Forging Cosmopolitan Networks: Muslim Ottoman Merchants in Trieste’s Mediterranean Trade Network in the Late-Eighteenth and the Early-Nineteenth Centuries

ABSTRACT This article aims to highlight the inter-religious collaboration within the Mediterranean commercial network during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, with a focus on the commercial seaport of Trieste in present-day northeastern Italy. Despite the significant position that Trieste holds as a pivotal point for the international economy in the Mediterranean region, it has been overlooked to some extent in relevant historiography. For example, while the activities of non-Muslim communities in Trieste have received great attention so far, no prior research has explored the Muslim merchants in the context of Ottoman-Trieste contacts. This article seeks to fill this gap in scholarship by exploring the often-overlooked presence of Muslim Ottoman merchants in the economic and commercial life of Trieste. Drawing on evidence of Ottoman mobility discovered in the Austrian state archives in Vienna, this article advocates for a broader perspective in studying interactions between the Ottoman Empire and Europe, with the goal of emphasizing the interconnected lives of individuals, rather than limiting the analysis to narrow, community-based approaches.