Souk

By Deane Barker • •
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A souk in Marrakesh, Morocco

A souk in Marrakesh, Morocco

This is an Arabian term for open-air market. This would be the classic flea market or farmer’s market in the United States. This is stereotypically presented in every movie set in the Middle East as a place with a cacophony of smells, sounds, and visuals.

Why I Looked It Up

The word was used liberally in Cutting for Stone. That novel was set in Ethiopia. I’m not sure if the term is used there, but the main characters are all from India, so they likely carried over terms from that language.

Update

Added on

In Bookshops:

One can walk around Athens as if it were a strange souk of bookshops.

Links from this – Cutting for Stone September 21, 2021
Absolutely stunning novel. I had heard of the book for years. My mother was born in Ethiopia in the 1940s (my grandparents were missionaries from New Zealand), and several people had told me that the story in the novel resembled my mother’s experience there as a child. The book was purchased for me...
Links from this – Bookshops: A Reader's History April 21, 2023
I really tried with this book, but I had to abandon it. This is one of those books that doesn’t really have a point. It’s just a meandering journey through one guy’s love of bookshops around the world. He apparently visited 1,000 of them. I read his Wikipedia page , where I found this: He uses to...