BAZAAR OF THE COPPERSMITHS, CAIRO. 
The Nahas’m is the district occupied by the coppersmiths, and lies not far from the 
Mooristan, and in the same line of street leading from the Gate of the Metwalys. 
Mosques bound the streets, and beneath their walls shops, forming the bazaar, are 
niched in, as we see the sheds of dealers clustering and deforming the cathedral 
churches of France. Above we see the open loggias, which are the school-rooms 
attached to the mosques, sheltered by striped awnings or matting, and over all, the 
minaret, singular in its form, but whether intended to be so by the fancy of the 
architect, or truncated from a fear of insecurity if the weight of materials had been 
increased by its being carried higher, it is difficult to determine; the fluting ingeniously 
conceals the failure, if it were one, and gives a not unpleasing character to this form 
of a stunted minaret. 
Such objects as the bazaars of Cairo afford to the pencil are often chosen for 
their picturesqueness by the artist, and never fail to illustrate the local character 
of Oriental domestic architecture, as well as the costumes and pursuits of its inhabitants; 
and where at every turn views and objects present themselves of which he desires 
to possess memorials, a selection from them cannot easily be made from what is 
interesting only for its civic importance, or historical associations; and though three 
or four street scenes and five or six mosques may characterise the domestic and 
sacred architecture of Cairo, the folio formed by the artist is so rich in the pic¬ 
turesqueness of his subjects, that for such a publication as this it is difficult to make 
a selection in which the picturesque and the important shall be found together. 
The Bazaar of the Coppersmiths is one of those local arrangements of the trades 
in the East, where those who require such articles have the benefit of a larger 
choice in a district chiefly occupied by the manufacturers or vendors of particular 
wares,— a custom which still exists in many of the cities even of Western Europe. 
Our bankers in Lombard Street, silkweavers in Spitalfields, watchmakers in Clerkenwell, 
and coachmakers in Long Acre, are probably relics with us of the same custom. 
The Bazaar of the Silkweavers of Cairo has been already illustrated, that presented 
other objects besides the shops or stalls of the dealers below; this appropriation of 
certain places or districts to certain callings is in no place more striking than at 
Cairo. Some, as in what is called the Turkish Bazaai', furnish, like that of our 
men’s mercers, only the dresses of the men; others all that could be found rich 
and elegant for the decoration of beauty, together with every article of the toilet 
of an Eastern hareem — the Howell and James’s, in fact, of the capital of Egypt; 
but apart from this general bazaar, at another, literally called the Hair-oil Bazaar, 
are sold only perfumes, oils, scents, and decorations for the hair. At another arms 
are obtained, fine Damascus blades of the “ ice-brook’s temper,” aud pistols and 
