# Gold Market

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This article is about a specific market in Gaza. For the broader concept of buying and selling of gold as a commodity, see [commodities market](/source/Commodities_market).

The **Gold Market** (Arabic: سوق الذهب *Souk ad-Dahab*; also known as the **Qissariya Market**, Arabic: سوق القيسارية *Souk al-Qissariya*) was a narrow covered passageway located in the old quarter of [Gaza](/source/Gaza_City), [Palestine](/source/Palestine); it was both a center for trading and buying gold, and location for foreign exchange.[2] The market was located along the southern edge of the [Great Mosque of Gaza](/source/Great_Mosque_of_Gaza),[3] beside the main [Omar Mukhtar Street](/source/Omar_Mukhtar_Street). The Market was configured with a pointed and vaulted roof above the central road, which was lined on both sides by small shops that are themselves roofed by the cross vaults of the covered central road.[4]

## History

A late15th-century document mentions a Qissariya at Gaza that was built on the orders of Sheikh Shams ad-Din al-Himsi, a [qadi](/source/Qadi) or judge. The archaeologist [Moain Sadeq](/source/Moain_Sadeq) suggests that this refers to the Gold Market immediately south of the Great Omari Mosque and that it was established during al-Himi's tenure as qadi from 1448/49 to 1476/77 (851–881 [AH](/source/Hijri_era)).[5] The Market originally formed a part of a much larger covered market, but most of the area was destroyed by the [British Army](/source/British_Army) during [World War I](/source/World_War_I).[6]

It was common for people from Gaza to buy jewellery from the Gold Market to present to brides as a traditional gift as part of Palestinian marriage.[7] The market underwent a conservation programme between 2020 and 2023.[8] The market was destroyed on December 7th, 2023, by an Israeli air strike on the adjacent [Great Omari Mosque](/source/Great_Omari_Mosque).[9][10]

## See also

- [Destruction of cultural heritage during the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip](/source/Destruction_of_cultural_heritage_during_the_Israeli_invasion_of_the_Gaza_Strip)
- [List of archaeological sites in the Gaza Strip](/source/List_of_archaeological_sites_in_the_Gaza_Strip)

## References

1. ["Destruction of the Palestinian cultural heritage of Gaza – in pictures"](https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2024/jan/11/palestinian-cultural-heritage-gaza-destruction-in-pictures). *The Guardian*. 11 January 2024. Retrieved 10 April 2026.

1. Jacobs 1998, p. 454.

1. Sadeq 1991, p. 288.

1. [Travel in Gaza](http://www.mideasttravelling.net/palestine/gaza/gaza_culture.htm) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20130823050026/http://www.mideasttravelling.net/palestine/gaza/gaza_culture.htm) August 23, 2013 at the Wayback Machine MidEastTraveling.

1. Sadeq 1991, pp. 290–291.

1. [Gold Market Review](http://www.lonelyplanet.com/israel-and-the-palestinian-territories/the-west-bank-and-gaza-strip/gaza-city/sights/461208) Lonelyplanet.

1. Abdulrahim, Raja; Rosales, Helmuth; Shbair, Bilal; Singhvi, Anjali; Solomon, Erika; Abuheweila, Iyad; Bashir, Abu Bakr; Harouda, Ameera; Khurana, Malika; Penney, Veronica (29 October 2024). ["Gaza in Ruins After a Year of War"](https://www.proquest.com/docview/3122175947/2B23AF6E0A80404FPQ/). *The New York Times*. Retrieved 10 April 2026.

1. ["The Catastrophic state of Gaza’s cultural heritage under the deliberate Israeli bombings: Case of Souk Al-Qaisariyya"](https://palestine.icomos.org/reports/urgent-heritage-alert-1-27-august-2024/), ICOMOS Palestine, 27 August 2024, p. 2, retrieved 13 February 2025

1. Estrin, Daniel (9 December 2023). ["Israeli strike leaves Gaza's oldest mosque in ruins"](https://www.npr.org/2023/12/09/1218384968/mosque-gaza-omari-israel-hamas-war). *NPR*. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20240319212442/https://www.npr.org/2023/12/09/1218384968/mosque-gaza-omari-israel-hamas-war) 19 March 2024 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 26 June 2024.

1. ["Destruction of the Palestinian cultural heritage of Gaza – in pictures"](https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2024/jan/11/palestinian-cultural-heritage-gaza-destruction-in-pictures). *the Guardian*. 11 January 2024. [ISSN 0261-3077](https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0261-3077). [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20240305200812/https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2024/jan/11/palestinian-cultural-heritage-gaza-destruction-in-pictures) 5 March 2024 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 26 June 2024.

## Bibliography

- Jacobs, Daniel (1998), [*Israel and the Palestinian territories*](https://books.google.com/books?id=JXoY2vCZ5AEC&dq=Omar+Mukhtar+Street+Gaza&pg=RA5-PA453), Rough Guides, ISBN 978-1-85828-248-0
- Sadeq, Moain (1991). *Die mamlukische Architektur der Stadt Gaza* (in German). Klaus Schwarz Verlag. [doi:10.1515/9783112400968](https://doi.org/10.1515/9783112400968). ISBN 978-3-11-240096-8.

## External links

- [Photo album of recovery efforts at the Gold Market](https://www-mogaza-org.translate.goog/cultural-centers/fonoon/72177720323555476?_x_tr_sl=ar&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_sch=http)
- [Marché al-Qaysāriyya (Souk al-Qissariya, marché de l’or)](https://gazahistoire.hypotheses.org/2142) (in French), part of the Gaza, inventaire d’un patrimoine bombardé

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