Truth, Vision, and the Market: Selling Religion in the Suqs of Damascus
This article examines merchants' shop displays in the marketplaces of Damascus, Syria, with a focus on Islamic texts and images. In Damascus, most merchants' businesses, from the air-conditioned to the mobile vending cart, are decorated with a wide range of religious props, photographs, po...
| Published in: | Material religion |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Taylor & Francis
[2016]
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| In: |
Material religion
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| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Damascus
/ Market place
/ Decoration
/ Islam
/ Text
/ Picture
/ Votive figure
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| RelBib Classification: | AG Religious life; material religion BJ Islam KBL Near East and North Africa |
| Further subjects: | B
Islam
B Visual Culture B MARKETPLACES B Syria B Decoration B Display |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
| Summary: | This article examines merchants' shop displays in the marketplaces of Damascus, Syria, with a focus on Islamic texts and images. In Damascus, most merchants' businesses, from the air-conditioned to the mobile vending cart, are decorated with a wide range of religious props, photographs, posters, and texts hung on walls, displayed on desks, and nestled amongst merchandise. Though it would be easy to dismiss this décor as a kind of inconsequential backdrop, I suggest that these displays, packed with symbolism and local meaning, play roles in the selling process that go beyond mere decoration. This in part has to do with their visual nature, which allows merchants to convey important characteristics about themselves in ways that words cannot. It also has to do with their religious nature, which gives the displays the ability to transform people, merchandise, and shop space through their connection to God. In short, these displays exist as a counterbalance to the work of bargaining, hawking, and other kinds of verbal selling tactics. Though most studies of markets focus on these kinds of verbal exchanges, I argue here that the visual side of marketplace transactions is just as central to the selling process. |
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| ISSN: | 1751-8342 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Material religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/17432200.2016.1227641 |