Freemasonry in the Ottoman Empire: A History of the Fraternity and its Influence in Syria and the Levant 9780755607938, 9781780763132

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Dedicated to my parents

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LIST OF ILLUSTR ATIONS

p. 3 p. 13

p. 21 p. 58

p. 82 p. 102 p. 118 p. 119 p. 120

p. 127

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Figure 1: El Mina in the Late Ottoman Empire (courtesy of the Municipality of El Mina: 2008) Figure 2: Map showing Missionary Activities in Beirut and Tripoli (produced in 1873 by the missionary Henry H. Jessup, from the American Presbyterian Church) Figure 3: Wooden Sign on the Door of the El Mizhab Lodge Library (photographed in 2008) Figure 4: Masonic Passport from the 1930s (an example of an Arabic masonic passport photographed in 2008 at the Centre de Recherche et de Documentation Maconnique, Charles Kesrouani, Ghazir/Lebanon) Figure 5: Photograph of the Entrance to Alexander Howard’s House in Jaffa (photographed in 2008) Figure 6: Map made by Julius Løjtved in 1876 (University of Birmingham, Special Collections, CMS m012-29E) Figure 7: The Abcarius House in Jerusalem (photographed in 2008) Figure 8: Photographs of Abraham Sarrafian (courtesy of his grandson Walid Buheiry, Beirut: 2008) Figure 9: A postcard of the Venus Temple, early twentieth century (made by the Sarrafian Bros., Archive of the University of Birmingham, Special Collections) Figure 10: Ahmed Ashi, early twentieth century (courtesy of Nassiba Saati, El Mina: 2008)

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p. 129 Figure 11: Masonic Certificate from 1905 (courtesy of Nassiba Saati, El Mina: 2008) p. 130 Figure 12: Masonic Certificate from 1910 (courtesy of Nassiba Saati, El Mina: 2008) p. 132 Figure 13: George Bandali (El Mizhab Lodge: 2008) p. 146 Figure 14: Partial Map of Greater Syria produced by H. Jessup in 1873 p. 165 Figure 15: View of Tripoli/El Mina (by Giovanni Zuallardo, Il Devotissimo Viaggio di Gierusalemme, Rome: 1595, p. 285) p. 166 Figure 16: Tripoli and El Mina (Karl Baedeker, Palestine et Syrie, Leipzig: 1906) p. 169 Figure 17: Different Views of the Kennedy Memorial Hospital in the early twentieth century (‘Al-Askale in White and Black’ (Al-Askilah fil-abyaà wal-aswad), p. 37) p. 175 Figure 18: Modern Tripoli (courtesy of the Municipality of El Mina: 2008) p. 176 Figure 19: The Old Lodge of Homs at the end of the nineteenth century (photograph seen at El Mizhab Lodge Building: 2008) p. 177 Figure 20: Charter of Mina al-Amin Lodge from 1918 (El Mizhab Lodge: 2008) p. 183 Figure 21: Bahij Shukri Fakhouri (El Mizhab Lodge: 2008) p. 191 Figure 22: Shukri Fakhouri, Khaireddeen Abdulwahab, Jerry Harris (courtesy of Khaireddeen’s grandson: Summer 2008) p. 195 Figure 23: Shukri Fakhouri (El Mizhab Lodge: 2008) p. 196 Figure 24: Rituals (El Mizhab Lodge: 2008) p. 198 Figure 25: Assad Bort (El Mizhab Lodge: 2008) p. 200 Figure 26: Ottoman Belt (Ghoraib/Tripoli: 2008) p. 201 Figure 27: Alexandre Ghoraib in front of the AUB (courtesy of Toufik Klat: 2008) p. 202 Figure 28: Eastern Anatolia and Lake Van (Akhlat lies to the North West of Lake Van), (Map of the Ottoman Empire: 1845) p. 204 Figure 29: Jean Hakim (El Mizhab Lodge: 2008) p. 205 Figure 30: Salim Antakly (El Mizhab Lodge: 2008) p. 207 Figure 31: Antonius Bassily (El Mizhab Lodge: 2008, D.S.)

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ACK NOWLEDGEMENTS

I would be more than happy to be the only person responsible for what is written in this book, but unfortunately this is not the case. However, I have been fortunate to receive help and support that has facilitated my research and enabled me to complete it. It is to the credit of my parents that I was able to write this; they have supported me mentally and financially more than any human deserves. I was not able or fast enough to show my father any worthy results, but I still hope that my mother’s sustaining love and belief in me will pay off one day. My whole family have shown me how important it is not to be left alone and what family really means. I want to thank my sister Barbara, Raúl Perusquıía, Friederike Schuler and Esther Möller, who have helped me to carry on, have given me advice and believed in what I have been doing. Plus, it was Esther who very generously carried out research on my behalf in Nantes and lent me some of her findings: thanks for that! I also want to thank Andreas Önnerfors and David Katz for scholarly advice, as well as my unofficial supervisor Kamal Salibi, who sadly will not see the publication of this thesis. I owe a great deal to Stefan Weber and Nadim Shehadi, who sustained my interest in freemasonry, as well as to Isaac Lubelsky. What is more, I am grateful to Habib Badr, who gave up time and material for my research, as well as to Bassam Dagher who never seems to think that he knows enough and always poses one last question. I would have been lost in Tripoli and El Mina without

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the help of the Hakim family, William Korbatly and Wahib Tatar. Bilal not only introduced me into the masonic world in Tripoli and El Mina, but he also showed me beautiful sites of El Mina. Moreover, all the contacts I made would not have been materialised without the daily evening meetings at Café Ghanem with Jean Bort, Saaed Dib and Mohamad Karroomm. These three men know more about Tripoli and its port than anyone else I met. Thanks to Mohamad, I did not have to rely solely on my basic knowledge of Arabic. On the subject of language, I also want to thank Sigrid Topak, who helped me with Armenian and John Booth and Peter Tracey who accepted homework for over half a year and proofread everything I wrote. Furthermore, I profited from being able to access the private archives of Badr al-Hagg, Wolf-Dieter Lemke and Christoph de Boutemard. I also want to mention and praise Robert Collis who did a great job with his final language polishing as a colleague and positive support as a friend. The trust, friendship and care of Julie Banham in Sheffield have been much appreciated as she helped me to not get too confused in time, space and person. I have also gained much thanks to the motivation and close friendship of Jöy Holden, Yonatan Karni, Haim Dubosarsky and Ori Schwarz. The professional advice of Fruma Zachs, Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann, Thierry Zarcone, Jens Hanssen, Johannes Ebert and Souad Slim has been extremely useful during the course of my research. I am also indebted to the persons I interviewed for their cooperation. I want to thank Walid Buheiry and Cyril Na’aman, who showed interest in what I was doing and provided insights into Beirut’s history, as well as being the two persons with whom I established a warm and sustaining relationship. Finally I want to express my gratitude towards my supervisor Professor Zürcher, without whom I would have given up on my studies. All mistakes and errors are solely the responsibility of the author.

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TR ANSLITER ATION SYSTEM

I had to choose between the International Journal for Middle Eastern Studies (IJMES) rules regarding the transliteration of Arabic names and expressions, or an approach that completely omitted diacritics. On the one hand, academic research should follow rules as strictly as possible. On the other hand, all the individuals studied in the present work signed the registration books of their lodges or other documents using Latin script. Hence, I decided to adopt the second method, following the men’s own choices rather than systems of spelling names that only developed after the period in question. In order to be consistent, I adhered to this strategy throughout my research, with the exception of the names of newspapers and magazines, which are mainly to be found in the appendices.

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ABBR EVIATIONS

GLoS: UGLoE: GOdF: GOdI: OGO:

Grand Lodge of Scotland United Grand Lodge of England Grand Orient de France Grand Orient d’Italy Ottoman Grand Orient (renamed Grand Lodge of Turkey in 1923) SPC: Syrian Protestant College AUB: American University Beirut (Further explanations regarding masonic terminology will be given in the body of the text.)

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INTRODUCTION

This research examines the socio-cultural structures of masonic lodges and their manifold interconnections in parts of Ottoman Syria at a pivotal period: the end of the nineteenth and start of the twentieth centuries. The existence of the Empire seemed threatened, as it faced increasing threats to its territorial integrity from Western powers and as a consequence of nationalist movements, alongside a challenging economic situation. Internal disturbances on Mount Lebanon and in Damascus, with Maronites fighting Druzes and Christians fighting Muslims, soon infected the whole area. This left Syria’s population longing for a new way to create a sense of common identity and solidarity. For many men, freemasonry, in the form of a widespread network of various lodges throughout the area, was perceived as a means of facilitating this bond. Thus, the phrase ‘Unity is strength’ perfectly describes the efforts of Syrian freemasons.1 Although Ottoman Syria, or Bilad al-Sham as it was previously known, de facto included a wider territory than contemporary Syria and Lebanon, I decided to concentrate on the case study of lodges in Tripoli and its surrounding area. This corresponds to the approach of Syrian freemasons themselves, as they predominantly cooperated within what is now Syrian and Lebanese territory. Only one further lodge was established in Palestine in 1911, by the same network of men. A coherent pattern regarding the locations of newly established lodges existed in contemporary Syria and Lebanon with only a few links stretching out to other places in the same area. Jacob Landau

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found records of early lodges in Palestine, but was not able to find any links to the ones in other parts of Greater Syria.2 In his dictionary on freemasonry, Daniel Ligou mentions that a certain freemason from Connecticut named Maurice Robert allegedly opened the Lodge Réclamation in Palestine in 1868, while another lodge, Le Port du Temple de Salomon, was established by French construction workers in 1891 (renamed L’Aurore in 1906 and Barkai in 1911).3 Except for one freemason, who was member of a lodge in Beirut before moving to Jaffa and joining a lodge there, I could not find any connections between lodges in Palestine and those in other parts of Greater Syria before the Young Turk Revolution.4 Lodges made up solely of Armenians, which were mainly connected to the Italian grand lodge, will be mentioned in Chapter 4 but here the same scenario is valid: they were not linked to other Syrian lodges and had no overlapping members. All the lodges were probably closed in the last period of the Empire due to the genocide of the Armenian people.5 The aim of this book is therefore mainly restricted to case studies of Tripoli and its surrounding area, as well as Beirut and Mount Lebanon, in order to demonstrate the significance of the local fraternity in terms of the development of new aspects of socio-cultural life. It shows the function of the fraternity as a social institution, born out of the need to find a common bond and a shared perspective for the future; with freemasonry, Ottomans wanted to spread ‘the ideas of tolerance, solidarity and fraternity.’6 Identities and social structures were formed as a result of an ongoing development in a process which cannot be understood as sudden shifts. Rather they have to be characterised as perpetual assumptions of more defined and refined forms. This dynamic evolution is also displayed with regard to the establishment of the various lodges in Greater Syria. However, whilst foreigners did participate in the foundation of early lodges in Beirut, most lodges were almost exclusively composed of inhabitants of Ottoman Syria. The Ottomans had to change their lifestyles in a way that was compatible with the growing influence of Europe, while at the same time preserving traditional rules and values. To do so, they adapted freemasonry from its original Western and Christian context and set it amidst a multi-religious and multi-ethnic Middle Eastern melting pot.

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INTRODUCTION

3

Ottoman society was traditionally based on affiliations determined by kinship and religious affiliation. However, freemasons managed to use the brotherhood to bridge the gap between the various disparate groupings. Their declared aim – the ‘welfare of mankind’ – could only be achieved by the strength gained from unity.7 ‘But why Tripoli? Or even more, why El Mina?’ Not only Beirutis asked these questions, but non-Lebanese also wondered. Most perplexed of all were probably the Tripolitans and Minawis themselves. During my field research I realised that they felt that the local port of El Mina (Figure 1) was not worthy of inclusion in any research. Indeed, my research on freemasonry in Ottoman-era Tripoli and El Mina constitutes a new approach in the field, as it is a topic that has hitherto not been examined. Moreover, no prior study has focussed on individuals in order to understand the functions of freemasonry in parts of the Ottoman Empire. The choice of lodges in El Mina and Tripoli as the focus of research does not of course explain the complexity and internal struggles of freemasonry in Europe. Instead, this study argues that Ottoman freemasons possessed agency and showed self-reliance at a critical period in the region’s history. Despite a lack of scholarly attention, the subject matter of freemasonry in the Ottoman Empire during the period in question has implications beyond the fraternity.

Figure 1

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El Mina in the Late Ottoman Period (courtesy of the Municipality of El Mina: 2008)

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Consequently, it is argued here that historians of the Middle East should broaden their approach towards the late Ottoman period. I argue that an analysis of Ottoman society and culture can profit from the inclusion of research into social networks such as freemasonry. This is merely one more step in the same direction as historians who began to rethink methods of research and to look at local actors and individuals instead of the well-known intelligentsia, powerbrokers or regime elites. It corresponds with a trend in the last ten years in which a great deal of research has been undertaken looking from the bottom up.8 Among recent studies one can note the work of Ryan Gingeras, who has focussed on four distinct groups in the Ottoman Empire between 1912 and 1923. He deals with Muslim Albanians and North Caucasians, as well as Christian Armenians and Greeks living on the southern coastal corridor of the Marmara Sea. Gingeras explicitly states that his research demonstrates ‘the way in which a series of provincial communities were both the objects and the engines of radical social and political change.’ He does elucidate the state’s position or the elite’s mobilising power, but rather traces ‘the provincial origins and violent results of the alliances formed by both collaborationist and resistance elements that struggled over the South Marmara during the war years.’9 Similarly, Cem Emrence has studied the late Ottoman Empire using trajectory analysis. According to him ‘it was local politics, economy and contention that shaped the Ottoman Middle East during the nineteenth century [. . .] they were key sites to accumulate power, wealth and status in late Ottoman Society’, which possessed an ‘interactive character [. . .] shaped local hierarchies, defined the specific bargains between “peripheries” and the Ottoman state, and determined the nature of interactions between imperial agents and global society.’ In his own words, his studies are supposed ‘to revise the Western impact and give more authorship to the Ottoman state and the local actors in the making of the region.’ He strongly emphasises that ‘the Ottoman paths were also the making of regional actors that utilized global capitalism, state transformation, and geopolitical competition to build competing imperial experiences.’10

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INTRODUCTION

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In Thomas Philipp’s words, ‘[t]he role of the Freemasons in the global exchange of ideas’11 requires further investigation, especially when it comes to an analysis of shared masonic backgrounds or collective biographies of members. More research must also be carried out on the propagation of ideas and on examining migration patterns in regard to links with overseas masonic bodies, which can thereby enrich transcultural studies. Research into colonial history, the impact of the Enlightenment and the notion of the West meeting the East should also include freemasonry as a phenomenon that affected all sides alike. A broader examination may contribute to a better understanding of unexplained links and networks, which will attenuate even further the traditional dichotomy seen between Western and ‘Oriental’ culture. Excluding an analysis of freemasonry and its members entails omitting a valuable source that can add to a deeper understanding and provide further insights for historians. In her recent work, Builders of Empire, Jessica Harland-Jacobs convincingly makes the case that some English, Irish and Scottish lodges functioned as extensions of the British Empire.12 Within these lodges Harland-Jacobs portrays the brothers as foremen for the Empire. Even though Harland-Jacobs mentions that a lodge could serve as a bulwark against colonial endeavours, she does not delve further into this interpretation. Instead, she perceives lodges as structures predominantly developed by foreign powers, and hence artificial features detached from the local environment. My study reveals the opposite phenomenon. In accord with James W. Daniel, who claims that Harland-Jacobs ‘overestimated the role and importance of Freemasonry’ when emphasising its significance in consolidating and perpetuating the British Empire, I argue that the fraternity helped to forge an awareness of a new identity that was independent of religious affiliation or proximity to the colonial power. Rather, this identity was based on a common mind-set that incorporated the masonic principles of fraternity and philanthropy, as well as the belief in individual responsibility and religious tolerance.13 A dominant characteristic of the lodges therefore was the attempt to create a stronger local sense of community by adapting the ideological framework of freemasonry to the immediate surroundings. This incorporation of a Western idea was a typical

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feature of the nahda, a cultural reform movement led by Arab intellectuals during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, which derived its main impetus from a concern to render the Empire compatible with the goals of modernisation. While Muslims preferred to concentrate on reform related to Islam, Christian intellectuals tended to follow secular ideologies. It also corresponds to a statement by Philipp, according to which changes in terms of identity during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries ‘implied not only changes in a territorial identity, but [. . .] also a shift in cultural identity.’14 While the lodges spread throughout Greater Syria, with spheres of influence focussed first and foremost on their own vicinities, masons were fully aware of their status as part of an international organisation that propagated human knowledge, masonic values and shared behavioural patterns.15 Even if Harland-Jacobs may be right in regarding the original intentions of British freemasons who created lodges in the Empire as builders of colonial-like power structures, the institution itself did not function in a top-down manner. Instead, masonic lodges acted through a broad and flat hierarchy in a multiple dynamic with local variation. Europeans were not able to control masonic lodges in a centralised way. In fact, unlike lodges in Egypt working under the United Grand Lodge of England, foreigners (with the exception of members of the first lodges in Beirut) were almost completely unrepresented in lodges within the Ottoman area studied in this work. Masons continued to establish their lodges under the jurisdiction of European masonic grand bodies mainly in order to be recognised by other freemasons throughout the world. It remains common for non-European lodges to seek masonic recognition from these Western institutions. For Ottoman freemasons this status was additionally useful in the event of migration or travel outside the Empire. One could interpret the continued dependence on Western masonic bodies as a sign of on-going Western hegemony. Yet, a more persuasive argument would be that it was (and still is) easy to adopt the general framework of freemasonry, thereby benefitting from already formulated rules, regulations and traditions. Another aspect especially valid for the Ottoman Empire is the development of concessions, in the form of capitulations towards Western

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INTRODUCTION

7

powers. A Western institution automatically had more rights and international backing when confronting Ottoman law.16 Remaining under Western masonic patronage left Syrian freemasons with the choice of appealing to the appropriate grand bodies for help when needed. Moreover, freemasonry was indeed introduced by Westerners and they naturally brought with them a system they were familiar with. Hence, the first kind of fraternal society known to Syrians was Western-made and was rendered compatible with their own values and traditions. As Benjamin Fortna notes, there remains a lack of scholarly attention regarding the study of individual lives in the Ottoman Empire.17 By concentrating on a number of individual masons as local actors it is possible to show how the structures and functioning of lodges varied according to membership, location and the period of time. It is also possible to refer to the various overlapping network of lodges, charitable societies and educational institutions. An analysis of masons in Tripoli and its port, in terms of their varying social circumstances and environments, enables us to reconstruct the differences between the lodges vis-à-vis their social composition. It also enables us to identify the similarities they shared. My research will demonstrate that freemasonry, as a social network in a part of Ottoman Syria, tended towards one main goal: to produce interreligious sociability and stability in order to generate ‘social and moral evolution.’18 This aim seems to have been far more significant than simply fostering an active involvement in politics or non-political associations. At this point, loyalty still lay with the Ottoman Sultan and the question revolved around the reform from within: ‘A national movement [. . .] began when a number of people belonging to an ethnic group mainly from the educated elite, decided to diffuse a sense of national consciousness.’19 This was not yet the case. The fact that those active in freemasonry, and other social groups at a later stage, were also to be found amongst those who promoted the Syrian nation is not surprising, as freemasons generally belonged to the middle and upper classes. Hence, they formed the vanguard in political movements. However, the focus here is on the period preceding the Young Turks Revolution in 1908. Nationalist freemasonry certainly deserves its own study.

