The Gold Market (Arabic: سوق الذهبSouk ad-Dahab; also known as the Qissariya Market, Arabic: سوق القيساريةSouk al-Qissariya) is a narrow covered passageway located in the old quarter of Gaza, Palestine; it is both a center for trading and buying gold, and location for foreign exchange.[1] The Market lies along the southern edge of the Great Mosque of Gaza,[2] beside the main Omar Mukhtar Street. The Market is configured with a pointed and vaulted roof above the central road, which is lined on both sides by small shops that are themselves roofed by the cross vaults of the covered central road.[3]
Gazan judge Sheikh Shams ad-Din al-Himsi ordered the construction of the Gold Market in 1476 CE, under Mamluk rule in Palestine. The Market originally formed a part of a much larger covered market, but most of the area was destroyed by the British Army during World War I.[2]
Throughout most of the 20th and 21st centuries, the market was visited mostly by men and women engaged to be married, to pick out gold jewellery, and by mothers-in-law to purchase gifts for their daughters-in-law. However, because of food shortages arising in Gaza from the Israeliblockade of the Gaza Strip, the Gold Market presently is used chiefly by elderly Gazans selling family heirlooms to raise cash.[2]
The market underwent a conservation programme between 2020 and 2023.[4]
Destroyed on December 7th, 2023 by an Israeli air strike on the adjacent Great Omari Mosque.
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