Keshavarzian 213recreational, and culinary. Many of these establishments catered to the
bazaari community, although the mixed-use nature of the bazaar brought
merchants in contact with society at large and other publics, in particular
the clergy.
e bazaar’s intimate work environment helped generate a social Th
milieu wherein people of all walks of life did more than simply occupy the
same physical location; they also engaged each other because of it. Open
storefronts lining narrow alleys allowed passersby, whether customers or
colleagues, to stop by and compare goods and prices, exchange economic
news, inquire about potential exchange and credit partners, or trade
political intrigue and predictions. This open quality encouraged and even
obliged people to acknowledge each other’s existence and allowed them
to observe and judge the activities of others, whether they were strangers,
relatives, neighbors, guild elders, competitors, or partners. In fact, per-
sonal interactions almost necessitated ritualistic small talk about families,
the weather, and politics before turning to business matters. Bazaaris were
together on a regular basis while they ate meals, drank tea, prayed, or sat
around in each other’s shops socializing. Potential cleavages along class,
sectoral, and ethnic divisions were also prevented by casual social interac-
tions that did not completely map onto social segmentation. The compact
morphology allowed “eyes to be upon the streets,”^26 and enhanced the
sense that the bazaar was a transparent and whole world in plain view of
all its members.
s openness and accessibility, however, also was accompanied by Thi
a strong sense of bazaari distinctiveness and a set of exclusions that were
articulated by spatial categories and networks. The morphology of the
bazaar and the highly embedded nature of the economy was the facilita-
tor of what researchers working on the bazaar in the prerevolutionary era
often identified as a strong sense of “we” among bazaaris.^27 Participation
in the multiplicity of facets of bazaar life instilled in its members norms
of cooperation and solidarity. It was the participation in these poly centric
multifaceted networks that brought diverse bazaari groups together to
shape the way people thought of themselves and others who were “of
the bazaar.” Thus, place is productive in that it and networks mutually
structure one another. Bazaaris and businessmen made, and to some
extent continue to make, a distinct difference between the bazaar and