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In his study on three distinct Ottoman regions (the coast, the interior and the frontier), Cem Emrence writes about a new type of middle class that started to evolve in the port cities of the Empire from the 1860s: The port-city intellectual possessed a distinct social habitus in late Ottoman society. He was cosmopolitan but local, and proreform but neither anti-state nor against community. Ottoman middle classes viewed modernization from a locally-embedded perspective and searched for the ‘right balance’ between the local and the global.20 The middle class individual that Emrence describes is exactly the same type of man who can be found among the early freemasons in Beirut, and a few years later in the increasingly widespread network of lodges all over Ottoman Syria: ‘The middle classes of the coast refer to domestic merchants and professional groups who were connected to global flows and operated as vanguards of modernization in the eastern Mediterranean world.’21 Even more significantly, they were at the same time the vanguard for freemasonry and the very first members that helped to establish lodges throughout the Empire. John George Gibson, who was a past master of a lodge in Northumberland and an honorary member of a research lodge in Bombay, wrongly claimed that ‘where the dominant Masonic authority is of another type from that of the dominant nationality or political constitution, the government of the home Grand Lodge is regarded as, in effect, a kind of Masonic ultramontanism.’22 Borrowing from religious vocabulary, he claimed that grand bodies were honoured as secular versions of the papacy, with the appropriate level of respect and humbleness. This opinion expressed his own wishful thinking, rather than a proven fact. The Ottomans studied in this work joined the fraternity and enlarged its membership in order to pursue their own interests: to unite their countrymen in a way otherwise not possible. As Emrence shows with regard to the middle class and its own utilisation of the globalising market, the same can be said about freemasonry: the Ottomans were actors in their own right.

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INTRODUCTION

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It is no coincidence that freemasonry in this area of Greater Syria spread after 1860. In France, freemasonry was flourishing during the Third Republic partly because of a decrease in state oppression, but also due to a de-radicalisation within freemasonry. The number of lodges affiliated with the Grand Orient of France shot up from 244 in 1857 to 392 in 1870.23 With strengthening commercial ties between the Levant and France, ‘most notably with the implantation of Lyonese silk manufacturers and traders in Lebanon’, the latter also tried to catch up with Great Britain as it saw its political fortunes declining. Additionally, private French organisations came to regard the Levant as fertile ground for proselytising.24 Similarly, British freemasonry was constantly expanding, as it set up daughter lodges in its colonies in order to consolidate British interests. Another factor worthy of attention is the Crimean War. ‘British and French soldiers that came to fight in the East seem to have largely contributed to the introduction of masonic lodges in this part of the world.’25 With growing financial and political involvement, the Ottoman Empire seems to have been an ideal target for the enlargement of their masonic patronage. On the other hand, proliferation of freemasonry was not only the result of the weakness of the Empire, vis-à-vis the European powers, as it was more accurately caused by tremors within Syrian society. After struggles between communities with different religious affiliations, the Ottomans were in need of a basis upon which they could rebuild trust within their population.26 The freemasons’ interreligious efforts were supposed to result in ‘peace, progress and welfare.’27 It was the Ottomans themselves who actively sought to promote and expand the network of lodges without much assistance from Europe. Rather, an analysis of the early lodges set up in the Syrian lands will show that the fraternity developed in an unforeseen manner that perturbed Western masons. European masons started serious activities in Greater Syria in the 1860s, after lodges had already been established in Alexandria, Cairo and Constantinople.28 It has been alleged that masonic lodges were also founded in Homs, Aleppo and Smyrna approximately a hundred years earlier, but it was only in the nineteenth century that the

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brotherhood gained a firm foothold in Syria.29 In his general history of freemasonry, Jurji Zaidan, who was a Syrian freemason in the late nineteenth century, describes some of the early lodges in the region that were founded in the middle of the eighteenth century. According to him, the first lodges were established in Aleppo and in northern Syria and it was only afterwards that freemasonry spread to Egypt and Palestine. Zaidan stated that in 1751 Alexander Drummond, who was a former head of a masonic lodge in Scotland and then living in Alexandretta, founded a lodge under the patronage of the Grand Lodge of Scotland. Apparently all the members were foreigners with some of them working for the British Government.30 Apart from this account, the first officially documented masonic lodges in Ottoman Syria were situated in Beirut, a city that at the end of the nineteenth century boasted a mix of high-level politicians, religious officials, artists, scholars and Europeans.31 At this time, the Empire’s subjects discovered what it was to live in a globalising, everchanging world, whilst Western foreigners increasingly regarded the Middle East region as strategically important. Thus, freemasonry also served as a means of increasing Western influence. Yet, if the lodges were indeed supposed to serve as a colonial vanguard, then the following analysis of the fraternities in this region will show that this aim was not realised. The first lodges in Beirut, such as the Palestine Lodge that was founded in 1861 under the patronage of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, serve as good examples of a European concept realised in a nonEuropean environment. Palestine’s founding members were constantly in the position of being observers who were examining their own society. Apart from their meetings, they organised and participated in other organisations focussed on charity, philosophical questions, political ideas and academic debates on the state of society, history and science.32 If this kind of detachment is a trait of intellectuals as often described throughout history, then only the city of Beirut in Greater Syria had a predominance of such individuals.33 Since the term intellectual can be very imprecise and ambiguous, I prefer to distinguish different types

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INTRODUCTION

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of so-called intellectuals according to the popularity of their creative output then and now. Although most of the individuals involved in Ottoman freemasonry at some point received the attribute of having been an intellectual during their lifetimes, their activities as ‘men of letters’ varied.34 In Greater Syria, ‘full-time’ intellectuals – men who made their living by publishing their ideas or being active in academies – gathered almost exclusively in Beirut. Consequently, many freemasons were connected to academia and involved in socio-cultural activities. This, of course, says less about the character of freemasonry than it reflects the composition of society in Beirut. Freemasonry was certainly not a purely intellectual movement, as the formation of lodges outside Beirut clearly shows. At this time individuals had to constantly adapt to their living conditions. It was easier for men in Beirut to make a living as a professor, a translator or as a journalist simply because of the greater number of jobs available in these sectors. This fact is mirrored in the socio-cultural composition of masonic lodges, where one can find many more academics and journalists in Beirut’s lodges than in other cities. Beirut’s cultural scene, academic life and forms of scientific sociability were emphasised more than anywhere else in Greater Syria. Naturally rural settings required more human power; hence more men were employed in agricultural jobs. At the same time, some also translated books, learned European languages and were involved in literary disputes, although these activities were not their priorities. Thus, in the first place, I would argue that one has to be careful when using terms like ‘thinker’, ‘man of letters’ and ‘intellectual’. Hence, in the context of Ottoman-era Syria, it is debatable if all the men characterised as ‘intellectuals’ conform to the meaning of the term as it is commonly understood today.35 Second, I would suggest that one should not automatically link the term ‘intellectual’ with freemasonry. Instead, I study the many freemasons who lived outside Beirut and its academic elite, in order to fully grasp the attraction of the fraternity. Freemasonry was not predominantly an intellectual society, but a socio-cultural movement.

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Kadisha Lodge was founded in 1906, either in El Mina (Askale), or in Tripoli itself.36 Until 1911, the lodge had about 90 members, who mainly belonged to the Greek Orthodox community, but also included a significant number of Muslims, some Maronites and a number of Greek Catholics. In contrast to the cosmopolitan mix of Beirut’s first lodge, Palestine, Kadisha was only composed of men from inside the Ottoman Empire. European missionary efforts were mainly concentrated in Beirut, with educational institutions established in the city, such as the Syrian Protestant College (SPC) and St. Joseph’s University. These institutions produced most of the city’s famous representatives of different schools of thoughts – a trend that continues to this day.37 Although there were also European missionary schools and colleges in Tripoli, they never achieved the same level of acclaim as those in Beirut, nor did the missionaries generally deem their efforts as being successful outside Beirut. In 1861, an American missionary in Tripoli made the following remark: ‘Would that we could report such progress of gospel truth among the people of Tripoli as would be commensurate with the greatness of God’s mercies to them. But alas! They seem to be wedded to their idols, dead in trespasses and sins.’ He goes on to state that the Christians ‘are as tenacious as ever in clinging to their profitless ceremonies and empty forms of worship, and as indifferent as ever to all that is vital and spiritual in true Christianity.’38 What is more, in Tripoli locals acted as representatives for European ambassadors and consuls, taking on the roles of vice-consuls or working as translators and negotiators, whilst the actual consuls resided in Beirut. This can be seen in Figure 2, which also shows the missionary and educational efforts that concentrated on Beirut. Thanks to its strategic geographical importance – in political as well as economic terms – the provincial capital increasingly functioned as a magnet for Ottoman and European businesses and political institutions, which consequently had a huge impact on the composition of lodges. In contrast to the first lodges in Beirut, Kadisha developed as the embodiment of a foreign concept without the involvement of foreigners. Indeed, it appears that the lodge’s initial reason for coming into existence was to find some stability in a period when social and cultural foundations in the Ottoman Empire were being rocked and the future

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INTRODUCTION

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Figure 2 Map showing Missionary Activities in Beirut and Tripoli (produced in 1873 by the missionary Henry H. Jessup, from the American Presbyterian Church)39

of the individual seemed to change from day to day. This will become evident in the following chapters when analysing the individual members and the motives behind their participation. The general feeling of losing the traditional community safety net became dominant. Questions of belonging and affiliation steadily grew in importance.

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These insecurities stemmed mainly from the increasing loss of Ottoman territory in the nineteenth century. This was coupled with the growing influence of foreign powers in the economic, socio-political and cultural spheres of the Ottoman Empire, but also stemmed from the rise of nationalism and other ideologies confronting the socio-political structure of the Porte. The establishment of lodges with an emphasis on the participation of local Ottomans seems to have been a reaction to this atmosphere of incertitude. The intention to unite Ottomans also becomes clear in regard to the freemasons’ activities. One major concern from the early days of the lodges centred on their efforts to establish a united form of freemasonry, irrespective of religious affiliation and instead of having to respect all the varying recognitions of lodges; an idea that was also suggested to the Grand Orient of France.40 The first charitable organisations in Tripoli were founded along sectarian lines in the second half of the nineteenth century by the Greek Orthodox community and the Maronites. The traditional Awqaf religious endowments used by Muslims had already long been in existence, but were mainly ‘related to the material base of family life, in general and the transmission of property to [family members] in particular.’41 However, Kadisha was the only association in which all members were able to assemble in a non-sectarian setting, and, what is more, business was not the principal motive for the gatherings. The composition of the lodge members was too diverse to serve purely professional or political concerns. According to the Masonic Charges outlined by James Anderson in 1723, no quarrels about religion or politics were to be tolerated in lodges: ‘we are also of all Nations, Tongues, Kindreds, and Languages, and are resolv’d against all Politicks, as what never yet conduc’d to the Welfare of the Lodge, nor ever will.’42 However, sufficient examples exist of masonic lodges that were involved in political affairs and that clearly acted against Anderson’s code of behaviour.43 Lodges in the Ottoman Empire were not an exception (as will be discussed in the general historiography and in Chapter 3) but Kadisha in its early composition does not appear to have been particularly political.

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In his work on freemasonry in the Middle East, the French scholar Eric Anduze has attempted to show the connections between colonial endeavours and the spread of freemasonry in the Maghreb and the Mashriq. I would argue, however, that he overlooks the clear cooperation of lodges that belonged to different grand bodies without any connection to colonial policies.44 His source material is restricted to lodges belonging to the Grand Orient of France. Hence, he is unable to present a rounded picture of freemasonry as a dynamic phenomenon. It can be proven that lodges were systematically set up in Ottoman Syria in order to foster a masonic environment that was as diversified as possible. In this regard, local masons wished to attract suitable potential candidates and to spread the ideas of liberty, equality and fraternity in many different languages and social surroundings. The same critique is valid with regard to Paul Dumont’s research on freemasonry in the Ottoman Empire. While he excels when using sources that are available on Turkish/Ottoman and French lodges, he overlooks further connections to other European grand bodies. In his article on freemasonry in Turkey as a by-product of Western penetration, for example, Dumont mentions Hyde Clarke, ‘a prominent representative of the masonic high ranks, who in the 1860s was the Worshipful Master of the Great Provincial Lodge of Turkey.’45 Yet, he fails to mention the fact that a lodge established in Alexandria in 1865 was named after Clarke, with the man himself a founding member. Moreover, Clarke, who was also a prolific author and member of the British Association for the Advancement of Science,46 signed the petition for the Bulwer Lodge in Constantinople in 1861, as well as the Virtue Lodge in the same city in 1864. In 1869 Clarke again was a petitioner for the St. John & St. Paul Lodge in Alexandria, after the closure in 1867 of the lodge named in his honour.47 All of these lodges had been established under the patronage of the United Grand Lodge of England, which Dumont ignored in his research. In other words, Clarke was far from the only mason who joined different lodges. Members tended to move freely from one lodge to another – also exploiting masonic privileges according to their own requirements – in order to increase the number of existing lodges. Masons in Alexandria, Cairo and Constantinople often switched affiliations – a

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practice later adopted by Syrian freemasons.48 Hence, while Europeans indeed proved successful in establishing a high number of lodges in Egypt and Constantinople, it was the Syrians themselves in Greater Syria who spread masonic ideas. They established lodges under various patronage systems and did not shy away from ‘lodge-hopping’ in order to support other local lodges working under different grand bodies. Dumont not only omits part of the European side of the story, but completely disregards the fact that Ottomans also practised this kind of ‘flexible multiple-choice’. Research on freemasonry, which has mainly concentrated on Europe and America, has previously shown that there has never been a single form of freemasonry. Instead, the fraternity’s permanent and outstanding characteristics in history have been its flexibility and adaptability. In addition, one must be cautious not to create too harsh a dichotomy between European masonic culture and the cultural sphere in the Middle East. Brotherhoods with similar rituals and values existed before, but it was nevertheless freemasonry that was used by Syrians to establish a non-religious community of men throughout the area.49 According to the self-perception of freemasons, the fraternity adheres to three main principles: brotherly love, philanthropy and truth. While freemasons are expected to excel in respect and tolerance towards other human beings, they at the same time have the unconditional duty to continuingly work towards the enhancement of their own moral standards in order to achieve a better way of living. By displaying this kind of attitude towards the profane world – a term used by freemasons for all non-masons – they aim to include the wider community in a shared journey towards a fulfilled, peaceful life. This goal is supposed to be furthered by fostering a masonic group identity, as well as promoting a self-confident masonic individual identity, which is built upon symbols, rituals and elaborate foundation myths. As Timothy Baycroft notes, the fraternity’s ‘regalia and the rituals associated with meetings [. . .] have all the symbolic relevance which can generate a sense of fellow-feeling and identity among those who observe or participate’.50 For some it may have merely served as ‘a good way to meet other men, to socialize and dine (“knife-and-fork” masons) and for others its existence and form

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are derived more from an abstract set of values or norms, based upon universal reason, and it resembles a religion in this aspect more closely than it does a nation’.51 Its claim not to be a religion does not rule out its religious character. As Alexander Piatigorsky argues, every master mason is like ‘a priest’ and taken together they are ‘a kind of priestly caste’.52 Other scholars would not go as far as Piatigorsky, and indeed neither would most freemasons, but he is right in that freemasonry did indeed adapt religious principles in order to formulate a way of worshipping that suited the fraternity’s own purposes. But whatever form freemasonry takes, its members regard it as something separate from society as a whole. As Piatigorsky notes, for a freemason the fraternity is ‘apart from not only their work or family life, but also from their social or political position, hobby, and even religion’.53 As to religion, men try to adapt freemasonry in a way ‘which would accommodate one’s own personal philosophy without too much conflict of interest’.54

Approach and Content I will analyse the varying contexts and compositions of masonic lodges as social arenas. Comparisons between them enable a wider understanding of the masonic network established in the Syrian Land. My approach will include the interaction of masons belonging to different lodges, followed by a closer look at individual masons in the Kadisha Lodge. With the portrayal of the members, the function of the lodge can be reconstructed and its position, dependent on its socio-cultural surrounding, will become evident. For studying masonic lodges in Tripoli and El Mina it was necessary to rely heavily on oral sources, in the form of interviews with the relatives of the freemasons who were active during the period under scrutiny in this study. When visiting the relatives I soon found out that taking notes was the best method of documentation, as tape recording was not well received. My questions focussed on three areas: 1) the relative’s memories of the masonic family member; 2) the extent to which this member was known as a mason; and 3) the degree to which the men involved in freemasonry had known each other before joining the fraternity.

