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...The peak of Skopje bazaar was 16th and 17th century when the city became a big commercial and cultural centre. The Turkish traveller and writer Evlija Celebija visited it during 1660-61 and gave elaborate description of the bazaar. He wrote that it had 2150 stores arranged around beautiful streets, squares and markets and that Skopje’s bazaar is as beautiful as the one in Baghdad. One of the main crafts of the bazaar was manufacture of leather and fur goods. In 1669 there were around 700 leather and fur stores in Skopje. As making of fur coats was a Christian craft and they are popular with women throughout the history, the Turks didn’t like the possibility of big enrichment of the Christians they passed a law saying that no woman is allowed to have more than 2 fur coats.
The bazaar was surrounded with markets. Hygienical care was taken and different markets were placed on opposite sides of the bazaar (for example the food market was on the opposite side of the bazaar from the animal market; milk, milk products and honey market opposite from the wood market etc). Except the stores there were other objects in the bazaar like amams (turkish baths), hans (hotels) and mosques. Their outside walls usually were surrounded with stores so no space would be wasted. Even today it is hard to spot some of this object.