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

208 Unlike the Turks, he continued, the Greek and Armenian subjects were in almost complete control of the commercial and financial branches. They were engaged in agriculture and industry as well, but their principal eco- nomic power lay in the economy’s dynamic branches: “We first note the fact that in nearly every form of trade Armenians and Greeks dominate the field…in petty trade and petty credit activities, but also in wholesale internal trade, import and external trade, and in the high finance of Turkey, the Greeks and Armenians…have played the decisive role. Thus we find two nationalities which neither in agriculture nor in industry have such a great importance, exercising in trade a preponderant influence… Nei- ther the [Christian] Arabs and Persians, who are able traders, nor by and large the Jews, can compete with them.” 1 In explaining the abstinence from commerce of the Muslim population in Anatolia, Sussnitzki focused on two main factors. First: “The talents of the Turks suit them for all kinds of work that demand strength and dexterity, and thus in particular agriculture.” Second: “The straightforward mind of the Turk, immediately directed towards its goal, is relatively far removed from the spirit of capitalism with its subtle profit-speculations and its practical methods of observation… they [the Turks] keep away from all activities which presuppose the speculative think- ing of the capitalist entrepreneur…the special kind of purely commercial thinking and any inherent inclination toward trade are almost completely ab- sent…” 2 Sussnitzki’s views regarding the influence of the Greeks, Armenians and Turks on the state of the Ottoman economy are ambivalent. On the one hand, he valued the economic contribution of the non-Muslim minorities, and his portrayal of their entrepreneurial qualities was written in a positive spirit. Articles on the role and contribution of private enterprise in the development of a modern economy were an important component in the discourse of social scientists in Germany at the time Sussnitzki wrote his article. Indirectly, he indicated that the key to progress was in the hands of non-Muslim business- men. Yet, the article also contained racist comments about the Armenians and Greeks. He claims that their business success was achieved through de- ceit and fraud and their entrepreneurship was speculative ― assertions that were worded to embrace all Armenians and all Greeks. In contrast to these non-Muslim communities, he emphasized the honesty, sincerity and good 1 Sussnitzki, pp. 396-97; Issawi, pp. 120-21. 2 Sussnitzki, pp. 400, 403; Issawi, pp. 122-23.