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This modus operandi was required due to the lack of written sources. Unlike freemasons in Beirut, the members of the fraternity in Tripoli and El Mina were not so well known and have left little that is written down. However, thanks to my contacts to family members, I was given some glimpses of the relationships between different family clans; their intricate and convoluted alliances and their hostilities. Thus, I profited from the chance to acquire a better knowledge of the situation they found themselves in a century ago, via oral sources, which depended on social, cultural, political and economic circumstances and conditions. The first three chapters of this thesis concentrate on the historic setting in the Ottoman Empire, the necessary base of knowledge of freemasonry and the different masonic grand bodies involved, while the following chapters are geographically structured in order to analyse the branches of freemasonry in situ. For a thorough understanding of freemasonry in Greater Syria it is necessary to have a sound knowledge of the history of the Ottoman Empire, as well as a clear picture of the principles and functions of freemasonry. Therefore I will illustrate life in the Ottoman Empire at the end of the nineteenth century in the first chapter. This will examine the conditions in which people lived under the rule of Abdulhamid II, the political ideas that were dispersed and the impact of historical events. I will clarify some definitions, basic concepts and explain the development of masonic principles in the second chapter, as well as comparing the differences and similarities between Europe and the Middle East regarding the initial situation of freemasonry and its suitability to unite the Syrian members. This will be followed by a brief chapter that will elucidate the foundations of masonic grand bodies that played a role in the activities of the lodges in Tripoli and the surrounding area. The fourth chapter will examine late Ottoman Beirut, with a particular focus on its masonic lodges. Discussion of Beirut in comparison to Tripoli will serve to emphasise the varying forms and composition of lodges and the dependence on location. The cosmopolitan ideal enabled lodges to think of the brotherhood as being genuinely universal. Freemasons,

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nevertheless, had to compromise in order to remove the tension that existed between the ideal and the formation of a particular identity. It is necessary therefore to examine how lodges differed from each other according to their socio-cultural structures. This chapter is the most comprehensive in my thesis as it includes a study of the origins of freemasonry in Greater Syria and the neighbouring area. The fifth chapter analyses lodges on Mount Lebanon, the members of which tended to be associated with the theatre and arts in general. Additionally, unlike in Beirut where masons were deeply involved in educational and/or academic endeavours and seemed able to separate their masonic lives from politics, the lodges in the mountainous area risked mixing masonic associations with local political issues. Also the links that existed between masons on the Mount and those in other cities, with membership of different lodges being in a constant state of flux, will be discussed. Finally, the sixth chapter deals with lodges in Tripoli and El Mina. The socio-cultural backgrounds of individual masons and the way freemasonry served as a medium between the different religious communities, is brought into focus at this point. I will examine some founding members of Kadisha Lodge more thoroughly in order to highlight their personal, social and economic connections. My system of geographical categorisation does not correspond to the administrative borders of the time, but in my opinion it is useful to separate these three regions according to the different social and religious communities and their locations, as this had an impact on the lodges and their structures.

Primary Sources One reason why scholars have not previously looked more closely at most of the early lodges in Greater Syria may be because only a few primary sources remain extant. To the best of my knowledge and according to my information the bulk of primary source material was destroyed or stolen during the many wars Lebanon has endured. In order to compensate for this lack of information, one has to rely on sources at the archives of those European grand bodies that were connected

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to lodges in the Ottoman Empire. Nevertheless, I will argue that it is possible – in view of the lack of written evidence – to reconstruct significant aspects of the ‘founding spirit’ of freemasonry in the region and thus re-write an important part of its history. Moreover, comparisons between lodges in Beirut, Mount Lebanon and in Tripoli, which either followed or preceded Kadisha, help to understand its importance as a single unit for Tripoli and El Mina and as part of a wider network in Greater Syria during the period in question. The primary sources used in the present study partly consist of the register books of different grand bodies throughout Europe. In the case of the Grand Orient of France, correspondence between the grand body and its affiliated lodges was available while events of other lodges in Ottoman Syria were included in the annual proceedings preserved at the Grand Lodge of Scotland. The main archives I visited were the archive of the Grand Orient of France in the National Library of France in Paris, the archive of the Grand Lodge of Scotland in Edinburgh and the library of the United Grand Lodge of England in London. Furthermore, I consulted the library of the University of Birmingham and Lambeth Palace Library in London in order to examine records left by early missionaries from England, where I also found the maps used in this thesis. In Lebanon itself I undertook research in Ghazir, where the Centre de Recherche et de Documentation Maçonnique of Charles Kesrouani is located. Here I found letters written by members of lodges belonging to the Grand Orient of France and I had the chance to interview Kesrouani, who is a former archivist of the Grand Orient. Although no minutes exist from the meetings during the early years of the working of El Mizhab Lodge in El Mina, which was the successor to Kadisha, the lodge did preserve its own book of attendance in which the many visits from members of Kadisha are noted. Only a short investigation was necessary to locate some freemasons in Beirut. However in regard to Tripoli, it was a huge stroke of luck on my part to discover that an active lodge was situated within a stone’s throw of where I was staying. The lodge building is situated in the city’s port district and from the outside it is unremarkable: it is incomplete and bare looking with almost no windows on the ground

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floor. Inside, the lodge’s dining room was furnished with plastic desks, which were arranged to create a more informal space for interactions after the lodge meetings. A number of wooden shelves are inscribed with the masonic sign and a writing stating that they belong to the library of the lodge El Mizhab, No. 1130 (Figure 3). In addition, the lodge had a small library that contained various books of interest to freemasons. The walls of the lodge were adorned with photographs that illustrated its long history. These pictures included portraits of former lodge masters during the last years of the Ottoman Empire and whose biographies will be taken into consideration in this thesis. Essentially, I endeavoured to seek out relatives of Kadisha’s founding fathers and early members. In most cases I was able to capture a clearer picture of Kadisha’s initial members. My efforts were helped by the fact that all the members came from the middle class, and most

Figure 3 Wooden Sign on the Door of the El Mizhab Lodge Library (photographed in 2008)

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relatives were aware and proud of their masonic ancestors. Indeed they were happy to share photos, anecdotes and stories with me. In its early stages, oral history was often described as a tool to enable historians to write history from below or to provide ‘a voice for those who otherwise [would] be hidden from history’.55 And indeed, oral sources played this vital role in my research. The interviews were not recorded because of personal concerns on the part of the interviewees. However, everyone interviewed gave permission to use the material. Furthermore, the statements used are corroborated, since their contents were repeated by different family members of varying families and apparent contradictions were illuminated from different angles.56 The collected memories of ancestors of freemasons in the city enable new perspectives for understanding the past. Moreover, together with the preserved photographs, maps and postcards, they made it possible for me to obtain a sense of the zeitgeist in Tripoli and El Mina during the period covered in my research. Additionally, I happened to meet Nassiba Saati, the librarian of El Mina’s town library, whose great-grandfather was a member of Peace lodge. She had collected certificates and parts of masonic correspondence in a folder, which I was permitted to use. My perception of the social life in Tripoli and El Mina at the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was enriched by reference to booklets written by the first charitable Greek Orthodox organisations, which are kept in the Greek Orthodox archive in Beirut. In these booklets, one finds lists of the principal donors and charitable deeds, as well as the amount of money given for various purposes. Due to the secretive nature of freemasonry and its problematic standing in the region, many documents related to the activities of the fraternity in the Middle East have been stolen, hidden or destroyed. But rarely, one is fortunate – as I consider myself to have been – to find small traces of evidence in unexpected places.

General Historiography During the last twenty years research into freemasonry and related fraternal organisations has developed into a large area of academic study.

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Historiography has moved away from internal perspectives or sweeping attacks and steadily more works are being devoted to the task of contextualising the social, cultural and political history of freemasonry pertinent to academic standards. French scholarship over the last four decades has led this development, but significant contributions have also been made by the Spanish scholar José Ferrer Benimeli. More than twenty volumes have been produced as an outcome of research into freemasonry in the Hispanic world.57 Margaret C. Jacob in her pivotal work Living the Enlightenment has changed the understanding of freemasonry as a significant part of Enlightenment culture. Her work was carried on by many others and scholars of the eighteenth century are particularly strongly represented in this area of research. During the last decade research has been revitalised by a series of innovative PhD dissertations and studies by Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann on freemasonry and German civil society, Kristiane Hasselmann on the rituals of freemasons and Jessica Harland-Jacobs on imperial freemasonry, to name just a few. Freemasonry in most Arab countries is still a contentious issue. One has to search for primary sources in order to get closer to freemasonry and it remains much more difficult to find reliable information on the fraternity in Arab countries. To quote Jacob Landau, one of the few researchers on this subject: ‘a comprehensive history of freemasonry in Muslim lands has still to be written’.58 Indeed, one will encounter a lot of obstacles in the area due to censorship in non-democratic and authoritarian regimes. Moreover, freemasonry is also condemned by extremist movements, such as Hamas, who even mention the fraternity in its charter. Part of its seventeenth article – on the role of the Muslim woman – reveals their enemies to be those who have realised that they can ‘guide and educate’ women ‘in a way that would distance them from Islam’. The article in the charter goes on to state that ‘you can see them making consistent efforts by way of publicity and movies, curricula of education and culture, using as their intermediaries their craftsmen who are part of various Zionist organisations which take on all sort of names and shapes such as: Freemasons, the Rotary Clubs, gangs of spies and the like. All of them are nests of saboteurs and sabotage’.59 According to Hamas, these secret organisations caused the

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French Revolution and are spreading around the world in order to destroy societies and further Zionist interests.60 These accusations are a direct continuation of those made in much older texts, like the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, in which Jews were said to be secretly planning to usurp world power. The fictional text, first published around the beginning of the twentieth century, still enjoys great popularity among extremist groups and it only takes a small step to add other groups, such as freemasons or Rotary Clubs, to render it useful for contemporary conspiracy theorists.61 When freemasonry emerged in the Ottoman Empire, the first texts on its work, influence and historical meaning were either written by masons themselves or anti-masons. The narratives produced from the end of the nineteenth century until World War One merely offered a blurred and biased image of freemasonry. One of the earliest preserved documents locating freemasonry in the Middle East is a travel report written by the American freemason Robert Morris in 1838 after an expedition to what is today Israel, Syria and Lebanon. His descriptions of the land and people can be categorised as out-dated impressions of orientalism. Between 1909 and 1912, the Jesuit Louis Shaykhu, who taught Arabic literature at St. Joseph’s University in Beirut, published various articles in the newspaper Al Mashriq (the Levant) and wrote a book in which he expressed his complete contempt towards freemasonry. In his eyes, the fraternity was nothing else but a destructive sect that tried to govern the world in order to attack religious morality and to implement anarchy.62 Shaykhu’s views were not uncommon in the region at the time. Shaykhu’s writings are useful as they express a part of the public’s perception of masonry from a conservative and religious perspective. However, for a deeper understanding of the phenomenon it is preferable to consult other sources. We do not have unbiased descriptions or interpretations of masonry. From its origins masons considered themselves part of a discreet society, and consequently no official debate on its historical design and development occurred in the Middle East. Only in the twentieth century do we find secondary sources in which freemasonry is treated in its social and historical context. Research has come to identify the phenomenon of freemasonry as a political and/or socio-cultural movement,

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defining its meaning according to its influence on the general public. In 1979, Eva H. Balázs wrote about the impossibility of discussing freemasonry when taken out of its historical and political context. She emphasised the profound political differences between freemasons in Hungary during the late eighteenth century, who were torn between admiration for the policy of Joseph II and enthusiasm for the French Revolution and following radical liberation movements.63 With the opening of the European masonic archives in the last century, access to new material has been made possible and has facilitated fresh initiatives towards a more balanced understanding of the movement’s different actors. This progress is still absent in Arab countries, where both affiliations to lodges and academic research remain problematic. In an article published in 1971, Elie Kedourie ridiculed the political significance of freemasons, describing the exaggerated fear and even hysteria of some British politicians in Constantinople who perceived the Young Turk movement as a Jewish-Masonic conspiracy.64 But while Kedourie convincingly rebutted the charges from the British side, he did not attempt to analyse the social and cultural role of freemasonry in the last days of the Ottoman Empire. On the one hand it is somewhat anachronistic that Najdat Fathi Safwat could write an article on freemasonry in the Arab world in 1980 without using archival sources that are now available.65 On the other hand, his mixture of information and polemical discourse emulates the tradition expressed by Shaykhu. Detailed research on French lodges in Istanbul and Salonica during the tanzimat (period of reforms), beginning around 1839, has been carried out since the 1980s by Paul Dumont.66 He used the masonic archives of the National Library in Paris to write on the political connections between masons and the reform movement.67 Dumont argues that political aims served as the main driving force for joining the fraternity. He neither addresses the function of lodges as charitable institutions nor as social associations. However, he does mention their particular attractiveness for marginalised groups during the last decades of the Ottoman Empire. In this, he differs from another study undertaken in 1989 by Karim Wissa, who studied lodges in Egypt

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between 1798 and 1921 from a political and social perspective.68 It shows that besides their role as political institutions, lodges could also act as a form of guild system or a social club for the elite.69 He also undertook research at the National Library in Paris in order to acquire a more profound knowledge of the operations of the Grand Lodges of England and France and later on of the Grand Orient Lodge of Egypt, which was formed in 1901. A shift in historical research on freemasonry, which is prepared to examine the fraternity as a microcosm with multiple manifestations, is clearly visible. This trend can be observed in diverse publications on European freemasonry, where one can note a focus on the connections of the fraternity to the Enlightenment and the emergence of civil society.70 One can also study the phenomenon of freemasonry in the Ottoman Empire from the perspective of colonialism studies. Wissa mentioned it briefly, but was more interested in the Egyptian Grand Lodge, while Dumont did not focus on research into freemasonry in Arab cities. Eric Anduze’s PhD thesis on freemasonry in the Maghreb and in the Middle East, dating from 1996, does attempt such a study, although it is a very poor and fragmentary work.71 Anduze does not compare Arab freemasons belonging to the Scottish and French systems, which could have helped him to define the French mission civilisatrice. Nor is he able to illuminate the social or intellectual reasons underpinning why locals joined different foreign systems. Thus, while illuminating French freemasonry, Anduze does not pay attention to Syrian and Lebanese freemasonry and thereby eliminates exactly what he was aiming to illustrate: the specific historical context. Having taken into account Anduze’s deficits, I relied on my own research, parts of which have been published between 2004 and 2009.72 Probably the best insights are provided by Jacob Landau, who wrote an article on freemasonry for Brill’s encyclopaedia of Islam, articles on secret societies in Egypt and Muslim opposition to freemasonry, in which he lists valuable sources on Arabic freemasonry.73

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CHAPTER 1 THE OTTOM AN EMPIR E IN THE L ATE NINETEENTH CENTURY

On the one hand, the Ottoman elite certainly admired and respected Western inventions, economic and political power and scientific progress. On the other hand, it feared modernity and modernisation. Additionally, the Western codex of behaviour was not always compatible with the Ottoman system of values.1 The term nahda comprises and describes various efforts of Arab intellectuals to return to, or to revitalise, Arabic language and culture. Unlike the European Renaissance, which was ‘associated with a reflection of values and virtues from the ancient Greek-Roman world’, the nahda partly consisted of ‘a westernisation; hence it stood for a revival by means of a modern, but culturally foreign reference system’. Though, as Glaß noted, one has to keep in mind the need not to construct a too strict a dichotomy between a modern and a traditional society, as both concepts are not fully able to express the mixed and dynamic conditions that prevailed in reality.2 Confronted with European conceptions of modernity and modernisation, ideas for reform developed in line with a new understanding of identity. Arab intellectuals rethought their rich historical heritage, also predating Islam, which was expressed in language, culture and science. I would disagree with the translation of nahda as ‘Arabic Enlightenment’, as this artificially equates it with the European

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Enlightenment.3 According to Norman Hampson, the European Enlightenment was a consequence of the scientific revolution relating to the individual and his/her capability of ‘indefinite expansion of knowledge’, while at the same time propagating ‘religious toleration and the assumption that whatever was conducive to human happiness was also in accordance with the will of god’.4 In contrast, the nahda did not define one unified way of thinking; rather it referred to the search for identity during a time of insecurity when former relations and centres of reference had lost their meaning. Relying on a common culture and language, ideologies and trends of thinking began to spread in the Ottoman Empire, which included some groups, meanings, and practices, but as Fatma Müge Göçek argues, excluded others in an on-going process of reinvention.5 Therefore, the nahda was not only an aim in itself, but also described a tool to promote different ideas already rooted or noticeable in the historical heritage of the region by rendering them compatible with Western ideas of modernity. It stood for a cultural reform movement that influenced and produced various forms of intellectual output.6 The nahdists tried to base their own sense of belonging on a new identity, which was characterised by the Arab language and culture and expressed in the new tools of communication.7 Lichtenstein defined identity as the capacity to remain the same in the midst of constant change. This partly explains the struggle of the population living within the Ottoman Empire. When people create their identities in a cultural and social context, in which language is central to the process of identification, then this process must be questioned as soon as other cultures and languages start to threaten and undermine these traditional values. Such a process was taking place in the Ottoman Empire in the nineteenth century. This was partly caused by the progressive globalisation of the economic market and Western penetration into Ottoman territory and also the loss of parts of the Empire. This again led to continuous waves of migration – one of the main factors that contributed to the breakdown and collapse of traditional, social, economic and ethnic structures fundamental for the stability of the Ottoman Empire.8 With the migration of Eastern Europeans and the loss of Christian provinces, the composition of the Ottoman Empire had changed drastically.

