Edirne Bedesteni

The Edirne Bedesten is the covered market building that stands right next to the Old Mosque and is counted among the oldest surviving Ottoman bedestens. According to the Culture Portal, it was built in 1417-1418 by Sultan Mehmed I as an endowment for the Old Mosque. The TDV Encyclopedia of Islam notes that construction is also said to have begun under Musa Çelebi. The income from the bedesten's rents was meant to cover the expenses of its large neighbour, the mosque. Seeing the two buildings together is therefore the easiest way to understand how places of worship and trade were tied to each other through endowments in an Ottoman city. A bedesten is the thick-walled, strongly gated section of an Ottoman market where the most valuable goods were kept and sold. The TDV article on Edirne notes that, as in most Ottoman cities, the centre of trade in Edirne was a bedesten. Evliya Çelebi wrote that the diamonds and jewels in this bedesten were worth several Egyptian treasuries and that sixty night watchmen guarded them. Even if this account is exaggerated, it shows well the building's place in the city's economy. The TDV article on Edirne counts this bedesten among the largest of all its kind. The building has a rectangular plan, and the Culture Portal gives its dimensions as 40.54 by 74.94 metres. It is roofed with fourteen domes arranged in two rows, and these domes are covered with lead. Inside, six piers set in a single row divide the space into fourteen bays. The TDV stresses that this arrangement closely resembles the Bursa Bedesten. Beneath each dome there is a pointed-arched window, and the interior is lit through these windows. The walls are built of alternating courses of stone and brick, so from outside the red and cream bands catch the eye at once. There is a gate on each of the building's four sides. Inside, fourteen vaulted cells line each of the long sides and four line each of the short sides. The TDV draws attention to how skilfully the shops at the gates and corners were fitted in. Although the building is plain, a little decoration can be seen on the exterior. Over time a wide trading district grew up around the bedesten. The TDV writes that, as in Istanbul and Ankara, many inns and markets were built around the bedesten in Edirne, and that the Selimiye and Ali Paşa arastas among them still stand today. Evliya Çelebi describes two separate bedestens in the city, an old and a new one, but only this building survives today. According to the TDV, when Evliya arrived in 1653 two of the domes of the other bedesten had already collapsed. That older building, thought possibly to date from the reign of Murad I, disappeared completely in the middle of the 19th century. According to the records, the bedesten was thoroughly repaired in 1897-98 with the help of Marshal Arif Paşa and most recently in 1965. According to the Culture Portal, the bedesten, repaired again in recent years, is once more used as a market today. As you walk through, try to look at the building itself rather than at the shops. Watch how the domes sit on the piers, how the light from the windows spreads beneath the domes and how deep the wall cells are. Outside, you can step to one corner of the building and photograph the stone and brick masonry together with the row of domes. The bedesten is in the city centre and can be reached in a few minutes by walking down from the Selimiye through the arasta. The Old Mosque is right next to it, and the Üç Şerefeli Mosque and the Ali Paşa Bazaar are a short walk away. As the market's opening hours may change, check current information from local sources. Added to a walk around the Selimiye, this is the most tangible doorway into the early Ottoman commercial life of Edirne.