Date Souk                                        

Location: Mubarkiya,Kuwait
Date: 2014
Meduim: 35mm expired film

Souk Mubarakiya is Kuwait’s oldest market, unaltered despite the passage of time. Near the Sheikh Mubarak Kiosk, built early last century, is situated the old date market.  Still retaining its original design, the date market runs along a corridor of no more than forty meters, with fifteen shops occupying each side.  If one day you have the opportunity to visit, be sure to show up very early in the morning to meet the oldest shop-owner, Ali Fahad Al-Ajeel, whose store has been around since the 1940s.  Ali sells grains, rice, tea and other food commodities.  

Nearby, Hussein Abdulrazzaq's shop still carries the same aura of years past, with the help of Abu Jaber.  
Despite the change in activity of certain shops, the twelve shops continue to stock their dates traditionally.  Within their four walls, these merchants - in their old  surviving stalls - are the keepers of our culture.

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