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[A]fter 1862 millions of Muslim refugees from Crimea, the Balkans, and the Caucasus began pouring into Ottoman territories [. . .]. The influx of huge numbers of refugees transformed the remnant of the Ottoman Empire into a predominantly Muslim state. [. . .] a drastic transformation of both the religious-cultural structure and the economic conditions in the Ottoman state was taking place and profoundly affecting many of its people.9 This is not to say that the number of inhabitants changed dramatically, but migrations serve as an indicator for individual movements and the loss of a sense of social community. The jigsaw-like diversity in Greater Syria remained evident until 1914, with more than 80 per cent of Syria’s population being Muslim and over 40 per cent in present day Lebanon. Until the beginning of the nineteenth century there had only been ‘three large millets in the entire Ottoman Empire for all non-Muslims (the Armenian, the Greek and the Jewish)’. During the nineteenth century though, following ‘the creation of Uniate churches, the emergence of particularism followed by the eruption of nationalist movements’ and as a result of pressure from the European powers, the Porte recognised a number of millets and patriarchates. Among them were the ‘Armenian Catholics (1830) and the Armenian Protestants (1850), the Greek Catholic patriarchate (1837), followed by the Greek Catholic millet (1848), the Chaldean patriarchate (1843, confirmed in 1861), and the Syrian-Catholic patriarchate (1843, confirmed in 1866)’.10 Workers in old professions were faced with dwindling job opportunities as technological inventions required new skills. At the same time, these improvements and innovations were labour-saving, which meant that fewer men were needed. The destruction of traditions and habits left vacuums to be filled by religious sects and ideological movements.11 While some lost out due to the opening up towards the West, others benefitted at the same time from growing Western trade influence.12 In addition, new laws and an administrative rearrangement of the territorial units, alongside actions taken by the Ottoman authorities in order to overcome the crisis and to fabricate a new form of identity

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for their imperial subjects against the rise of nationalisms, aggravated the atmosphere of uncertainty and insecurity. A concerted effort by the authorities concentrated on the levelling of distinct cultural and religious affiliations. This was subsequently marked by an emphasis on the importance of the Turkish language, which was codified as the language of the state in the constitution of 1876.13 While this step was not well received by Arab Ottomans, they still tried to find a common denominator. The same was valid for the Syrian intellectuals: ‘On the one hand, they highlighted Arab superiority over the Turks in administration and culture [. . .] On the other, they often expressed their preference for continued Ottoman rule because, as one writer put it, “Arabs would not be secure in their welfare and future if Istanbul” were not in the hands of the Turks’.14 They were not seeking complete separation or independence from the Ottoman Empire, but rather decentralisation and more autonomy. To this, Choueiri adds: ‘the rediscovery of Arabic civilisation as a glorious golden age, coupled with an earnest desire to acquire knowledge of the modern European world, were the hallmarks of this cultural movement’.15 Its advocates produced a collective narrative in order to construct and reconstruct shared experiences by using the cultural sphere, since it embodied, in some ways, a final sanctuary, which still escaped ‘the material domination of the West in science and technology’.16 Later the call for more autonomy was replaced by a demand for complete independence based on a shared ethnicity, language or territorial contiguity. The spread of literacy and the rise of an educated public were preconditions to this development. However, during the second half of the nineteenth century, men were still thinking of ways to save the Empire: ‘there were many who still believed that the Empire, faced with the inexorable rise of nationalism, could be saved by building a new society under the banner of unity and equality of the people’.17 The Ottoman Empire was characterised by its multinational composition and the majority of scholars agree upon the fact that it was only at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries, that different Arab nationalisms started to emerge.18 This was partly a consequence of the territorial and political concessions the

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Ottoman Empire had to make. Before, questions of national belonging were neither asked nor had they been decisive. However, in the second half of the nineteenth century, with Ottoman rulers unable to provide protection, security and stable social environments for their subjects, people started to forge new loyalties. Hence, the origin of patriotism and later onwards nationalism in the Arab world has various roots to be found outside and inside the Ottoman Empire. Thus, one reason for its growth was as a consequence of perceived insecurity or a threat by ‘the others’ – whether this was from Western colonialists or the Turkish-speaking part of the Ottoman population. This may well have been a realistic fear, but at the same time it was also an imagined menace created through the formulation and dissemination of nationalist ideology.19 The dominant social and socio-cultural insecurity underlying patriotism and nationalism also enforced the search for social cohesion, which was found in freemasonry. Patriotism, defined as loyalty to one’s own country related to religion, ethnic group, socio-cultural belonging and/or government can be seen as one main factor helping freemasonry’s expansion. Freemasonry was supposed to be the tool to weld society together. Different social, political and economic factors determined the emergence of various ideologies, which did not constitute a momentous change but must be seen as a process in which boundaries were constantly renegotiated. As Göçek highlights, the past and the present ‘are told and retold to include the historical memories of certain social groups, to privilege certain symbols and myths, and to overlook others’.20 The Noble Edict of Gülhane, or Rose Chamber Edict, enacted in 1839 was supposed to stop the growth of separatist movements contradicting the Ottoman idea of forging loyalty to the Ottoman Sultan.21 It ‘promised new laws guaranteeing life and property rights, prohibiting bribery, and regulating the levying of taxes and the conscription and tenure of soldiers. [. . .] In addition, it heralded the abolition of the odious system of tax farming and the establishment of an equitable draft system.’ But most important, these laws were to apply to all Ottoman subjects – irrespective of their religious affiliation.22 The edict was certainly thought to be a way to deal with growing

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European pressure for domestic reforms, but it was not ‘appeasement of European powers’ alone which led Ottoman bureaucrats to draft this document: ‘they sincerely believed in the modernisation of the Ottoman conception of government based in parts on concepts borrowed from abroad’.23 Mustafa Rashid Pasha, Mehmed Emin Ali Pasha and Mehmed Fu’ad Pasha acted as leaders of the Sublime Porte, who tried in a top-down way to push through their reform proposals, overseeing ‘the entire administration of the state, ruling the empire until 1871 with only trivial interference from the imperial palace or the ulema’.24 Though religion was thought to lose its dominant role, the non-denominational ideological basis of the state ‘remained the most delicate and challenging issue for the administration until the end of the Ottoman era’ and Islam was never removed as ‘a pillar of the empire-caliphate’.25 Religion continued to serve ‘as the principal organisational and ideological focus of the millets, and was so treated by the authorities’.26 Yet territorial possessions did gain more importance and the Rose Chamber Edict certainly represented a pivotal moment in Ottoman history, as its ‘codification of new thinking created a body of law that could no longer be ignored’.27 With growing Western influence it became necessary for the Ottomans to reposition themselves under these new conditions. While they tried to maintain connections to the indigenous community using, as Fruma Zachs notes, ‘the West as a tool to advance aspects of their society’,28 Muslim Turks ‘became increasingly suspicious of what they considered overt and covert designs of revolt and secession’ by Christians and non-Turkish Muslim groups.29 One way to overcome the crisis seemed to be offered by Ottomanism which emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century. Its aim was to strengthen the attachment of the individual to the Empire and to integrate minorities ‘within the socio-political framework of the Ottoman state’.30 Ottomanism was propagated through the enactment of three laws: the Land Law of 1858, the Vilayet Law of 1864 (a vilayet is an administrative unit or province) and the Law of Ottoman Nationality of 1869. All three laws were supposed to restore Ottoman control over its subjects and territories by means of modernising reforms, but were also intended to prevent further Western intervention by showing

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the ability of self-correction and the adoption of Western standards with regard to minority rights and freedom of religion. Furthermore, as Kemal Karpat notes, the measure was ‘to prevent non-Muslim subjects from acquiring foreign citizenship through consular favour’.31 The Land Law introduced formal documentation of ownership, while the Vilayet Law created new administrative units that brought about a greater involvement of subjects in local government. The region was divided into the three provinces of Syria, Aleppo and Beirut, with a district of Jerusalem and a separate government of Mount Lebanon. Hence, Tripoli was downgraded from being the chief town of a vilayet with its own name, to a mere sub-district of the Beirut vilayet. But coastal cities also gained in importance because they were incorporated into world-trade networks.32 ‘The world economy transformed the Ottoman coastal space in substantial ways. It upgraded coastal enclaves into major port-cities and connected them with commercial hinterlands directed towards global markets.’33 The third law bestowed Ottoman citizenship upon all the inhabitants of the Empire. As Zachs describes, ‘individual identity was now legally determined according to the territory in which one lived and not by one’s religious affiliation’.34 The laws were introduced to promote Ottomanism, but to some extent they had the opposite effect and actually furthered nationalistic tendencies as they allowed members of the intellectual middle class to take part in the decision-making processes and thereby opened the doors for ideas of enlightenment and freedom. Additionally, they provoked unrest among some Muslims who perceived them ‘as a capitulation to European dictates that conferred benefits upon non-Muslims at their expense’. The following internal struggle for power, between Sultan Abdulaziz and reforming statesmen who tried to preserve the Porte’s political domination, took place during renewed Russian expansionism linked with Balkan nationalism. Following ‘the deteriorating situation in the Balkans and the mounting disorder in the capital’, pro-reform bureaucrats led a coup d’état and deposed Sultan Abdulaziz. After the brief intervention of Abdulaziz’s older brother, Murad V, who seemed to suffer from mental instability when promising a constitution, Abdulhamid II came

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to power. 35 This innovation was backed by various parties throughout the Empire. Reformists wanted to see their ideas written down, while bureaucrats who feared the further centralising of power considered the constitution as a way to limit Abdulhamid’s might. Additionally, the constitution was supposed to weaken European influence on behalf of Christian Ottomans. It should show the Western powers that Ottomans were politically mature enough to act responsibly towards all Ottomans alike. The first Ottoman parliament convened in 1877, but a year later Abdulhamid used his ‘constitutional rights’ and temporarily adjourned it.36 ‘The parliamentary Ottoman experiment was abruptly suspended in the wake of the outbreak of hostilities between the Sultan and the Russian Czar.’37 ‘The Russo-Ottoman war of 1877–78 was a disaster for the Ottomans’ with the San Stefano Treaty of 3 March 1878 marking ‘the high point of Russian expansion at the expense of the Ottoman Empire’. The subsequent Berlin Congress in June 1878 led to the granting of further autonomous regions at the expense of the Ottoman Empire.38 The tremendous losses, together with the financial crisis and internal dissatisfaction with the Empire’s functionality and fear of even further corrosion made Abdulhamid overcautious. This gave his subjects yet another reason to look for a refuge, something that made them stronger individually but also as a people. The constitution had been the culmination of all former upheavals attracting reformists as well as traditionalists. Abdulhamid’s prorogation of the parliament though was a disappointing betrayal and left a bitter taste. Historians still differ regarding the performance of Abdulhamid II (1876–1909) and the legacy of his reign, which followed the tanzimat era. Landau argues that ‘Pan-Islam became the state policy in its attempt to safeguard the Empire from internal and external dangers’ and was at the same time a nationalist, as well as a religious ideology.39 The Ottoman term for Islamic unity or Islamic union (Ittihad-i Islam) was first used in a magazine published by Jamal al-Din al-Afghani and Mohammad Abduh, two religious scholars and reformers, in 1884. Religion was the ‘main social and cultural fact of life’ and served ‘to articulate political and economic attitudes’.40 The propagation of Islam was supposed to undermine the growing

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influence of non-Muslim groups while uniting the Empire’s Muslims. Religion gained in importance during the reign of Abdulhamid II, but according to Landau, general expectations were soon disappointed.41 Abdulhamid tried to reposition himself as the Caliph for all Muslim subjects in the Empire; he wanted to show that his ‘spiritual leadership’ added significantly to his temporal power.42 Yet allegedly he convinced neither his Muslim subjects, nor the non-Muslim ones, who were cautious regarding his ideology and worried about their own religious affiliations and civic rights. Moreover, relations were complicated by Abdulhamid’s distrust of associations and societies, which would have enabled him to communicate with his subjects. While Muslims indeed felt part of an Islamic community, Pan-Islamic sentiments further alienated non-Muslims and did not manage to rebut different separatist or nationalistic endeavours. On the other hand, Haniog˘lu emphasises the ‘efficient administration of the empire by a modern bureaucracy headed by a cadre of technocrats’. Not only was the system of bureaucratic schools expanded, it was also during the reign of Abdulhamid that the telegraph was introduced linking the provinces to the centre.43 Railway construction was ‘greatly extended’ and a ‘few hundred miles of track were increased to several thousand’; these lines were not simply ‘connections between a productive area and the nearest port; they were powerful instruments for integration and central control’.44 Arguably, Abdulhamid tried to modernise the Empire without westernising it; taking over forms of the bureaucracy and administration while leaving aside ideological issues. Loyalty to the state was transformed to allegiance to the sovereign, ‘an indispensable qualification for employment in the civil service’. Though, the bureaucratic apparatus ‘obeyed a strict hierarchy little different from that found in parallel European institutions’.45 The modern press was used to foster further loyalty and quench dissent; censorship developed to ‘one of the strictest in modern times’.46 Seen from another perspective, however, ‘no state was so severely criticised as the Ottoman Empire for suppressing views that were subversive to its existence’.47 It would be to easy to dismiss Abdulhamid’s regime as arbitrary and authoritarian – he perceived himself as an ‘enlightened reformer’

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and was indeed ‘no simple-minded reactionary’ – but a ‘shrewd tactician’ whose fortune depended ‘on his ability to parry the external threats to the empire’: his diplomatic skills ‘remained the only way to buy time’.48 Hence, taking into account loss of territory, the military, financial and political failures and internal disturbances due to emerging degrees of nationalism among different communities, Zürcher concludes that ‘to judge the character and achievements of the Hamidian era, it is first of all necessary to realize that it was for a long time a period of recovery from a crisis that had come close to putting an end to the Ottoman Empire’.49 Pan-Turkism was another late effort to reshape loyalties in order to bring about a union of ‘all people of Turkish/Turkic descent’.50 The imperial class only used the term ‘Turk’ in the twentieth century; prior to this, as D. A. Rustow states, the term was reserved to express ‘condescension for the illiterate peasantry of Anatolia’.51 According to Karpat, members of the Ottoman bureaucracy started to ‘identify Ottomanism with Turkishness’ and to assess ‘its history in the light of the Turkish contribution to it’, consequently, displaying the first commitment to Turkish nationalism.52 When the Ottoman Empire had already lost its function as a caretaker and common protector, advocates of Turkish nationalism, unlike Pan-Turkists who relied almost entirely on a common language and culture, played with the idea of creating a Turkish political entity within the boundaries of the remaining Ottoman areas. According to Göçek, empires lack the tools to contain competing ideologies as ‘they were founded on principles of social power that privileged lineage and proximity to the centre and built on carefully defined and segmented social groups whose boundaries were carefully guarded.’ Ottoman rulers lost track of their network of control as a result of growing Western influence and the affiliated principle of political citizenship, in addition to increased political conflict over territories.53 As Göçek notes, ‘nationalism proved infectious’.54 Still, one should not forget that different ideologies were pronounced and dispersed in the hope of founding a new basis on which a common identity could be built. Yet, the impact of this ideological experimentation

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was, at least until the twentieth century, limited to ‘elitist circles’ in the cultural and intellectual spheres, which were confined to large cities.55 As Gingeras emphasises in his studies on provinces in the South Marmara, ‘in looking beyond the elite rhetoric of the conflicting indigenous forces in the South Marmara, one is struck by the relative absence of nationalism at the popular level’. Revealed instead is ‘the pre-eminence of religion, ethnicity, and class as defining components of identity’.56 Hence nationalism may have seemed even less threatening to freemasons’ minds than other factions inside the Empire. As Paul Dumont writes, it was already enough ‘to fight for the destruction of ethnic and religious barriers between different components of the Ottoman population’.57 Already prior to the onset of the Enlightenment, European masons were debating potential conflicts between emerging nationalisms and supported a cosmopolitan universalism – principles not necessarily compatible. Thus, the following section will explain the various theories concerning the purported threat of masonry vis-à-vis the nation and its people in the light of the never-ending charges against the fraternity. This will help to illuminate the condition of European freemasonry before and during the time it arrived in the Middle East. However, I will first tackle a major area of contention in regard to Ottoman historiography.

