They renamed a
124-year-old market.
The city said no.
124-year-old market.
Souq Al-Zal has operated in the heart of Riyadh since 1901. In early 2026, the Royal Commission for Riyadh City announced it would be transformed into “Azzal Street Food” an open-air dining destination with a new English-language brand. The public reaction was immediate and sharp.
This is a full brand identity analysis what the naming decision broke, why the backlash was structurally predictable, and what a rigorous brand process would have built instead. Including: the six components any place brand must satisfy, and why heritage cannot be translated away.
A market that has outlasted
every era of Riyadh's growth.
Souq Al-Zal takes its name from the word zouliya, the colloquial Arabic term for the hand-woven carpets that once defined its trade. Established in 1901 near the Al-Hukm Palace compound in the Qasr Al-Hukm District, it is one of the oldest continuously operating markets in Riyadh selling bisht robes, swords, incense, oud, antiques, and heritage goods for over 120 years.
The market underwent a major renovation in 2005, has featured as a Riyadh Season destination for several consecutive years, and sits adjacent to the Masmak Fortress and Imam Turki bin Abdullah Mosque a location that is not incidental. It is the symbolic centre of Riyadh's historical identity.
In early 2026, the Royal Commission for Riyadh City announced the transformation of part of the souq into "Azzal Street Food" an open-air dining initiative featuring pedestrian-friendly walkways, affordable local cuisine stalls, and a new branded identity. The stated intent was to revive urban spaces and enhance cultural character.
The problem was not the food programme. Open-air dining at Al-Zal is a legitimate and valuable urban activation. The problem was the name and what that name did to 124 years of identity that already existed and was already working.
Two failures.
One rebrand.
A place name is not a label. It is the accumulated weight of every person who has used it, every story attached to it, and every year it has stayed true to what it describes. "Azzal Street Food" failed before it launched — twice.
Souq Al-Zal is not a new development. It is not a giga-project, an entertainment district, or an international brand. It is a 124-year-old market in the historical centre of Riyadh adjacent to the Masmak Fortress, Imam Turki bin Abdullah Mosque, and Al-Hukm Palace. Every element of its context is deeply, unambiguously Arabic.
Naming it "Street Food" an English-language phrase is not modernisation. It is a signal that the institution responsible for the place does not believe the Arabic language is capable of expressing the concept. That signal was not missed. Saudi Arabia's Council of Ministers had already approved a National Arabic Language Policy. The backlash was not sensitivity. It was institutional consistency.
One of the most widely shared public reactions read: "Is it not unfortunate that those responsible for developing central Riyadh chose a foreign name 'Al-Zal Street Food'? Has the Arabic language no better phrase than 'Street Food'?" The question answers itself.
The name Al-Zal is not generic. It is specific it comes from zouliya, the colloquial word for the hand-woven carpets that originally defined this market's trade. The name carries its own etymology, its own story, and its own form of brand equity that most commercial brands spend decades trying to build.
"Azzal" is a transliteration not a translation, not a new idea, not an evolution. It disconnects the word from its Arabic root, strips it of meaning, and replaces it with a sound. Combined with "Street Food," the full name becomes a descriptor of a category rather than the name of a place.
There is no version of brand strategy in which abandoning 124 years of earned naming equity is the right move. The activation programme was right. The food destination concept was right. The name was not just wrong it was unnecessary. The most powerful brand asset was already there.
| Brand Criterion | Souq Al-Zal (Original) | Azzal Street Food (Rebrand) | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arabic Language Alignment | Native Arabic name with clear etymology | English descriptor — "Street Food" | Fail |
| Heritage Continuity | 124-year continuous naming equity | Breaks the name chain disconnects from root | Fail |
| Cultural Context Match | Fully aligned Qasr Al-Hukm heritage district | Mismatched — English brand on heritage site | Fail |
| Community Ownership | Deep — name used daily by residents for 120+ years | Rejected immediately by same community | Fail |
| Activation Concept | No food activation — missed opportunity | Good concept — open dining, pedestrian-friendly | Pass |
| Vision 2030 Alignment | Heritage preservation — aligned with cultural agenda | Intended — but name undermines cultural mandate | Partial |
Brand Identity
Strategic Components
The Public Pixel brand framework. Six main components. Seventeen support dimensions. One output. Every section that follows runs the Azzal rebrand through each layer — diagnosing what failed and defining what a stronger identity must deliver for any heritage place.
