on
which Mr White has imparted some novel information.

The space of ground occupied by the two great bezestans--the jewel or
arms' bezestan, and the silk bezestan--with the surrounding
_tcharshys_, and other buildings appropriated to trade, forms an
irregular quadrangle of about three hundred and fifty square yards, to
the north of the Mosque of Sultan Bajazet, and west of that of
Noor-Osmanya. "The bezestans originally consisted of isolated
buildings, each with four gates opening nearly to the cardinal points,
which were, and still are, designated after the trades carried on in
booths around or beneath their respective porches. By degrees new
shops, alleys, and enclosures clustered around the original depots,
until the whole were enclosed within walls, arched, roofed, and
provided with lock-up gates and posterns, of which there are twelve
large and about twenty small. They were then subjected to the same
syndical laws that regulate the police and administration of the
parent buildings." They are opened soon after dawn, and closed at
afternoon prayer; and the same regulations are observed at the _Missr
Tcharshy_, or Egyptian drug-market, hereafter to be noticed. The
jewel bezestan alone shuts at mid-day--the former occupants having
been principally janissaries, who held it beneath their dignity to
keep their shops open all day; on Fridays they are closed; and, during
Ramazan, are open only from mid-day to afternoon prayer. The silk
bezestan, being tenanted only by Armenians, is closed on Sundays, and
the saints' days of their calendar, amounting to nearly a fourth of
the year. "With the exception of the two bezestans, the bazars are not
surmounted by domes, the distinctive ornament of almost all public
edifices; ... so that the whole surface, when seen from the Serasker's
Tower, presents a vast area of tiles, without any architectural
relief, and exhibits a monotonous vacuum in the midst of the
surrounding noble mosques and lofty khans."

The Jewel or Arms' Bezestan (Djevahir or Silah-Bezestany) is the
oldest of these establishments, dating from the time of the conquest
by Mahommed II.; but, having been repeatedly destroyed by fire, the
present edifice of stone was constructed in 1708. It is a lofty oblong
quadrangular building, with fifteen cupolas and four arched gates--the
booksellers', the goldsmiths', the mercers', and the beltmakers'. The
interior consists of a broad alley, intersected by four transverse
alley