Modernisation and Westernisation Most scholars doing research on the so-called decline of the Ottoman Empire from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries characterise this period as one of modernisation and/or westernisation.58 These two concepts are not the same but both describe the process the Empire was undergoing. In the sphere of social sciences the term modernisation describes a process in which society goes through industrialisation, urbanisation and other social changes, completely transforming the lives of the affected individuals. The appropriation of another society’s technological innovations does not necessitate the adoption of its culture or code of ethics.

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Here lies the difference between the terms modernisation and westernisation. Traditions were not automatically discarded, but lost their quasi-natural status.59 As Anthony Giddens states, modernity should be understood as a project of production and control, containing industrialism, capitalism, and the industrialisation of war and state surveillance.60 Hroch adds ‘soft’ factors, meaning that modern society was different in regard to lifestyle, culture and the way of thinking. Material goods were produced and distributed differently. People also shared a different quality of life as the social structure and the political systems had changed.61 Taking these elements in account, the Ottoman Empire was in a modernising stage, although it was being left far behind the European powers. In the Western world the educated classes, entrepreneurs and the state acted as the principal agents fostering modernity. However, Itzchak Weismann has argued that on the eve of modernisation Muslim countries had ‘no secular intelligentsia, no entrepreneurial bourgeois class, and no state officialdom in the European sense of these words’.62 These sectors were still to evolve, hence Haniog˘lu consequently writes about ‘Europeanisation’ before modernisation.63 Additionally, he emphasises the constantly changing roles of modernisers and antireformers: while the periphery deemed some reforms necessary when confronted with the technological and economic superiority of the West, it opposed others out of fear of losing privileges to the imperial centre. The Sublime Porte also seemed ambiguous. Although it recognised the danger of dependency when relying on European skills, it had to make use of them when centralising forces in order not to completely lose control over the periphery’s individualistic endeavours.64 Nevertheless, it would be wrong to think that all the reforms introduced by the Ottoman leaders were merely imitations of Western initiatives. In fact, until the end of the Ottoman Empire, there always existed a dualism within the vast realm between secular and Islamic institutions. According to Selçuk Aks¸in Somel, ‘Islam as a culture and institution was not viewed by the early tanzimat reformers as a hindrance or burden to be overcome’.65 Initial reforms in law, politics and education were steps to overcome the so-called ‘backwardness’ of the Empire, without encroaching upon matters related to Islam. Although

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new subjects, including scientific courses and language classes, were introduced in schools, the traditional Islamic curricula remained more or less intact.66 It was during the Hamidian period (1876–1908) that the dualism between these parallel weltanschauungen began to collide before finally imploding during the Young Turk Revolution. While modernisation in an age of globalisation might secure a society’s survival by keeping pace with others, westernisation also means taking over the foreign, Western culture in matters such as industry, technology, law, politics, economics, education, language, religion and moral values.67 This is the stage at which freemasonry comes in and indirectly aggravated the conflict between the coexistent weltanschauungen. The French Revolution was a European product of the Enlightenment and it attracted followers enlightened enough to support its principles. Ottomans did not have similar experiences of this process. They had not gone through extensive discussions regarding equal rights, shared citizenship and duties, nor had they profited from industrialisation. However, they did observe the outcomes and it was in the nineteenth century that Ottoman intellectuals were increasingly impressed by the French and all the other movements. Positivism seemed to be a key for the Empire’s weaknesses; when the fundament of life was shaken and nothing seemed granted any more, positivism with its emphasis on authentic knowlegde showed a way out. This also explains the Ottoman freemasons’ attraction to the principles of the French Revolution: fraternity, liberty and equality – they were striving for these principles, thinking this could cure the weaknesses of their own country. Modernisation and westernisation were further stimulated by on-going military defeats. Starting with the defeat in Vienna and the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699, and culminating in the Crimean War in the 1850s and the second Russo-Turkish War in 1877–8, the Empire was forced to retreat and cede territory.68 The European powers were victorious in almost every case and hence their military machine, as Roderic H. Davison notes, ‘became the example for Ottoman sultans and vezirs, and the desire for military reform opened channels of communication with Europe’.69 With European help, military, naval and engineering schools were established producing graduates who more

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often than not supported political change. At the same time, diplomatic and military support from European powers led in turn to increased rights for foreigners who lived and traded in the Empire. In addition, as Davison goes on to state, ‘European loans to the Ottoman Empire that had piled up since 1854 and the default on bond interest that ensued in 1875–1876 were an immediate source of pressure’.70 As constructive as modernisation was for some areas, wars were as correspondingly destructive with regard to the population’s complicated ethnic mixture. The territorial losses provoked internal rebellions and intensified ethnic estrangement. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the Ottoman Empire lost control of Bessarabia, Serbia, Abaza, and Mingrelia; it made concessions to Moldavia, Walachia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Kars and Ardahan. Cyprus was occupied by Britain in 1878, while four years later Egypt came under British protection. France took on colonial rule over Algeria and declared Tunisia to be a French protectorate. Crete had to be given up in 1908, Cyrenaica and Libyan Tripoli in 1912, Macedonia and Albania in 1913.71 With Russian troops close to Istanbul, Abdulhamid was surrounded and had every reason to be suspicious of Western interference. In 1830 the Ottoman Greeks forged a small, independent kingdom, while the Armenians attempted ‘to mobilize European political support for additional communal reforms’. These efforts were supported by Russia’s foreign policy, which encouraged the settlement of Christians on its own territory. At the same time it helped to propagate Greek and Armenian nationalism.72 These separatist movements were accompanied and partly caused by territorial losses for the Ottoman Empire and had a noticeable impact on the Empire’s demographics. For the first time in centuries, the Turks became the ethnic majority, thereby changing the fragile social composition. Coevally, every minority group was suspected by the Ottoman government of working secretly or in public towards further autonomy and independence, which became even more visible after the Young Turk Revolution.73 From the nineteenth century onwards, Ottoman state loans increased inexorably. British and French banks, alongside the European-owned Ottoman Bank, financed the costs of maintaining the large modern army.74 The British and the French also endeavoured to annihilate the influence of Russia and from the 1880s the threat of Germany was

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another reason for concern. Yet, their own economic expansion necessitated an increased supply of raw materials. The dependence of the Sublime Porte on help from outside weakened its potential defence against foreign economic penetration. Moreover, the state system was not able to reform all sectors at the same time. As Roger Owen has noted, ‘the construction of systems of transport and irrigation and the investment in increased agricultural output throughout the Ottoman Empire seemed to require almost limitless sums of money’.75 The traditional tax-farm system, with its many intermediaries, was ineffective and capitulations towards Europeans rendered a unified taxation system impossible. The Ottoman administration was not up to the challenge, exemplified by the fact that the Minister of Finance had no control over the Sultan’s expenditure. Furthermore, as Owen remarks, ‘the suspicion must remain that even the reformers themselves were not always completely serious, that their projects were often designed primarily to impress potential European donors’. Easy access to continuously new credits also softened the urgency of putting more real effort into new projects and systems. In 1875 the Ottoman Empire ‘defaulted on its debt and the war against Russia had brought with it enormous expenses, so the empire was essentially bankrupt and its credit and credibility in the European financial markets, which were anyway much more tight-fisted in the current depression, were completely gone’.76 By then its financial situation had lowered its global status immensely and financial decisions were made only after approval by the foreign powers. Its railways were used for further European economic penetration and the Ottoman population looked steadily more like the result of a poor patchwork, composed of small, politicised entities fearing for their very existence. The Public Debt Administration, governed by European holders of Ottoman government bonds, was a more efficient tax collector than the government. This was another humiliation for Abdulhamid who completely lost direct control over the Empire’s finances, with taxes going directly to the Western powers. After the rescinding of half of the outstanding debt of the empire and the deduction of costs for a newly built bureaucracy, ‘direct intervention of European capital in the Ottoman economy [. . .] and the slowly growing efficiency’ of the Ottoman administration seemed to give Abdulhamid space to pay off

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old debt yet again at the beginning of the twentieth century, ‘the pace of new borrowing accelerated’.77 The disturbances and riots in 1860 had partly been a reaction to the growing influence of the European powers in Greater Syria. Changes to the traditional social balance between the different groups provided another reason for numerous clashes.78 Traders and landowners in inner Syria resented ‘Ottoman attempts to re-impose a tighter system of administrative control’. The prestigious and highly respected ulama (scholars of Islamic law) did not think of any disadvantages because of the regulation changes, as they felt secure and included in the state apparatus. However, the majority actually did fear losing their remaining influence due to the administrative reforms. On Mount Lebanon, entrepreneurs were able to use local advantages for silk production and exports, which were the major forms of economic activity until the end of the nineteenth century. But, as Owen notes, ‘the industry as a whole remained firmly subservient to French capital and French commercial interest’.79 Already at the beginning of the century it had become clear that not only connections to foreign traders, but also to certain religious or communal identities were necessary for survival, in order to secure a place within the local power base. The inhabitants of Mount Lebanon, who mostly belonged to minority groups like the Druzes and the Maronites, intensified their struggle over ownership of land and payment of taxes. Traditional roots of superiority and authority were challenged by the growing independence of peasants and merchants. Here the riots had an overtly sectarian character, manifested in a struggle between Maronites and Druzes. When the tumult spread to Damascus, in the form of another attack on the local Christian community, the French judged it to be a fitting time to intervene. This active military step undermined the internal politics of the Ottoman Empire, but was only the most visible sign of European intrusion. The influence of the intellectual vanguard and foreign missions was already being felt and had shaped the mindsets of the younger generation even before the intervention of foreign soldiers. And even the interference itself was in a way business as usual with the pattern of crises basically being always the same:

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The discontent of (mostly Christian) communities in the empire erupted into regional insurrections, caused partly by bad government and partly by the different nationalisms that were spreading at the time. One of the powers then intervened diplomatically, or even militarily, to defend the position of the local Christians. In the prevailing conditions of inter-power rivalry this caused the other major power to intervene to re-establish ‘the balance of power’. Usually, the end result was a loss of control on the part of the central Ottoman government.80 Western penetration touched upon all aspects of Ottoman society. At the very minimum the process transferred Western institutional regulations and schools of thought. European states and the Ottoman Empire developed an interdependent relationship: while the Ottoman government needed financial means, military technology and education, Western powers required delivery and experience. European states imported raw materials and products, such as silk, from the Ottoman Empire. In turn, the Ottoman government profited from the involvement of Western bank loans and grants. What is more, Europeans used the reform of land ownership law to accumulate power over local production. The position of the Ottoman government in confrontation with other countries became precarious and its complex social structure made it difficult to deal with the increasing abuse of laws by its subjects. Syrians looked for European protection in order to be less vulnerable vis-à-vis Ottoman law, as they were then considered to be European subjects. The disturbances that took place in Damascus and on Mount Lebanon in the 1860s can be partly treated as a response to the growth of European influence and the consequent imbalance between social groups. Although religious differences were not the main reason for the riots, confessionalism overlapped with the way privileges were given to certain citizens. Christians certainly did enjoy advantages thanks to their European connections. After the French intervention, for example, as Owen writes, Mount Lebanon ‘became the only place within the Empire where tax-farming was completely abolished’.81 During these turbulent times, freemasonry entered the Empire.

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CHAPTER 2 M ASONIC PR INCIPLES CHALLENGED

In the second half of the nineteenth century, with growing European economic and educational penetration, masonic lodges were set up in Ottoman Syrian cities and towns mostly affected by this development. As occurred during the European Enlightenment, masons soon found themselves attacked by diverse parties.1 According to Thierry Zarcone, early criticism of freemasonry had been threefold: from the Roman Catholic Church, the Free and Armenian Orthodox Churches and from the Ottoman and Muslim authorities. Thus, freemasons were ‘either seen as sorcerers, or Catholic crusaders, or conspirators against the Sultan. As sorcerers they are the enemies of all; as Catholic crusaders they are enemies of the non-Catholics, i.e. Greeks, Armenians and Muslims and – though astonishing – the allies of the Pope; then, as conspirators they are political adversaries of the Sultan.’2 Jacob Landau cites the following about an Islamic opponent to freemasonry at the turn of the twentieth century: ‘The freemasons are faithless enemies of the nation, motherland, religion, family and army.’3 Not only were the lodges perceived as European imports, but, as Landau emphasises, they were also seen to be societies that attracted Christians and Jews ‘as one of the few organisational frameworks in which these minorities could associate and socialise effectively with their counterparts within the Muslim majority’.4 Consequently, this

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raised suspicion among the rest of the population, as the following letter from 1827 illustrates: They think the farmason is bad; that is, one who don’t worship the saints, and who eat meat in the fast. When I entered, I did not worship the saints, nor put one candle before the saints. Another said, ‘This is not worthy to enter in the church; this is heretic’. I asked him, ‘Why?’ He said, ‘You eat meat in the fast, and in Wednesday and in Friday’. I told him, ‘This is not sin, you talk lie’. Then they said, ‘Let him go from our church’. One from my friends said, ‘Why? He is Christian’. They said, ‘No, if he is Christian, let him bow now before the saints’. I said ‘This is not the sign of a Christian’. One said, ‘Let no one talk with him, he is foolish a little’; and he who said so was priest.5 On the one hand, the modern attitude adopted by freemasons towards individual rights, political freedoms and internationalism aroused the distrust of nationalist leaders loyal to the regime. On the other hand, the idea of lodges where men of various religions associated in an exclusive bond and swore upon a sacred book was seen as purely idealistic and as a form of religious toleration. It was one of the main masonic virtues criticised by Muslim religious figures; and even more so when Muslims started to enter lodges during the nineteenth century.6 This tolerance towards other confessions was interpreted as neglect and lack of respect for one’s own religion. According to Landau, ‘the libertarian – democratic – egalitarian views of freemasonry [which were] sometimes influenced by a revolutionary spirit’ caused qualms among conservative circles. The expressed cosmopolitanism of the fraternity was supposedly contrary to emerging nationalisms and its secular attitude. Again, as Landau notes, it ‘was perceived by some orthodox Muslim circles as unacceptable, even dangerous – paralleling the aversion of certain Catholic spokesmen to freemasonry’.7 Masonic symbols that drew on a Judaeo-Christian heritage alienated some Muslims, while its religious-like ideology antagonised secular intellectuals.8 In addition, the fact that lodges were engaged in charitable acts and gave financial support to members

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and non-members alike, was, as Landau states, ‘based on standards other than those of the state or Islamic law’. This did not sit well with some Muslims. Finally, their secrecy and what Landau calls their ‘elitist makeup’ made the lodges an ideal target for all the excluded individuals who felt disadvantaged and deprived.9 The disputes among masons in European countries regarding how and to what extent masonic principles and ideologies contradicted nationalism, religiosity and open-mindedness never took place with the same intensity or also academic interest in Arab countries, where discussions on freemasonry are still taboo. It is therefore worthwhile to look at the varying debates and responses in the European context during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, in order to explain theoretical approaches and to illustrate how the implementation of masonic principles depended on social and political circumstances. Knowing the actual state of European lodges, in the period when their members first established freemasonry in the Middle East, is a significant component in understanding the reasons why Syrians participated in the fraternity. It also helps to understand the reciprocal relationship between them and the development of the original European concept in a new and foreign context.10

Religion and Reform During the Enlightenment the power of the church as an institution, with influence on worldly affairs, was questioned by the elite and it lost positions of governmental power in most European countries. A split occurred between the religious and the secular domain: the church’s authority was not taken for granted by everyone any more. While freemasons used lodges as vehicles for enlightened ideologies and ethical secular principles, there existed relatively few freemasons without religious affiliations.11 As early as 1723 Anderson had outlined that a mason should ‘never be a stupid atheist, nor an irreligious libertine’, but that the subject of religion should be excluded from lodges, with freemasons ‘leaving their particular Opinions to themselves’.12 Instead, Anderson argued that freemasonry should support and extend education, in order to recognise the pure humanity of all

