The construction of the future Grand Bazaar's core started during the winter of 1455/56, shortly after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople and was part of a broader initiative to stimulate economic prosperity in Istanbul.[7] Sultan Mehmed II had an edifice erected devoted to the trading of textiles[1][8] and jewels near his palace in Constantinople.[9] It was named Cevâhir Bedestan ("Bedesten of Gems") and was also known as Bezzâzistan-ı Cedîd ("New Bedesten") in Ottoman Turkish. The word bedesten is adapted from the Persian word bezestan, derived from bez ("cloth"), and means "bazaar of the cloth sellers".[10] The building – named alternately in Turkish İç ("Internal"), Antik ("Ancient"), or Eski ("Old") Bedesten – lies on the slope of the third hill of Istanbul, between the ancient Fora of Constantine and of Theodosius. It was also near the first sultan's palace, the Old Palace (Eski Saray), which was also in construction in those same years, and not far from the Artopoleia (in Greek) (Ἀρτοπωλεῖα), the city's bakers' quarter in Byzantine times.[11]
The construction of the Bedesten ended in the winter of 1460/61, and the building was endowed to the waqf of the Hagia Sophia Mosque. Analysis of the brickwork shows that most of the structure originates from the second half of the 15th century, although a Byzantine relief representing a Comnenian eagle, still enclosed on the top of the East Gate (Kuyumcular Kapısı)) of the Bedesten has been used by several scholars as proof that the edifice was a Byzantine structure.[1]