Guilds and handicrafts in the Bazaar of Shiraz During 13-14 centuries

From the early times, Shiraz was one of the main cities in the south of Iran and had all the three producing manners (cultivation, ranching and crafting) and so had three life styles such as: nomadic life; peasant life around the Karbal, Estakhr, and Dashte Marghab (ancient Pasargad) fertile plains; and urbanism (in Shiraz and Kazerun). Actually, the bazaar of Shiraz was a jetty for raw mineral materials or corps from neighboring cities; for instance, pearls from the Persian Gulf, wool and fluff from Shabankare and Kerman. The geographical location of Shiraz along the road from the Persian Gulf to Isfahan, Yazd and Rey had a principal role in connecting the Silk Road with the Spices Route. The process of coercive exodus of craftsmen and peasant immigrants, during the Mongol period, to Shiraz as a safer spot and also the ruination of some neighboring cities like Isfahan during the early Mongol invasion juiced up the Bazaar of Shiraz. The flourishing of Sufi orders, such as Murshediyyah and Suhrevardiyyah, strengthened the social cohesion between Guilds in this bazaar. The main question of this essay is this: Which kinds of products were made by the guilds and artificers in the Bazaar of Shiraz During 1314- centuries and how? Hypothesis is that, despite some economic historians’ belief in the majority of raw material exportation during that centurial, there are some traces that indicate there was a noteworthy percent of manufactured merchandise among Iranian exported goods which were made in the bazaar of Shiraz in addition to some raw materials.