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men.13 Religion was set as a precondition for humanity in general.14 Anderson had written his charges with Christianity in mind, as it was ‘that religion in which all Men agree’.15 The same held true for the welcoming of new masons in regard to geographical borders. Masons in the eighteenth century mainly limited their horizons to Europe. Their project for achieving ideal harmony was first and foremost tailored to fellow Christians inside European borders.16 Freemasons in France, for example, restricted entrance to their lodges as ‘[t]he order only admits Christians; outside the Christian Church it cannot, and must not accept any freemason. Therefore Jews, Muslims and Pagans are excluded like infidels.’17 On the other hand, masons did distance themselves from the dogmatism of the Christian Church and insisted on their own regulations, which supposedly did not contradict Christianity, as long as they followed the path revealed in the Bible.18 Against much anti-scientific engagement of the church, masons – sneering at the conservative attitude of the Catholic Church – supported, questioned and challenged conventions and authorities that were commonly taken for granted: ‘Sciences as far as they don’t bow to the Church must be named atheistic in order to keep the Catholic sheep away so they won’t be informed about the interior hollowness of the Roman system.’19 Freemasons walked a tightrope between their feeling of belonging to a superior religion, Christianity, and adherence to the masonic ideal of respect and tolerance towards all religions. They were never able to fulfil their utopian expectations and welcome candidates irrespective of their religious affiliation in the whole of Europe.20 Admission terms for people of a non-Christian orientation differed from time to time and from lodge to lodge. In general terms one can note a more inclusive attitude during the eighteenth century, which later developed into a more nationalistic and restrictive approach. Regarding the position of Muslims in France, Beaurepaire stated that they were ‘in general equally pushed back from the Christian shores, whereas they regularly visited ateliers in Paris, in northern France or in the Austrian Netherlands’. On the other hand, the participation of a Muslim in a lodge meeting could also be used to ‘represent the advantage of exotism and hence qualify the lodge that welcomes

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him’.21 Additionally, the presence of Muslim masons was sometimes seen as proof of the lodge’s beneficent influence on otherwise ‘barbarian’ people. Masons often gloated about the fact that ‘masonic solidarity was stronger than barbarism’.22 More contradictions arose concerning Jewish or non-white aspirants. Jewish lodge members could provoke silence or a breaking of ties between lodges, and nonwhite masons were treated according to their general social standing in society, which during these years was considerably lower than that of the majority white population.23 Margaret Jacob stated that lodges served as ‘schools for government’, in which the ‘impulse of lodges everywhere was to identify with government while in the same breath defining freemasons as enlightened’, striving for a secular order.24 During the Enlightenment their secular aspirations were firmly embedded in the general mood dominant in Europe, where voluntary associations loosened former strong religious relations. According to Jacob, ‘they could set men to thinking about their capabilities’.25 Secularisation and the domestication of religion was said to be one of the significant attributes of modern Europe. Consequently, the state of development of non-European cultures was judged according to the degree of their secularisation.26 Having said that, these new unions could initiate and exercise governance quite effectively on the whole, thereby encouraging loyalty to the central authority. Yet in doing so they could also foster independence and selfreliance among the beneficiaries of the state’s expanded role. One has to keep in mind that the lodges were indeed exclusive and elitist spaces with their own structural constraints. Yet, the participants themselves also had to deal and comply with general political regulations, unwritten social codes of conduct and conventions of appropriate behaviour. Masonry’s predicament was centred on the fact that the functioning of masonic principles could only be guaranteed in selected circles, which at the same time limited the outcome and potential impact on a wider circle. According to Jacob, masons tried to overcome the antagonism between reformism and loyalty without abandoning their ‘masonic sense of uniqueness’, which crystallised during the eighteenth century.27 As she states, British lodges for example were ‘remarkably

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supportive of established institutions of church and state. Yet they could also house divisive, or oppositional, political perspectives.’28 With regard to intervention or active participation in politics, lodges differed in their attitudes in both time and place. For instance, masons in Vienna and Paris were proponents of state reforms, but in most of the cases they were not politically involved. Lodges were ‘also places where deep social tensions were expressed and adjudicated. More than the English, Dutch, or Belgian lodges, the French lodges were places where violent quarrels erupted.’29 Masons in London were mainly linked to the Whig party and used the meetings for party politics and lobbying.30 According to Jacob, the lodges were an important vehicle for inculcating loyalism to king and government. As she writes, ‘subordination to “legitimate” authority was vigorously pursued by the Grand Lodge of London and was demanded of all lodges affiliated with it’. Though, irrespective of affiliation, Jacob argued that ‘once overtly political in their purpose, the lodges might turn in all sorts of directions’.31 The situation in the Ottoman Empire was different in regard to the fact that its population was made up of various religions and the general standing of its followers in the eyes of the law. They did not have the same rights. When it entered the Ottoman Empire, freemasonry was a complete product of an enlightened Europe, which seemed to profit from civil rights, secular education and modern ways of social communication. Religion still played a role but in urban and academic circles it had been relegated to the fringes in questions regarding culture and ethical codes. At the same time other groups gained grounds. Guilds, professional associations and various function-based societies managed to increase their influence and decision-making powers. Freemasonry fitted into the European zeitgeist. In the Ottoman Empire, in contrast, it was a novelty and acted as a vanguard for organised interest groups that sought to bridge religious gaps. Beirut developed into a large port-city, while becoming at the same time a multi-ethnic and multi-religious environment ‘characterized by an expanded public sphere and a variety of global connections’. A new middle class evolved and ‘consolidated the distinct character of the Ottoman coast’. And it was these ‘influential domestic actors who successfully transformed a region in their own vision’.32

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While Christians in Greater Syria generally had fewer problems in adapting to Western ideas, learning Western languages or travelling through Europe, they were not alone in propagating reforms – as illustrated by the examples of Al-Afghani and Abduh. Among the Muslim advocates for profound change was Hussein Al-Jisr from Tripoli. Al-Jisr was a religious and erudite man who taught at various institutions and was responsible for Tripoli’s first published newspaper, the Jaridat Tarabulus al-Sham, which was first printed in 1893.33 Belonging to a non-conservative circle of Muslim academics, Al-Jisr is considered as the author of one of the first serious Islamic responses to Darwinism.34 He was not averse to new and foreign ideas. In his works, for example, he attempts to define what should be the correct content of an Islamic book on natural sciences.35 Al-Jisr used religious and scientific arguments against materialistic Darwinism. Without contradicting the existence of God, he accepted parts of Darwin’s theory of evolution as long as they were consistent with his own faith and rationality. However, he refuted all scientific findings that seemed to him to be pure speculation or incompatible with the Koran.36 Darwinian ideas probably first entered Greater Syria by way of the seminar rooms of the Syrian Protestant College in Beirut, where Edwin Lewis, one of the senior lecturers, was a keen champion of his countryman’s ideas. At the end of the nineteenth century, Darwinism was debated in an article by Louis Büchner, entitled Bestätigung der Unsterblichkeit der Materie durch die Darwinsche Theorie,37 which was translated into Arabic.38 Contrary to Darwin, Büchner considered Darwinism to be applicable to animals, including human beings. Thus, he concluded that there was no difference between body and soul. The majority of religiously-minded Muslims and Christians reacted strongly against Darwinism. Again another group of thinkers tried to harmonise religion and science, while a third defended Büchner’s perspective. The biggest obstacle for constructive debates consisted in the mindsets of those involved in the topic. After all, the theory had been developed by empirical natural scientists, but was discussed and attacked by men without a background in science and academia. Critics included theologians, linguists and literary studies experts, who all displayed different traditions of thinking.39

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The level of discussion was comparable in Greater Syria and in Europe. Early Syrian newspapers showed great interest in this issue and Al Muqtataf gave its readers the opportunity to join in the debate in the form of published letters to the editors. Indeed, Al-Jisr used this forum to learn more about Darwinism.40 Those who wrote letters were more often than not involved in freemasonry and/or other societies and therefore familiar with the possibility of the coexistence of faith and science, an idea propagated throughout the lodges.41 Mohammad Abduh translated Spencer’s Education: Intellectual, Moral and Physical, whilst another freemason and co-founder of Al Muqtataf, Yacub Sarruf, was responsible for the Arabic version of Samuel Smiles’s Self-Help in 1879.42 According to Reid, ‘the heyday of unrestrained private enterprise was already beginning to draw to a close in Britain and America by the time the Syrian Christians discovered its attraction as an ideology’.43 As Peter W. Sinnema writes, Self-Help was after all ‘one of the most popular works of nonfiction published in England in the second half of the nineteenth century’. The book ‘celebrates individuality, autonomy, and civility, virtues central to the projects of other nineteenth-century institutions that actively encouraged cultivation of the intellectual and moral working-class self: the mechanics’ institutes, public libraries, people’s colleges, and lyceums’.44 For us, it may seem like a loose collection and list of successful men, but for Yacub Sarruf and Jurji Zaidan the book exactly expressed their thoughts. As Reid writes, ‘they were eager to point out to others the road they had taken to fame and fortune’.45 Both freemasons were successful journalists, and together with Faris Nimr among those who went to Cairo at the end of the century because of ‘the lack of intellectual freedom at the Syrian Protestant College’ as well as to avoid the strict censorship in place in Beirut.46 In Cairo the freemasons Nimr and Sarruf soon became acquainted with Lord Cromer, the British controller-general and a freemason who later became consul-general of Egypt.47 Significant parallels existed between their professional lives and their participation in lodges. As Reid notes, Sarruf was primarily interested ‘in popularizing Western science in the Middle East’, while Zaidan’s focus was on society, history and literature. Sarruf and Nimr agitated

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against socialism – fearing this would provide the government with an opportunity to subordinate Christians to the Islamic majority and strongly advocated individual empowerment via self-help. However, Zaidan’s newspaper, Al Hilal, did not object to socialism in general.48 Zaidan’s history of freemasonry makes it abundantly clear that he considered the brotherhood to be a noble society, with its activities and principles worthy of glory. He perceived its secrecy as a potential image problem that would disappear as soon as people became sufficiently educated and qualified to appreciate an open masonic fraternity. At this time he believed that one day the veil of masonic secrecy would be removed.49 When joining Egyptian lodges, Sarruf and Nimr selected a more political approach to daily challenges. In Cairo, as in Constantinople, lodges were more radical and politicised. They did not always adhere to the masonic stipulation that prohibited discussion of politics and religion. Consequently many freemasons were involved in political movements.50 Zaidan’s first contact with freemasonry came in his home country, but he did not continue to go to lodge meetings when in Egypt. This could be considered another indicator of the differences between lodges in Lebanon and Egypt. He did not belong to the pro-revolutionary wing of freemasonry in Egypt, which included Abduh and Al-Afghani. What is more, the first lodges in Beirut were less prone to mix charitable efforts with actual political engagement. This attitude was mirrored in Zaidan’s choice of topics for his newspaper, as opposed to Al-Afghani’s political writings. In general, though, many freemasons in Greater Syria went through a process of radicalisation. As Khuri notes, ‘they concluded that reform by dialogue and peaceful settlement may be unattainable, and therefore a revolution was an absolute necessity in certain cases’.51 Taking a stand against socialism, Sarruf and Nimr used Smiles as a guide, stating that only if the individual were allowed to gain liberty would he enjoy the fruits of his own work. In their view, prosperity was the result of an individual’s efforts, economic actions, frugality and restraint. In contrast, they argued, poverty was a result of laziness and thoughtlessness. What they abhorred most was the negation of the individual through collectivism.52

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They shared a new emphasis on individual empowerment. In Syria, as in Europe some decades before, this newly discovered individualism was a natural outcome of the changing social situation. The growing involvement of the Ottoman Empire in global business and capitalism weakened other traditional networks and shifted the balance from the community to the individual. Smiles’s book, first read in Victorian England, showed how men could succeed if only they possessed sufficient will, perseverance and energy. In Self-Help one not only finds the British as examples, as it uses successful biographical stories from all over Western Europe. The descriptions range from ancestors of Smiles to contemporaries. Hence, at the time the work was inspiring and attractive to a lot of men. It is doubtful whether Smiles ever thought of writing a bestseller that would be translated into non-European languages. If so, he probably would have included more exotic examples and concealed or excluded his belief in the superiority of Europeans. Describing missionary labour and achievements in colonial India, Smiles stressed that thanks to them ‘a magnificent college was erected at Serampore; sixteen flourishing stations were established; the Bible was translated into sixteen languages, and the seeds were sown of a beneficent moral revolution in British India’.53 Furthermore, thanks to India, Britain had found ‘a great field for the display of British energy’.54 For non-Europeans the book provided perfect proof of the fact that each individual was responsible for his own life. Although the situation of the Ottoman Empire looked bleak at the time, the book suggested that there was no need for despair, since the cure against this sickness was to be found in freemasonry – the brotherhood that fostered individual improvement and reliability. For Middle Eastern intellectuals, Self-Help illustrated clearly the reasons for Europe’s superiority. Smiles admitted that no individual could be strong if isolated, but clearly limited the power of governments to provide passive help. A citizen’s duty was to be active, while the government served merely to protect ‘life, liberty, and property’. Reforms could only be successful ‘by means of individual action, economy, and self-denial’,55 since ‘national progress is the sum of individual industry, energy, and brightness, as national decay is of individual idleness, selfishness, and vice’.56 This individual duty was

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not restricted to a certain field, specific occupation or class. Selfimprovement was possible throughout society: ‘in the school of labour is taught the best practical wisdom; nor is a life of manual employment [. . .] incompatible with high mental culture’.57 According to him, this stress on personal responsibility was the basis from which future developments would spring forth. Likewise freemasonry stresses the individual responsibility for self-improvement. Only then with this continuing process of self-scrutiny is it possible to have an impact on the outside world at all. Some Ottomans, such as Ussama Makdisi, tended to think in terms of what can be called ‘Ottoman Orientalism’.58 Makdisi claims that ‘from the outset of the nineteenth-century, Ottomans recognised and responded to the power of Western orientalism by embracing the latter’s underlying logic of time and progress, while resisting its political and colonialist implications’.59 Ottoman orientalism responded to Western military and economic might. To some extent it was an adverse-effects reflex to European penetration. Hence, Ottoman reformers compared Western modernity with their own slow pace of development. Modernisation was sought to lead to a ‘free and progressive America of the East’.60 This would lift the Empire into the modern age. Like Christians in Greater Syria, who pointed to a flourishing period of culture and science in the pre-Islamic period, Muslims stressed the contemporary era in order to prove, as Fuad Pasha states, that the Empire ‘had always been tolerant, and therefore like any other European state, in fact more than any other European state, could rightfully claim to be a modern and civilized power’.61 As Makdisi writes, ‘like Japan, which was an important example for Ottoman officials especially after its defeat of Russia in 1905, the late Ottoman state perceived itself as part of the East, but superior to the rest of the Eastern peoples’.62 Makdisi analysed Butrus al-Bustani and Fuad Pasha as two representatives of Ottoman orientalism and further examples to support his theory. According to him, both men agreed upon the fact that the Middle East’s backwardness was clearly displayed during the struggles of the 1860s. However, while Fuad Pasha advocated reforms in order to strengthen Ottoman authority and its government, Bustani spoke out in strong terms against corrupt, unqualified and hypocritical politicians. He despised ignorance and supported a better educational

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system. According to him, civil and religious matters should be separated into public space and the private sphere. At the same time, for Bustani, modernisation of Ottoman society entailed the rediscovery of old traditions based on mutual tolerance and coexistence.63 In contradistinction to this view, Fuad Pasha considered that reforms had to emanate from the top, due to the archaic power structures of the Syrian elites. He also supported modernisation, when necessary, in the form of enforced obedience, which sought to reconsolidate the principle of a separation between rulers and the ruled.64 Likewise Bustani asked for a strong and enlightened government in order to guide the flock on the evolutionary path, but he realised that only citizens, not subjects, would be able to lead the Empire through a process of modernisation.65 In his eyes, modernity included values of brotherhood, tolerance, equality, rights and liberty.66 Bustani defined the aim of learning and education in order ‘to strengthen the ties of love and concord among all sections of society, and to ward off the causes of fanaticism and discord. The experience of one’s own ancestors should be made the basis of knowledge.’67 Unlike freemasonry in Western states, the fraternity in the Ottoman Empire did not focus its energies on one main religious persuasion (as will be demonstrated in the following chapters). While Christianity was the religion of the European majority, with only small insignificant minorities alongside, Ottoman Syria was made up of many more religious communities. Here, the fraternity proved to be more geared towards inclusion than exclusion, which also had an impact on its main characteristics. Freemasonry developed in an atmosphere permeated by the European zeitgeist and the cultural developments in Europe. There was no such counterpart in the Ottoman Empire. Without doubt, individual improvement was the main reason to join freemasonry in Syria, but it seems lodges were built mainly to realise the hopes of members to reach out to the ‘profane’ world. The debates in Europe were different, insofar as the topics concerned the citizens as a whole and topics of a philosophical nature could be easily discussed. However, in the Ottoman Empire the main topic engaging most of the men’s minds concerned what the next day would bring and how they would be able to survive in a society in which rifts were becoming continuously more pronounced.

