Россия и Арабский мир: к 200-летию профессора Санкт-Петербургского университета Шейха ат-Тантави (1810–1861)

207 in economic matters generally and trade in particular. The world of images and symbols in various cultures includes reverse or converse relations be- tween soldiers and merchants, or between the battlefield and the marketplace. All of the above were congruent with 19th-century reports from Istanbul and Izmir about the continued concentration of “the Turks” in the army and in administration, and their lack of interest in commerce and finance. Lastly, it would appear that there was an “Orientalistic” dimension in the formulation and dissemination of the generalization. From the 1840s on- ward, the influence of the European powers on the empire’s economy intensi- fied, and from the 1870s until the outbreak of the First World War, important commercial and financial developments in the Ottoman state were in fact controlled by British and French bankers and merchants. It is therefore hardly surprising that nationals of these two countries justified this situation by highlighting “the Turks’” lack of interest and ability in all matters pertaining to the most dynamic economic sectors. From this point of view, the generali- zation legitimized the control of the Ottoman economy by foreigners and their Greek and Armenian protégés. The Ethnic Division of Labor Paradigm During the First World War, a variant of the paradigm under discussion emerged. It contained distinctive additional elements, and is known as “the ethnic division of labor.” This new generalization was presented by Alphons J. Sussnitzki in an article published in 1917. 1 Sussnitzki, a German journalist of Jewish origin, contended that the non-Muslim ethnic groups in the Otto- man Empire at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century pos- sessed unique occupational characteristics when examined in the context of the principal economic sectors (agriculture, industry and services). According to Sussnitzki, the “Turks” were mainly engaged in agriculture and were al- most totally absent from the commercial and financial branches. He wrote: “…Trade is characterized by a very significant absence of the largest of the Turkish ethnic groups. … Until the outbreak of the [First] World War the Ottoman Turks could not be counted among the mercantile elements of Tur- key [emphasis in the original]… [they] have neither played a leading part in trade nor in general engaged in it on a large scale.” 2 1 Alphons J. Sussnitzki, “Zur Gliederung wirtschaftlicher Arbeit nacht Na- tionalalitaten in der Turkei,” Archiv für Wirtschaftsforschung im Orient, 2 (1917): 382-407. For the English translation, see Charles Issawi (ed.), The Eco- nomic History of the Middle East, 1800-1914, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1966, pp. 115-25. 2 Sussnitzki, pp. 394-95; Issawi, p. 120.