Bazaari (

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

: بازاری) is the merchant class and workers of bazaars, the traditional marketplaces of

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. Bazaari are involved in "petty trade of a traditional, or nearly traditional, kind, centered on the bazaar and its Islamic culture". They have been described as "the class of people who helped make the 1979

Iranian Revolution The Iranian Revolution ( fa, انقلاب ایران, Enqelâb-e Irân, ), also known as the Islamic Revolution ( fa, انقلاب اسلامی, Enqelâb-e Eslâmī), was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dyna ...

".A Bazaari's World
Robert D. Kaplan, ATLANTIC MAGAZINE, March 1996 A broader, more recent definition includes traditional merchants outside of Iran, "a social class...in places where the society is in the midst of an awkward modernization; where the bazaar is in some stage of transition between the world of '' A Thousand and One Nights'' and that of the suburban

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...

", an example being traditional merchants (also Muslim) who back the Muslim Brotherhood in

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

. However, it has also been noted that merchants in other Middle Eastern countries are predominantly minority non-Muslim populations without the political influence of bazaari in Iran. Bazaari differ from a social class as usually defined, in that they include both "rich wholesalers and bankers" as well as lower-income workers. They are united not in their relation to the means of production but "in their resistance to dependence on the

West West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

and the spread of Western ways", their "traditionalist attitude", and their "close family, financial, and cultural ties" with the Shia

ulama In Islam, the ''ulama'' (; ar, علماء ', singular ', "scholar", literally "the learned ones", also spelled ''ulema''; feminine: ''alimah'' ingularand ''aalimath'' lural are the guardians, transmitters, and interpreters of religious ...

, or clerical class. Bazaari, "led by its large merchants", in alliance with

clergy "or important parts of the clergy", have played an important part in recent Iranian history. The alliance was "central" to the successful

Tobacco Protest The Persian Tobacco Protest (Persian: نهضت تنباکو ''nehzat-e tanbāku'') was a Shia Muslim revolt in Iran against an 1890 tobacco concession granted by Nasir al-Din Shah of Persia to the United Kingdom, granting British control over g ...

against a British monopoly tobacco concession of 1891–92, to the Constitutional Revolution of 1905–11, and especially to the 1979 overthrow of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.Better than the past, What recent history has taught Iranians
By Nikki Keddie, April 25, 2003, ''The Iranian'' Bazaari supported victims of the anti-Shah struggles in 1978 and their families, as well as providing "financial support for the antiregime strikes that began in May 1978 among university students and teachers and in the fall

f 1978 F, or f, is the sixth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ef'' (pronounced ), and the plural is ''efs''. Hist ...

spread to the workers and civil servants".
Modern Iran
' By Nikki R. Keddie, p.228 The bazaari continue to underpin the ruling elite today, one example being Noor Foundation Director Mohsen Rafighdoost, whose wealth has been described by American journalist

Robert D. Kaplan Robert David Kaplan (born June 23, 1952) is an American author. His books are on politics, primarily foreign affairs, and travel. His work over three decades has appeared in ''The Atlantic'', ''The Washington Post'', ''The New York Times'', ''The ...

as likely to amount to "tens or hundreds of millions of dollars".

References

{{Reflist Bazaars Economy of Iran

See also

References