogroms in 1934 caused a broad emigration of Jews out of Thrace to Israel or to Istanbul, undermining the Jewish community’s capability to advocate for their needs. In 1985, there were 35 Jews who made up the community, and only a few in the 2000s. [5] [6] The Aynalı Çarşı stands as evidence of the dwindling community’s perseverance, an architectural symbol of prosperity and continuity of community following disaster.
*Ladino, or Judaeo-Spanish, is a Romance language derived from Old Spanish and the predominant language of Ottoman Jews and Sephardim
**Observation by comparing local points on the Diarna archive map
Çanakkale (Canakkale), Turkey
© Mapbox, © OpenStreetMap
Sources
Notes
[1] Zeynep Büge Koç, “Aynalı Çarşı / Çanakkale,” tatilname.blogspot.com, (2010).
[1] Omer Turan, “Çanakkale”, in: Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World, Executive Editor Norman A. Stillman, (2010). Accessed July 22, 2018.
[2] Isabel Miszczak, Gallipoli Peninsula and the Troad: TAN Travel Guide, ASLAN Publishing House, (2017). Accessed July 22, 2018.
[3] Turan, “Çanakkale”.
[4] Turan, “Çanakkale”.
[5] Turan, “Çanakkale”.
[6] Lenore Skenazy, “The Road to Çanakkale: In Search of Turkish Roots,” The Washington Post, (Feb. 17, 1985).
Bibliography
Büge Koç, Zeynep, “Aynalı Çarşı / Çanakkale,” tatilname.blogspot.com, (2010). Accessed July 23, 2018.
Miszczak, Isabel, Gallipoli Peninsula and the Troad: TAN Travel Guide, ASLAN Publishing House, (2017). Accessed July 22, 2018.
Skenazy, Lenore, “The Road to Çanakkale: In Search of Turkish Roots,” The Washington Post, (Feb. 17, 1985). Accessed July 23, 2018.
Turan, Omer, “Çanakkale”, in: Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World, Executive Editor Norman A. Stillman, (2010). Accessed July 22, 2018.
Write up written and prepared by Michelle Abraamian, summer 2018.
Coordinates from winter 2017 trip.