What was the Royal Commission
trying to signal?
Brand Stakeholder · Brand Competitor · Brand Gap
The vision was sound: activate urban heritage spaces, create affordable food destinations, increase city vitality. These are legitimate Vision 2030 urban goals and the Royal Commission has delivered them well elsewhere. The intent behind the Azzal initiative was not wrong.
The gap was in how the vision was translated into a brand. Vision 2030's cultural agenda is explicit protect Arabic language, preserve Saudi heritage, elevate local identity. A food activation at Al-Zal can achieve all of this. "Azzal Street Food" achieves the opposite.
"To make the 124-year story of Al-Zal the centrepiece of its activation not a thing to rebrand away from, but the reason people come, stay, and return. Heritage as the draw, food as the anchor, community as the outcome."
The gap between what
Al-Zal already was
and what the rebrand claimed
Souq Al-Zal was already a fully formed brand 124 years of continuity, a name with etymology, community ownership, and a location that makes every other brand in Riyadh jealous. The brand gap was not in the name. It was in the activation. The right brand strategy would have taken everything Al-Zal already meant to people and built the food programme on top of it not replaced the name as a precondition for the food.
"A place that has carried its own name for 124 years does not need a new one. It needs a programme worthy of the name it already has."
Public Pixel
The story the place
already had.
Brand Story · Brand Idea · Brand Manifesto
Souq Al-Zal's brand narrative was never written down it didn't need to be. It was lived. Every merchant who opened a shop there, every family who bought a bisht before a wedding, every visitor who found a hand-knotted carpet that reminded them of their grandfather's home that is the brand story. It accrued without a communications budget.
"Azzal Street Food" offers no narrative. It offers a category. Street food is a descriptor of a commercial format, not a story. It tells you what you will eat. It tells you nothing about where you are, why this place exists, or why it has been here for over a century.
The backlash was not a PR problem. It was the audience defending a narrative that they had authored and the rebrand had attempted to delete. When communities react this strongly to a renaming, it is because the name belonged to them not to the institution renaming it.
124 years of continuous trade · The etymology of zoualiya in every syllable · The smell of oud and bisht fabric · A daily auction that has run since the Ottoman era · A place Riyadh residents have described to their children
An open-air dining destination · Affordable food stalls · Pedestrian-friendly walkways
What the narrative
should have said
"Al-Zal has been here since 1901. It was here before the skyscrapers, before the highways, before the malls. It has seen Riyadh become a capital, a megacity, a global destination. And it has stayed because what it offers cannot be found anywhere else: the weight of a real place, a name that earns its meaning, and a community that has called it their own for more than a century. We are not building a new destination. We are feeding one that already exists."
What does this place
stand for?
Brand Purpose · Brand Principle · Brand Premises
- Arabic-origin name with clear etymology (zouliya → carpet)
- 124 years of continuous community use
- Aligned with National Arabic Language Policy
- Descriptive of the place, not just a category
- Carries cultural and emotional weight
- Universally recognised by Riyadh residents
- English-language descriptor on Arabic heritage site
- Severs connection to Arabic root (zouliya)
- Contradicts National Arabic Language Policy
- "Street Food" describes format, not place identity
- Zero heritage equity — starts from nothing
- Clear category signal for food activation concept
What does the language
communicate?
Brand Personality · Brand Tone · Brand Slogan
Brand attributes are not what an institution says about itself. They are what the audience perceives and perception is shaped by every naming and language decision made. The choice of "Street Food" as the defining descriptor carries specific attribute signals: casual, modern, generic, international, accessible.