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When analysing lodges established between the 1860s and the Young Turk Revolution in 1908, one can note that a dominant impetus behind masonic expansion centred on the feeling of the need to strengthen society as a whole, including all its various sects. Unity was supposed to produce strength and no difference was made regarding religious belonging, as men of various persuasions were invited. The Bible was as welcome as was the Qur’an. Ottomans who decided to join freemasonry clearly wanted to see change. For now, they had secured their place in an institution that brought together many of the important men of the city or village. This could be an advantage in terms of their own socio-cultural standing, as well as when conducting business. The expansion of lodges meant that they were able to join other lodges, in other places, thereby building up masonic and business networks. If lodges were able to progressively increase their membership, then soon everyone would recognise that it was not worth fighting each other over questions of religious affiliation. Rather, they could only survive if they practised what Bustani preached and freemasonry taught: mutual tolerance and coexistence.

Inclusion or Exclusion The Old Charges envisaged that ‘preferment among Masons is grounded upon real Worth and personal Merit only’, but this principle was at the same time invalidated by other determining factors concerning membership in general. The Charges state that a mason had to be of ‘a perfect Youth, having no Maim or Defect in his Body, that may render him incapable to learning the Art’. In addition, he ‘should be descended of honest Parents’. Moreover, the last and highest masonic degree could only be reached by a man who was ‘nobly born, or a Gentleman of the best Fashion, or some eminent Scholar, or some curious Architect, or other Artist, descended of honest Parents, and who is of singular great Merit in the Opinion of the Lodges’.68 Thus, Anderson’s Charges had already paved the way for the later emergence of the inconsistencies between a concept of equality before masonic law and elitism in practice.

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As Jacob noted, lodges required literacy and ‘perhaps most important, relative affluence which was necessary to pay the dues’.69 However, it would be wrong to view the lodges in a purely negative light, which revolved around an elitist lifestyle. A mason’s individual wealth served at the same time as a precondition for a wide philanthropic system. Once again, Jacob states ‘the associations also provided a refuge, an escape from censorship’ for masons, ‘or in case of the lodges, a place for assistance and charity where the state or the churches could not, or would not, provide’.70 Honest and concerted efforts to improve general education were characteristic of masonic lodges. Masons typically rallied against Catholic theology and advocated the inherent moral quality of human nature, which should be strengthened and advanced by education and the exercise of reason.71 Beneficence towards non-masons was not only perceived as a means of providing immediate relief for the needy, but also as a masonic duty to work for the improvement of a mason’s surroundings as a step towards the goal of universal human prosperity. This masonic philanthropic attitude unintentionally highlighted the differences between masons and non-masons, as well as between the affluent elite and the poor, by exposing those who gave and those who received. The lodges created a new social sphere that formed a microcosm of society, where one needed a masonic passport to enter.72 This necessary accessory was not restricted to European institutions, but was valid for lodges worldwide. The document stated the name of the mason, the affiliated lodge and the lawfulness and recognition of the concerned member. The certificate was authenticated by the signatures of the lodge’s head and its secretary. The added ID picture enabled others to check the validity of the document, while varying symbols were supposed to emphasise the masonic significance. The masonic passport shown (see Figure 4) belonged to an Arab freemason from Le Liban lodge and was supposed to enable him to enter lodges that recognised daughter lodges of the Grand Orient of France. While a potential member had to prove his virtue nobleness, a travelling mason had to provide this document from his own lodge in order to be recognised.

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Figure 4 Masonic Passport from the 1930s (an example of an Arabic masonic passport photographed in 2008 at the Centre de Recherche et de Documentation Maconnique, Charles Kesrouani, Ghazir/Lebanon)

As Hoffmann argues, ‘associations represented the most important medium for developing and strengthening new identities in the nineteenth century’. But the proliferation of associations did not necessarily entail the strengthening of civil society’s values; ‘those new identities in turn set their own, occasionally anti-liberal, agendas’.73 The system of black balling, which entailed noting one’s objection to a candidate’s admission by means of a black ball during the voting process, had the potential to foster social discrimination. In various cases, an elitist corps filtered out non-conformist masons. In addition, the secrecy of masonic rituals enhanced the need to pay attention to new members. One reason for keeping the public in the dark about ceremonies within the lodge was in order to strengthen the members’ feeling of being part of something special. Masons learned to be cautious in their choice of words and their deportment. As Anderson stated in 1723, ‘the most penetrating Stranger shall not be able to discover or find out what is not proper to be intimated’ and

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sometimes, when necessary, a mason had to ‘divert a Discourse’.74 A masonic lodge had to constantly endeavour to reconcile its inherent paradoxes: ‘[l]eft in the night of secret societies while being united as sons of the light’.75 It is true of all secret societies, as Simmel claims, that ‘the strongly accentuated exclusion of all not within the circle of secrecy results in a correspondingly accentuated feeling of personal possession’. Its existence alone has a value and, as Simmel stated, it gives ‘the person enshrouded by it an exceptional position’, in which ‘everything secret is something essential and significant’.76 The more essential and important the secret seems to be, the stronger the bond among the inaugurated. To quote Simmel once again, while secrecy ‘works toward isolation and individualisation, socialisation is a counteractive factor’.77 According to Hoffmann, the masonic fraternity’s ‘secrecy and the emotional cult of brotherhood’ created a space separated from everyday life. It was ‘a male world of love and ritual’ and a ‘flight from domesticity’.78 This was illustrated by means of the dramatic admission ceremony, as described by Noel Gist, who stated that it involved ‘leading the novice from the “profane” world into the realm of mystery’.79 The quasi-religious ceremonial oath underlined this significant step away from the profane world and towards enlightenment.80

Nationalism and Cosmopolitanism Between 1776 and 1778 Gotthold Ephraim Lessing wrote a fictional discussion about freemasonry. His protagonists – Ernst and Falk – attempt to reveal its deeper truths by entering into a Socratic dialogue. Falk adopts the role of Socrates, thereby steering Ernst with suggestive questions in the desired direction. In their second conversation, they deal directly with the on-going and seemingly insoluble paradox inherent in freemasonry. How is it possible to be a cosmopolitan striving for one universal brotherhood without becoming an anti-nationalist, an atheist or an anarchist?81 Falk: Hence, we imagine the best kind of state; we imagine that all human beings live in this state: would therefore all men of the world constitute a single state?

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Ernst: Hardly so. Such a monstrous state could not be administrated. Falk: That means: all men would still be German and French, Dutch and Spain, Russian and Swedish; or whatever they would be anyway. Ernst: Sure enough. Falk: Hence, we received already something. Is it not true that all of these little states would have their own interests? And every member of them would act for the interest of his state.82 Lessing, who was initiated into the fraternity at a lodge in Hamburg in 1771, categorised the masonic raison d’étre as a serious attempt to improve and stabilise mankind and human relations, in order to overcome inevitable evils. The state was a tool and an intermediate stage in this process towards enlightenment. Unlike Gottfried Leibniz, Lessing did not believe that humans lived in the best possible world. However, the state provided for and protected the well-being of its citizens by way of its social order and legal administration. Accordingly, universal equality was possible if the world was divided into states. His two protagonists do not claim that the existence of states had to be overcome, but rather that there must be something else as well: a concept that could obliterate the existing distinctions between different religions, ethnicities, and civil societies, without affecting political systems. Hence, freemasonry’s most challenging duty, in Lessing’s opinion, was to function as this ideal concept.83 In contrast to this rather utopian idea, freemasonry’s fate was always connected to its social and political surroundings; it worked within existing societies and was therefore to a certain extent restricted. At the same time, masons also belonged to other networks and had to conform to additional structural frameworks. In the eighteenth century, as Anthony J. La Vopa writes, ‘the “public” first assumed a recognisably modern shape and became a powerful ideological construct’.84 Freemasonry, like academic or literary societies, was a concomitant phenomenon of the European Enlightenment. As part of a vanguard for an evolving civil society and harbinger for political parties, freemasons wanted to affect their communities, by aiming to

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advance the commonwealth according to agreed upon tenets.85 One of the main characteristics was freemasonry’s claim to espouse cosmopolitanism. The literal meaning of the Greek word kosmopolis derives from kosmos (world order, universe) and polis (city, community of citizens). The word was conceived during the Enlightenment and evolved into various forms and deviations. However, the perception of a Weltbürger or citoyen de l’univers, whilst popular among intellectuals, never became established in broader circles or among the lower classes. According to Sami Zubaida, a person ‘who is multilingual, multicultural, at home in different milieus and who has wide interests across cultural and national boundaries’ can be defined as cosmopolitan, but can still advocate nationalism.86 Particularism and universalism, as Zubaida argues, are not necessarily perceived ‘as in succession’ or ‘as mutually exclusive’.87 Moreover, as Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann notes, the concept of ‘nation’ indeed ‘promises universal human equality’ and grants the individual some privileges, but these rights can only become manifest in an existing, structured and statutory framework, which constitutes ‘universality in the particular, distinguishing itself from other particularities’.88 The weakening of traditional boundaries and the development of new institutions were precursors for individualisation and liberty, which as Zubaida notes ‘allow and may facilitate the de-racinisation from caste, community and religion’.89 Whereas this is also a condition for cosmopolitanism, the emergence of capitalism and modern states generated other criteria for identification and classification. Hence, cosmopolitanism was not an automatic outcome of globalisation.90 Moreover, when confronted with extreme realities, periods of war, starvation and poverty, ideals tend to collapse – as happened to the concept of cosmopolitanism in Europe during the nineteenth century. Rebecka Lettevall defines cosmopolitanism, regardless of its multiple facets, more as an ideal than a doctrine.91 According to her, its advocates strive for a better world in the future and most of them know quite well how this ideal world should be brought closer, but are never able to reach this cosmopolitan utopia in the real world. Pauline Kleingeld distinguishes between at least six forms of cosmopolitanism,

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which all have different implications and are themselves influenced by surroundings.92 However, what all of these forms share is an emphasis on one common humanity and respect for other cultures, human rights and moral equality. Without challenging specifically Western criteria, norms were applied for all existing communities, showing an inherently prejudiced elitist character.93 The aspect of Europe’s superiority regarding other cultures is not something claimed solely by cosmopolitans. Arguably, the plural term ‘cultures’ came into use in the nineteenth century, when Europe was still considered as the paradigm for evolution.94 Freemasonry did not develop in a vacuum. In the early days of speculative freemasonry, lodge members mainly belonged to the elite of society who helped the fraternity to spread around the globe. It encapsulated enlightened ideas of brotherhood, such as universal solidarity. According to Andreas Önnerfors, ‘cosmopolitan ideas were formulated and practiced very early on, but these ideas were a part of joint European sociability that remained closed for those who were not initiated into it’.95As Pierre-Yves Beaurepaire makes clear, ‘for freemasons, two worlds existed: the masonic Cosmopolitanism permitted the brothers to open up and discover themselves in two fitting universes, the one in which they were born and where they asserted themselves, and the one they had chosen, constructed, in which they wanted to be exemplary citizens – though without “sovereignty” to use the expression by Daniel Gordon’.96 Moreover, the question arose as to how far members of a secret society could possibly claim to be cosmopolitans when they included some but excluded others. The first European lodges were used as a kind of formative playground for the emerging concept of civil society. It was in this semiotic arena, as Margaret Jacob stated, that ‘men also became legislators and constitution makers’, in addition to the already existing debating clubs and literary societies.97 Within the lodge masons proclaimed a universalistic ethic, while at the same time insisting on the strict separation between their fellow brethren and the so-called profane. But it was exactly in these restricted circles that the general love of mankind as a whole was preached. Citing the Scottish freemason Andrew Michael Ramsay (1686–1743), Önnerfors argues that freemasons

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indeed considered themselves to be part of a universal collective. The fraternity purported a commitment to a vision of mankind in which ‘all nations can borrow sound knowledge’ and can ‘live without discord and cherish one another without renouncing one’s homeland’.98 Lodges were perceived as the antithesis of the Babylonian confusion of tongues. Masonic homes should bridge and harmonise all distinctions, iron out misconceptions and strengthen ecumenism.99 On the strength of the uniformity of lodges, universalism was thought to be possible. Freemasons, although initially concentrating in Europe, created lodges as similarly structured associations, following the same rules and respecting the same principles throughout the world. During the second half of the eighteenth century masonry was so successful in Europe that it was identified as a dominant European institution besides the church.100 Lodge members used the improved and expanding infrastructure of international masonry in order to bolster an increase in the frequency of communication and travel. These strengthening links served as a channel for information, the affirmation of mutual sympathy or simply as a better means of control, thanks to the possibility of closer observation.101 Unfortunately, laudable principles and resolutions did not fare well in the nineteenth century when tested in martial reality. The opinion that civilised nations must absorb and reform the uncivilised in the name of humanity as separate ‘national projects’ became widespread, for example, in German masonic circles.102 The moral language of freemasonry seemed increasingly contradictory, in terms of social and cultural visions and realities.103 Not only did secrecy create boundaries between insiders and the so-called profane, but as has been mentioned already, the common requirements for participation in the lodges also only included educated, wealthy men. Moreover, as Hoffmann notes, ‘national societies moved closer together’, as the antagonism between masonic ideal principles and the actual ceremonies and rituals inside lodges became even more pronounced.104 Hence, while masons remained trapped in their cages of politically correct language, other organisations, such as the labour and peace movements, started to build international networks. According to Zubaida, Europe opened ways ‘for social mobility which assimilated individuals into different

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social and cultural milieus’. The new means of the mobility of people and ideas, facilitated through printing, created a ‘new intellectual’ model and ended the system of a ‘unitary Weltanschauung’.105 In the meantime, each masonic national grand lodge displayed reservations against its foreign brothers. Indeed national masonic bodies championed their own superiority and the role of their own countries ‘to develop the idea of human progress’ and ‘to love, to serve, and to die for humanity’.106 Allegedly, every lodge possessed the ultimate key to universalism and cosmopolitanism. Although ‘German Romantic nationalism was explicitly anti-cosmopolitan’, as Zubaida stated, this nationalism was understood by some freemasons as ‘part of a universalist commitment’.107 In the case of the Grand Orient of France, it had already begun to behave by the end of the eighteenth century, as Pierre-Yves Beaurepaire argues, ‘as a national obedience and refused every foreign intrusion – especially a British one – on French grounds, claiming the monopoly over foreign correspondence’. Harsher rejections were still to come as ‘the emergence of nationalism radicalised positions at the end of the century’.108 The masonic lodges formed in British colonies once again highlight the discrepancy between masonic cosmopolitan ideology and reality. Freemasonry did facilitate and advance intra-cultural exchanges, but interactions took place, as Harland-Jacobs observes, in ‘the context of unequal power relations’. She goes on to argue that they played a ‘critical role in building, consolidating, and perpetuating the empire’.109 Empires functioned like global players, while at the same time they were keen to preserve their national characteristics. British freemasonry spread in parallel to the presence of the British army, missionaries and travellers. Hence, the British model of the fraternity became global without becoming universal or cosmopolitan. As Margaret Jacob notes, ‘for international travellers or military men, the national character of the lodges permitted an appeal that could compensate for the failure of states to reward or care for their citizens or servants’.110 Only to a ‘very limited extent’, according to Harland-Jacobs, did the supposed principle of tolerance and cosmopolitan ideology form masonic networks ‘that included men from various cultures’.111

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Its primary purpose in foreign countries was to connect British people and thereby establish an imperialistic social and economic network. In this way freemasonry played a counterproductive role, that is, it impeded the development of a cosmopolitan culture in the colonies. As Harland-Jacobs argues, it encouraged ‘an imperialist identity among its members’, serving as a ‘discrete institutional force that consolidated British imperialism’.112 On the other hand, one could also claim that masons of the British Empire still perfectly embodied the principles of the masonic charges expounded by James Anderson in 1723.113 Herein Anderson states that ‘a Mason is a peaceable Subject to the Civil Powers, wherever he resides or works, and is never to be concern’d in Plots an Conspiracies against the Peace and Welfare of the Nation’.114 The lodges belonging to the Grand Orient of Italy that were established in foreign countries offered their members first of all ‘a place to meet and sociability, thus, different forms of help and protection’ and were characterised as an ‘instrument to preserve the tie to their homeland and to cultivate the feeling to belong to a distant national community’.115 In contrast to the British, French or German branches of freemasonry, Italian lodges opened up much more to locals and were used as a means to build and cement economic, social and political relations between their members, irrespective of nationality. ‘Cette ouverture vers l’extérieur’ was typical mainly of Italian lodges in the Mediterranean area, where they also played an important role for Sephardic Jews, who joined the craft in large numbers.116 Their emphasis on laïcité, which often bordered on anti-clericalism, enabled all men regardless of religion to participate. Being monotheistic in belief was a precondition, but this was compatible with an aversion to religious dogmatism, as well as to the power and influence of the church and to political conservatism. Modernisation and democratisation were channelled, propagated and advanced in significant measure by the members of these lodges.117 One has to keep in mind that masonic rhetoric and its theoretical framework of rules did not have to be consistent with what was actually implemented. It is appropriate to state that the particular emphasis on masonic maxims shifted and was responsive to the dynamism of

