Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
District<br />
ALIYE F. MATARACI<br />
Ethno-religious identity<br />
of collaborator(s)<br />
Dominant ethno-religious identity<br />
within the specialization<br />
areas of collaborators<br />
İzmit Muslim Armenian<br />
Ünye Muslim Armenian/Muslim<br />
Giresun Muslim Greek<br />
Samsun Armenian Greek<br />
Trabzon Muslim Greek<br />
Atina Muslim/Greek Muslim/Greek<br />
Aleppo Christian-Arab Christian-Arab<br />
Alexandretta Armenian Christian-Arab<br />
Tripoli Christian-Arab Christian-Arab<br />
İzmir Muslim Foreigner<br />
Jaffa Jewish Foreigner<br />
Rize Muslim/Greek Muslim<br />
Malatya Muslim Muslim<br />
Baghdad Muslim Jewish<br />
The analysis above will be utilized to check the significance of ethno-religious<br />
characteristics in the brothers’ choice of collaborators within a particular district.<br />
Did the brothers’ commercial contact(s) within a district reflect the ethno-religious<br />
character dominant in that particular district? The answer to this question mostly<br />
appears to be negative, with the exception of the districts of Atina, Aleppo, Tripoli<br />
and Malatya, as shown in Table 4. Taking the Gürün case as an example for Armenian-dominated<br />
districts, among nineteen ‘shawl merchants and cotton and woollen<br />
yarn importers’ listed in Gürün section, the only Muslim was a certain Avundukzâde<br />
Mehmed Efendi, the rest being Armenian. Although the numbers show<br />
Armenian domination over the shawl and yarn market, the brothers were trying to<br />
collaborate with a particular Muslim (see Appendix II). Hence, the Gürün case, in<br />
line with the other Armenian-dominated cases above, provides the assumption that<br />
the brothers’ preference was for Muslims.<br />
Nevertheless, Christian-Arab- and Jewish-dominated districts suggest the opposite.<br />
When we look at the Aleppo case, we see that among the twenty merchants of Aleppo<br />
fabrics, only one was Muslim, the rest being Christian-Arabs. Nevertheless, the brothers<br />
were in collaboration with one of the Christians, a certain Necib Basil Behna Efendi.<br />
They had a solid commercial relationship with this particular merchant, who encouraged<br />
them to launch the manufacturing of Trabzon linen thanks to a putting out system<br />
in Rize. Even the contradictory cases of Gürün and Aleppo are enough to explain<br />
the complexity and contextual nature of the decision on whom to collaborate with.<br />
The ethno-religious categories of Muslim and Greek, which appear as the most<br />
prominent in the Black Sea district, as explained above, were also representative of the<br />
~ 434 ~
Change language