Empires without Cosmopolitanism? - Locating Cosmopolitanism in Nineteenth Century Ottoman and Russian Empires
2013
Abstract
This paper is a brief historical comparative attempting to locate the notion of cosmopolitanism in the nineteenth century Russian and Ottoman empires. It asks the following questions: to what extent is this concept reflected and what meanings are attributed to it in the cultural and economic discourses of these empires during this time? This question is posed in light of a paradox, namely, while as empires, being multiethnic and multi-religious entities, there are grounds for referring to them culturally cosmopolitan there is little or rather sporadic scholarly depiction as such and more importantly where contemporaries do not make direct use of the concept.