Compradors to Cosmopolitans? The Historiographical Fortunes of Merchants in Eastern Mediterranean Ports

摘要

This paper examines a complex and occasionally much debated issue: whether classanalysis is a suitable analytical tool when studying the history of the merchant groupsthat developed in Eastern Mediterranean ports in the second half of the nineteenthcenturyor whether historians, taking note of the ethnic composition of these merchantgroups (primarily Greeks, Jews, and Armenians, but in some instances, also, bothMuslim and Christian Arabs) should rely on the language and approaches of (what wecan broadly define as ) communitarian studies. The paper aims both to provide a broadcoverage of the historiographical debate on these issues and to offer some insights intoavenues worth exploring in future research. The first part concentrates on a criticaldiscussion of approaches that can broadly be considered as privileging the category ofclass; the second part addresses some of the issues of subjectivity, identity and valuesthat have recently engaged the attention of historians. The paper concludes but does notresolve with the issue whether historians can accommodate in their interpretation bothclass and cosmopolitanism as analytical tools for studying the history of EasternMediterranean ports (assuming that cosmopolitanism is an analytical tool).