The scent of jasmine, roasting mutton, hazelnuts,
cinnamon, musk-scented kaitafs, rosewater, ambergris,
and flowers fills the air.
Noise assaults you from every
direction: Drum players, hagglers, street preachers,
camels, musicians, and children can be heard in a
gentle cacophony.
Bright peaches, tasty
raisins, cane sugar, figs, olives, seacoast
lemons, yellow and red apples, and baby cucumbers
tantalize the eyes.
Merchants sit on stone blocks
within their stands, hawking their wares to passersby:
merchants from Al-Wajh, Qadir, Minas, Barat,
Al-Zirah, Afif, Al-Tarin, Al-Faddir, Selatan,
Ar Rawdah, Jubbah, and Hafa.
The urban souk is the commercial quarter, a tight mass
of buildings squeezed into narrow streets barely wide
enough for two laden animals to pass each other. At
the center of the souk is a plaza where performers put
on their acts and criers announce news. Here you can
find messengers, mourners, beggars, thugs, laborers,
and other hired help. Among the desert tribes, a
souk is a weekly market in small towns where tribal
conflicts have a temporary truce. In Aramidia it is known
as a bazaar, and is often covered.
Haggling is an art, and a merchant may be insulted if you
do not haggle, possibly refusing to sell the item altogether.
Of course, after a trade is closed, everyone is expected
to complain about how they were had. Do not be
deceived by merchants using such guilt tactics!
Driving a hard bargain is skill which no woman or
man should be without.
