TUNIS -

Gold dealer Salah al-Din al-Kafi stands glued to his glittering jewellery at Souk al-Baraka;

The old slave market, which later turned into the gold market in Tunisia.

Wearing an ornate robe and traditional gauze, this merchant looks away and eagerly awaits customers.

The movement seems slow at the beginning of the morning in the middle of this market next to the headquarters of the Tunisian government building in the Kasbah, but soon the activity begins in the middle of the day with the arrival of many women in groups to see the luxurious jewelry displayed on the facades of the jewellery shops that shine with lights.

With the advent of the noon prayer, the call to prayer rises from the nearby Al-Zaytouna Mosque, and the place is enchanting serenity. A group of foreign tourists opens the way before the eyes of Salah al-Din al-Kafi, followed by a group of security men to guard them. The tourists stare admiringly at the fronts of the gold shops in the market.

Al-Baraka market displays a wide range of gold ornaments (Al-Jazeera)

luminous beacon

There, merchants offer precious sets of white gold at varying prices, the price of one gram of gold is 180 dinars (60 dollars).

As soon as visitors set foot on the outskirts of the market, visitors hear a whisper of many merchants who receive them either to sell their jewelry or buy used gold.

Merchant Salah al-Din al-Kafi spent 6 decades in the al-Baraka market, where he learned the art of engraving on gold and silver from the oldest traditional craftsmen.

In his opinion, the market has known since ancient times great transformations that made it a radiant destination for visitors and a luminous beacon from the beacons of the ancient city.

In the past, the al-Baraka market was only a market for slaves in which slaves were sold during the era of the Ottoman Crown Prince Yusuf Dey (1610-1637), according to what was codified by the scholar Abu Abdullah Sheikh Muhammad Ibn Abi al-Qasim al-Rabeen al-Qayrawani, known as Abu Dinar, in his book “Al-Mu’nis fi Akhbar Ifriqiya”.

Gold dealer Salah al-Din al-Kafi (right) is looking forward to improving sales in the holy month of Ramadan (Al-Jazeera)

In 1846, Ahmed Pasha Bey - the tenth of the Husseinite Beys - abolished slavery and servitude in Tunisia. Then, the Baraka Market - so named after the camels that used to bare and sit in the slave market - turned into a gold market and became one of the most prominent tourist attractions in the capital, Tunis.

Al-Baraka market witnessed an unparalleled boom in the seventies, as the demand for gold and jewelry was high, especially during the month of Ramadan, the season of gifts and weddings.

Gold merchant Salah al-Din al-Kafi says that the lightest weight of wedding jewelry at that time was at least 50 grams of 18 karat.

The Al-Baraka Market is expected to witness an increased turnout with the second half of Ramadan (Al-Jazeera)

Stagnation and hopes

Al-Kafi adds to Al-Jazeera Net that he once sold wedding ornaments in the Al-Baraka market, consisting of a necklace, earrings, ring and hand chain, at about 280 dinars (90 dollars), but the price of these ornaments, according to market prices today, is about 5,000 dinars (1600 dollars) due to the high value of gold, according to confirm it.

Despite the difficult financial situation that Tunisians suffer from, Salah al-Din al-Kafi hopes that the al-Baraka market will witness an increased turnout with the second half of Ramadan. He says that the gold trade witnessed a stagnation that affected the returns of merchants, but weddings and gifts during the seasons of engagements, weddings and holidays help to recover.

Al-Baraka market turned from a market for slaves into a market for selling gold and jewelry (Al-Jazeera)

Not far from Salah Al-Din Al-Kafi shop, the young Amira Al-Akrimi, along with her mother and sisters, inspected a group of displayed jewelry.

This girl is preparing to get engaged on the 27th of Ramadan, and as usual, she accompanied her family to participate in choosing the jewelry.

She tells Al Jazeera Net that she resorted to the Al-Baraka market because it offers a wide range of jewelry of various designs at varying prices, but her lack of knowledge of the quality of gold and even of buying and selling negotiations made her seek help from her family in the hope of obtaining a jewelry at a reasonable price.

At the heart of the Al-Baraka market is the office of the market custodian, who is assigned the responsibility for protecting customers and determining the value and standard of gold that is presented to him for his inspection.

The market custodian seeks to ensure the smooth conduct of transactions and to resolve any disputes that may arise in the market between customers and sellers.

Some of the pioneers of Al-Baraka market (Al-Jazeera)

Indecent practices

Despite this, some illegal practices are still prevalent among some intruders in the al-Baraka market, which affected the reputation of the market, according to what was approved by Ali Bouazizi, a member of the regional chamber of goldsmiths in Tunisia and trustee of the Golden Star Association, in his statement to Al Jazeera Net.

The Golden Star Association was established in the early sixties and plays the role of an intermediary in acquiring the merchants' shares of gold from the Central Bank of Tunisia from their own money and then presenting it to them.

The law specifies the share of each craftsman in the jewelry as 200 grams of raw gold of 24 karat per month.

In order to obtain 18 karat gold that will be designed and then sold, the jeweler's craftsmen in the Al Baraka market mix their monthly specified quota of gold with about 33% of copper and silver.

Bouazizi says that the Baraka market includes many craftsmen who are creative in their designs.

Foreign tourists visited the Al-Baraka market in the old city in the capital, Tunis (Al-Jazeera)

However, he pointed out that the requests of artisans in the field of goldsmithing at the Golden Star Association have declined in recent years, not only because of the decline in their sales, but also because some of them buy gold at lower prices outside the legal frameworks without invoices to escape oversight.

According to Bouazizi, some merchants buy gold from “bag merchants,” who are roving merchants who hide the gold in gabions and bags to sell to the jeweler’s craftsmen at a lower price, even though they carry forged stamps similar to used stamps from the House of Stamps in the Ministry of Finance that are used to determine the gold’s caliber and quality.