Freemasonry in the Ottoman Empire
Subtitle: A hstory of the Fraternity and its ifluence in Syria and the Levant
By: Dorothe Sommer
Edition: New paperback edition.
Publisher: I.B. Tauris
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 317
ISBN-13: 9781784536671
Subjects: Freemasonry; History
Description: "The network of freemasons and Masonic lodges in the Middle East is an opaque and mysterious one, and is all too often seen - within the area - as a vanguard for Western purposes of regional domination. But here, Dorothe Sommer explains how freemasonry in Greater Syria at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century actually developed a life of its own, promoting local and regional identities. She stresses that during the rule of the Ottoman Empire, freemasonry was actually one of the first institutions in what is now Syria and Lebanon which overcame religious and sectarian divisions. Indeed, the lodges attracted more participants - such as the members of the Trad and Yaziji Family, Khaireddeen Abdulwahab, Hassan Bayhum, Alexander Barroudi and Jurji Yanni - than any other society or fraternity--Bloomsbury Publishing."
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 239-303) and indexes.