ABSTRACT
The term 'cosmopolitan' is used in a range of overlapping but not always coinciding meanings. It is used of persons, groups and milieus, as well as ideologies and practices. Nationalist intellectuals, for example, can be 'cosmopolitan' in their background and milieu, while they ideologically denounce cosmopolitanism. Certain milieus are described as cosmopolitan. Typically these are artistic, intellectual and bohemian milieus, but also the world of international business and high finance, and some mafias and underworlds. The cosmopolitanism of Afghani spans not only the European-Muslim boundaries, but also inter-Muslim cultures. Cosmopolitanism is abhorred by nationalists, fascists and Stalinists. The German Romantic founding ideologues of nationalism, Herder and Fichte, rejected cosmopolitanism as abhorrent bastardisation of the purity of Volk culture. It is not surprising that the main cultural flourishing of Middle Eastern cosmopolitanism now occurs in London and Paris.
