MEI Kaleidoscope | Souks: The Heart of Traditional Urban Life in the Middle East

By Zafirah Mohamed Zein

10 April 2018

 

Although familiar to visitors of Middle Eastern cities as tourist attractions that brim with local goods and souvenirs, the origins of the souk trace its way back to the evolution of Islamic societies of the past and the burgeoning of the region as commercial centers of trade. The traditional souk was not just a market but an “economic institution, a communication network and a way of life, a general mode of commercial activity reaching into many aspects of the Arab society.”

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