These are not wrong attributes for a food activation. They are wrong attributes for the location. Souq Al-Zal's inherent attributes are: rooted, earned, authentic, communal, layered, irreplaceable. The rebrand traded a high-value, differentiated attribute set for a generic one that any food court in any city could claim.
Saudi Arabia's Council of Ministers approved a National Arabic Language Policy requiring the use of Arabic in official naming of public places, institutions, and government-led initiatives. The policy was not aspirational it was binding on government bodies.
The Royal Commission for Riyadh City is a government body. The "Street Food" naming was not a private brand decision. It was a government institution applying a foreign-language descriptor to a public heritage site making the backlash not just cultural but procedurally justified.
Where does Al-Zal sit
and where should it?
Brand Value · Brand Competitive Advantage · Brand Promises
Heritage Authenticity 94 · Activation Energy 42. Unmatched authenticity — activation is the gap, not the name.
What must any name for
this place stand on?
Brand Objectives · Brand Performance · Brand Identity
Any name for a place in the historic core of Riyadh must be in Arabic not as a political requirement but as a cultural one. The audience is Arabic-speaking. The heritage is Arabic. The language of the name must match. A transliteration is not a translation. "Azzal" is neither.
The strongest place names are not just phonemes — they have semantic weight. "Al-Zal" comes from carpet trade. Diriyah comes from the Bani Diriya tribe. Masmak means fortified. Any new name or retained name must carry content not just be a sound attached to a brand.
The community did not form around a brand. The brand exists because of the community. Any naming or rebranding must begin with that reality the institution is a steward, not an author. Names can be evolved; they cannot be imposed on spaces where community ownership already exists.
"The right name was not missing. It was 124 years old and already in use. The work was not naming it was activating what the name already meant."
Public Pixel
What should have
been done.
The backlash was predictable not because it happened, but because any brand analysis of the naming decision would have flagged every failure point before a single piece of signage was printed. This is what that process looks like.
Heritage Alignment |
Arabic Policy Compliance |
Tourist Accessibility |
Brand Freshness |
Total / 400 |
|
|
Full English
(Azzal Street Food) |
8 |
4 |
58 |
55 |
125 |
|
Hybrid
(Al-Zal Street Food) |
40 |
35 |
72 |
62 |
209 |
|
Evolved Arabic
(Souq Al-Zal +) Recommended
|
92 |
95 |
68 |
70 |
325 |
|
Transliteration
(Azzal only) |
35 |
60 |
65 |
55 |
215 |
|
New Coined Word
(Arabic-origin) |
78 |
88 |
55 |
80 |
301 |
No specific alternative name is proposed here that is the work of a full brand process involving trademark clearance, linguistic validation, community input, and visual identity testing. What can be defined are the criteria that name must satisfy.
Not a transliteration. Not a borrowed English word. A name whose every syllable comes from Arabic ideally one that already exists in the vocabulary of the place, the trade, or the community it serves.
The strongest names mean something on their own. They do not need a subtitle or a descriptor to communicate what they are. A name like "Al-Zal" needs no explanation the word carries its own story.
Evolution, not erasure. Any new direction should feel like a development of what the place already was not a replacement. The goal is to make existing audiences proud and new audiences curious, simultaneously.
A name for a community-owned heritage space should be validated with that community before it is announced. Not as a consultation checkbox as a genuine input. The backlash was the community doing this work after the fact.
Data & Sources
Every figure, observation, and historical reference in this analysis is traceable to publicly available sources.
The six-component brand identity framework — Brand Vision, Brand Narrative, Brand Essence, Brand Attributes, Brand Positioning, and Brand Pillars — is developed and owned by Public Pixel. Scores and gap assessments represent informed analytical judgment based on publicly available evidence, community sentiment, and established brand strategy principles. They are not externally validated metrics.
This is an independent analysis published by Public Pixel for research and capability demonstration. Public Pixel has no commercial relationship with the Royal Commission for Riyadh City, the Higher Commission for the Development of Riyadh, or any affiliated government or private entities. All historical references and public reaction citations are sourced from publicly available Arabic and English language media and social media posts.