Abstract
ABSTRACTThis article explores the forms of cosmopolitanism that form an important element of the identities and activities of long-distance Muslim merchants involved in the global trade in Chinese commodities. It focuses on two nodes that are central for this type of trade: Odessa on Ukraine’s Black Sea coast and Yiwu in China’s Zhejiang Province. Ethnographically, the paper focuses on the commercial and social ties that exist between Muslim traders from Afghanistan and those who identify with the country’s dispersed Hindu ethno-religious minority. It argues that the ability to manage heterogeneous social and religious relationships is of critical significance to the activities and identities of these commodity traders.
Highlights
This article explores the forms of cosmopolitanism that are an important element of the identities and activities of long-distance Muslim merchants involved in the global trade in Chinese commodities
The paper has suggested that while Yiwu and Odessa might be both relatively new sites of Muslim commerce, the commercial activities of the mobile traders who work within them have relied on historically durable social types of social relations and institutions in building their transregional business profiles
Focusing on the social relationships that are significant to the activities of the traders who work and live across Odessa and Yiwu simultaneously illuminates an aspect of contemporary Muslim commercial networks that is barely touched upon in existing accounts
Summary
This article explores the forms of cosmopolitanism that are an important element of the identities and activities of long-distance Muslim merchants involved in the global trade in Chinese commodities. The history of the interaction between Odessa-based Afghans and Yiwu goes back to the late 1990s: during this decade, several individuals decided to place the import of commodities from China to Ukraine as the central element of their commercial activities.
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