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socio-cultural surroundings and the lodges’ status in their homelands, as well as in colonial settings. Whereas the French and German lodges worked in a European context, where masonry already existed and identities were created partly by means of national distinctions, the British and Italian lodges were established when colonialism was on the rise. They entered countries with no prior experience of masonry, where power relations were unequal and where the need to preserve the existing status quo, in order to ease trade, was probably more pressing than the desire to spread national wisdom. After World War One, German masons shifted their attention to the preservation of lodges and to the support of individual members. Additionally, they warned against the mixing of cultures and the loss of purity of German spiritual might.118 Lodges were seen as spiritual homesteads, in which it was possible to meet and express one’s personal troubles.119 This perception of masonic challenges after the devastating war resembled the experiences made by British freemasons when entering the ‘virgin soil’ of their colonies. It should be stressed that not all freemasons displayed nationalistic or patriotic feelings towards their Heimat. However, the general mood of the fraternity, as Hoffmann describes, made sure that ‘the pacifist, internationally orientated wing of European Freemasonry had little influence on political decision-making in France or Germany or, indeed, inside the lodges of both countries’.120 The tension and ambivalence between cosmopolitanism and nationalism outlived the nineteenth century: ‘we are far away from a fraternity based on virtue, sciences and humanity. A community welded together against the one it rejects and, positively, for the cultivation of common values.’121 With the outbreak of World War One, the reciprocal influence of ideologies had become even more pronounced. Did Ottoman freemasons advocate a certain ideology that was either compatible with or hostile to masonic principles, as it has been experienced in Europe? Preserved written material from Western lodges convincingly shows that on-going discussions took place inside the lodges, but no such sources exist concerning lodges in the Middle East in the nineteenth century. It may be true that lodges in Egypt and contemporary Turkey turned towards nationalism and displayed a

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more radical antipathy against Western meddling. However, although nationalising efforts for a certain period in some areas succeeded, lodges in Greater Syria never strictly cut their relations to Western lodges.122 Comparisons of masonic tenets in general with the output of Syrian intellectuals, who were also freemasons, may be one way to get closer to the role the fraternity played in their daily lives. Yet, researchers can only refer to documents of individual masons and their ideas or perception of the situation and it seems to be wrong to classify these sources as strictly masonic in spirit. In most cases these Arab thinkers had revealed their thoughts prior to initiation in a lodge. For them, freemasonry provided an institutional framework, or a tool, as an anonymous letter to masonic magazine emphasised: ‘Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity. We do sincerely believe, and have spoken of it already to others, that the final unification of the divergent interests and conflicting ambitions and rivalry among nations, communities, and individuals will be accomplished by the efforts of true religion coupled with the praiseworthy efforts of Freemasonry.’123 The author of the letter expressed his hope and confidence that the time would come ‘when the West and the East shall clasp each other’s hands, when the Orient and the Occident shall embrace each other and go forward’. However, motives for writing this letter are unknown and since it was published in 1908, when the Young Turks took power, the writer may well have been driven by fear of the revolution’s implications for his future. This thought is substantiated when he reminds the Western brothers that ‘every civilised government knows that it cannot commit any glaring wrongs against her weak neighbours for there are many of its subjects who will not countenance such a cruel, unjust policy’.124 When European freemasons during the nineteenth century displayed growing pride in their nationality and their fatherland, brothers from the Middle East perceived their own homelands as becoming increasingly chaotic and nationalism was an idea yet to come to full force. Ideas from the Enlightenment were borrowed and different approaches supported in order to improve the Empire’s condition, which was perceived as sickly. Many reformers pictured the Empire as a body that had caught a disease and was now in need of a doctor to find the right

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cure. Jamal al-Din al-Afghani and Mohammad Abduh, who were both freemasons, were two of the best known advocates of reform in order to strengthen Islam and thereby society itself. Both used Darwinian terminology, as Aziz al-Azmeh states, to proclaim that a society was healthy if it had various ‘functionally interdependent components and that it would only be “consummate” when it had proven to be capable of subjugating others’.125 In Afghani’s eyes, the Ottoman Empire was hindered by westernisation, new sects and by military defeats. His cure served also as the battle cry for many other reformers championing a campaign that stressed the need to return to the Empire’s authentic roots.126 Herder’s thoughts were recognisable in the reform proposals of these men. His notion of vital romanticism and his emphasis on pedagogy found its equivalent in Afghani’s support of moral Islamic education. As Al-Azmeh notes, Herder’s ideas effectively represented a simple ‘paradigm for Romantic nationalism throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries’.127 Hussein Al-Jisr (1845–1909) again provides an example of a man, though not a mason, who was antithetical to the West; for him Europeans were racists who deliberately destabilised the Ottoman Empire for their own ends. He considered the British occupation of Egypt as just another example of Western hypocrisy: on the one hand, Europeans talked about reforms and modernisation, whilst on the other hand, they used force against Egyptian students at the Al-Azhar University who had sought to express their freedom of opinion.128 In the public press, ideologies were discussed relating to displays of nationalist attitudes connected with language issues and religion. As in Europe, only elite circles were involved in debates concerning various different ideologies. The number of people reading newspapers and journals was even smaller and mainly consisted of graduates from schools in Greater Syria and Egypt. These students were predominantly male, relatively young and lived in an urban environment.129 Examining the role of newspapers and journals as a tool for communication and dialogue shows that between 1876 and 1926 Al Muqtataf published 3,500 letters from readers. Most of the disputes, though, took place after the editors had left Beirut for Cairo in 1876.130

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Before the Young Turk Revolution, loyalty to the Ottoman Empire was discussed only rarely in the press – partly due to censorship but mainly because anything else was out of the question.131 Up until the end of the nineteenth century, articles in the press concentrated on questions related to the standard of Arabic. Al Muqtataf effectively began this trend in 1881, with an article defending the use of foreign words in order to keep pace with modern inventions. Yacub Sarruf and Faris Nimr, both freemasons, were amongst the advocates for a controlled Arabication of foreign words. Their main argument was also supposed to please conservative antagonists. They highlighted the fact that Arabic was such a rich and well structured language, that it easily could adapt and integrate foreign vocabulary.132 As both Sarruf and Nimr were journalists, language was an everyday tool for them and was supposed to be as practical as possible. Ultimately they were victorious in their linguistic battle, as it was seemingly unavoidable to include Western expressions in Arabic.133 There were even proposals to Latinise Arabic in order to make it more accessible, but these were rebuffed by more conservative scholars with the hint that such an initiative would be damaging to traditional Arabic literature and its cultural heritage.134 Events in Europe during the nineteenth century served as models, which were sometimes deemed worthwhile to imitate or to adapt. However, cosmopolitanism was not among the concepts widely discussed in the Middle East in this period. Values regarding mankind in general were laid out, but attention was first and foremost directed at domestic grievances.135 Freemasons were suspected of being behind the French Revolution, although they were not held responsible for its negative processes. Admiration for this seemingly successful revolution was among the reasons for the famous scholar Al-Afghani to join the brotherhood in the first place, though he soon became frustrated with his lodge when it refused to address political issues.136 Most Syrian freemasons were probably romantic cosmopolitans to an extent, who believed in a commonly agreed understanding of morality and the potential unity of all human beings. At the same time, the majority of freemasons considered themselves – at least in Beirut – to be cultural nationalists. According to Yasir Suleiman, ‘cultural

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nationalism is a reactive movement, or defensive response, on the part of the educated elites, against externally generated challenges to the existing order of the community and its traditional belief systems’.137 This also explains the fact why so many freemasons in Beirut in their positions as journalists, scholars, educators and artists read ‘modernity into tradition at the same time as treating tradition as an expression of modernity’.138 A focus on the regional environment can clearly be seen in Mikha’il Mishaqa’s history of Syria. Mishaqa belonged to a family that was deeply involved in freemasonry and wrote his history of Greater Syria in the 1870s, when he actively promoted the idea of brotherhood.139 As Zachs notes, ‘he calls for unity among the minorities, and urges the people not to emphasise their religious differences but to judge the different millets according to their behaviour’.140 Ilyas Matar, who was a member of Sunneen Lodge on Mount Lebanon at the end of the nineteenth century, also wrote a history of Syria.141 His al-˓Uqu¯d al-durriyya fi ta˒rı¯ kh al-mamlaka al-Su¯riyya142 was published in Beirut in 1874 and, according to Youssef M. Choueiri, indicated ‘both a growing Syrian consciousness of a distinct national history, and an Ottoman proclivity to encourage a limited cultural non-political autonomy’, which until then was subject to strict censorship. Choueiri notes that it lacks patriotic overtones, but that ‘it makes up [for this] in its concentration on a well-defined territorial unit, endowed with all the essential characteristics of a nation’.143 Syrian writers had to walk ‘a tightrope, trying to perform a balancing act between [. . .] loyalty to the Ottoman state and a [. . .] burgeoning Syrian consciousness’.144 Another writer, confronted with this problem, was Jurji Yanni, who was a member of Le Liban Lodge in Beirut and later Kadisha Lodge in Tripoli. In his book Ta˒rı¯kh Su¯riya,145 Yanni not only defined the different stages pre-Ottoman and Ottoman territory went through, but also exposed what he saw as the reasons for the backward status of Syria when compared to modern Europe. Characteristic for most of the Christian writers was their emphasis on pre-Islamic periods, through which they claimed back their rightful Syrian identity, irrespective of religious affiliation. At this stage, however, they did not ask for autonomy.

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The patriotism displayed by Yanni and others at the same time served as a fundament for nationalism. Taking Hroch’s analysis into account, the Ottoman freemasons were in phase A on the way to nationalism. This stage features an enlightened academic elite, which is led by emotional engagement in its object of research.146 Jurji Yanni and Butrus al-Bustanti spring to mind in this regard, as they displayed this emotional diligence regarding the history of the Ottoman people. Accordingly, these patriots were interested in findings about their own past and their language.147 Yacoub Sarruf and Faris Nimr, both freemasons, published debates about the purification of the Arab language in their newspaper Al Muqtataf. Consequently, the following questions arose: Who are we? What defines us? What defines the others?148 Freemasonry helped to fill the space of no belonging. Though the response to these questions did not automatically lead to nationalism, as Hroch convincingly shows. Nationalism is only one of the potential outcomes. Freemasonry, similarly, had always been an adaptable concept, something that developed according to the interpretations of its members. The published documents regarding freemasonry in the Ottoman Empire indicate the general direction of contemporary Syrian discourse: it was not explicitly against cosmopolitan thought in general, although it was first deemed necessary to foster respect for one’s own country, equal to other civilised nations. National tendencies that had long been present in European lodges seem to have found their counterpart in the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the twentieth century. Were Syrian freemasons nationalists? Some of them certainly were. Was Syrian freemasonry nationalistic? No evidence has been found. They did show a common concern for the state of Greater Syria, a fear of religious fanaticism and consequently another period of civil unrest. Lodges did not act as nationalist entities, nor has any proof been found for endeavours to do so. If anything, as has been explained, freemasons were patriots (although even this statement has to be restricted to Beirut and its academic clientele). Also patriotism is based on defined principles and a certain mindset, which was not present among the majority of Ottoman freemasons. When freemasons spoke about emancipation, they did not consider a political separation from the Ottoman Empire; rather an emancipation

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of thought and liberation from religious confinement that had made it impossible to create a feeling of belonging among Syrians. They were looking for a way to stabilise the weakened Ottoman Empire. They thought of unity, not of further separatism. Consequently there was no talk about an uprising against the government. Instead, some freemasons even considered the fight against the clergy as a way to support the survival of the political apparatus.149

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CHAPTER 3 M ASONIC GR AND BODIES

European Grand Lodges European lodges developed in different social, political and economic surroundings. Consequently, they varied regarding the structural constraints of the prevailing culture, as well as in regard to traditions and the state system. Hence, something that was valid for French lodges may not have been applicable for those in England. As the individual grand lodges started to consider expansion into the Middle East, they carried with them their cultural imprint and their distinctive political and social features. The first lodges in Greater Syria in the second half of the nineteenth century were formed by masons belonging to the Grand Lodge of Scotland. Others from the Grand Orient of France followed. It should be stated that although there had been some lodges under the patronage of the Grand Orient of Italy in Greater Syria as well, they were all short-lived. This was mainly due to the war in Libya in 1911, which badly affected the reputation of Italy and Italian freemasonry.1 On the other hand, Italian lodges did thrive in Egypt and Turkey, where they were more often than not accused of interfering in politics and undermining the regime; an allegation not completely unwarranted.2

The Grand Lodge of Scotland The Grand Lodge of Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons of Scotland was founded in Edinburgh in 1736. With the establishment of the Grand

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Lodge, as Lisa Kahler notes, for the first time ‘a union of Scottish lodges was created’ and masonry was increasingly perceived as a ‘nation-wide masonic community’.3 Since so many lodges pre-dated the Grand Lodge, they managed to preserve their sovereignty and a considerable degree of control over their own affairs.4 Unlike English lodges, which were much more strictly supervised and centralised, Scottish lodges perpetuated their own traditions. This relative degree of autonomy regarding the elaboration of rituals and practices may well account for foreign lodges preferring to be legitimated by the Grand Lodge of Scotland, rather than by the London based Grand Lodge of England.

The Grand Orient of France The Grand Orient de France was established in 1773 and is the second oldest of its kind in Europe. Lodges belonging to the Grand Orient started to call themselves liberal lodges after a decision was made to abandon the notion of the Grand Architect at a meeting in 1877. This decree was agreed upon in order to emphasise the notion of freedom of conscience and religion. As a result other grand lodges, including the Grand Lodge of England, broke all ties with the Grand Orient. Additionally, the recognition of mixed gender lodges by the Grand Orient was not favourably received by many grand lodges. Before the French Revolution, as Margaret Jacob notes, masonic lodges ‘mirrored the social tensions and antagonisms of the old regime, while at the same time offering the alternative inherent in the new political culture of the Enlightenment’.5 Meetings served as a forum for the whole spectrum of socio-political ideas. The lodges worked towards a new political culture, in which they sought to define civil society as an arena for individuals to focus on shared interests, purposes and values. While some masons participated in revolutionary acts, the majority used their position inside the lodge to define their own civic identity. French society during the revolutionary period was characterised by wide schisms between the different social strata. As Jacob notes, ‘the lodges had come to mirror the breakdown of social relations’.6

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But, while initially trying to cope with the conflicting classes and to bridge the gaps between them, most lodges instead inadvertently widened the discrepancies, as Jacob again notes, ‘between the elite and the popular and also between the military and the civilian’. The French lodges insisted on a suitable social composition that was only comprised of honourable men. Thus, lodges were shaped by a distinctive social hierarchy.7 During the Enlightenment in France, clear differences between the upper strata of society were confused. The literary and cultural intelligentsia was seen as equal to aristocratic noblemen. French freemasons spoke out for scientific education and gender equality, but retained the social distance to the society’s lower strata. As Janet Burke and Margaret Jacob note, ‘by the 1760s both concepts, liberty and equality, appeared on the intellectual agenda of enlightened and reforming circles’. However, these topics were only discussed by the literate and financially comfortable. At the same time, charitable and benevolent acts were used to enhance the public prestige of masons and to confront their government. According to Philip Nord, French masonry ‘experienced an explosion of recruitment under the Empire’. The number of lodges rose from 244 in 1857 to 392 in 1870. In the 1850s, freemasonry became more radical, partly as a consequence of state oppression; partly reasoned by the function of lodges as refuges for all sorts of radicals.8 With the election of Prince Lucien Murat, a member of the Bonaparte family, as grand master, French masons tried to receive protection from the top. However, Murat closed down 100 lodges on the basis of the new Imperial constitution.9 Over time his autocratic and quasi-royal approach fermented considerable opposition.10 A new social class came to power, visible some time later in the election of the new grand master, the journalist Leonidé Babaud-Laribière. Elite lodge representatives were no longer present and the changed zeitgeist required reforms of the old status quo. One of the principles that the new generation of masons changed was the oath in the old constitution regarding the existence of the Grand Architect. Now such an oath was considered to be an obstacle against freedom of conscience. As Nord remarks, ‘the Grand Orient’s embrace of secularism marked a turning point

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not only in its internal history but also in its relations with masonic movements abroad,’ since most of the grand lodges suspended contact with the French.11 Masons of the Grand Orient were thus anti-clerical and espoused rationalist ethics in the cause of a ‘visionary humanitarianism’ and universal brotherhood.12 They demanded more rights for women and education for everyone. However, equal education was not understood as complete liberation for women, but rather as an adequate tool to provide future generations with fitting intellectual homes in which to be raised. In this sense, freemasons acted as a civil vanguard, with their pacifist agenda, calls for class reconciliation and anti-racist rhetoric.13 While society certainly did not experience a masonic-induced revolution, their ideologies were transferred to other movements and organisations. This resulted in the gradual change of French civil and political life, which nourished the myth of the masonic battle cry for liberté, egalité et fraternité.

Masonic Grand Bodies in the Ottoman Empire As this book focuses on Ottoman Syria, only masonic grand bodies related to freemasonry relevant for the concerned area can be taken into account. The first lodges established in the Ottoman Empire worked under the patronage of European masonic bodies. Originally freemasonry was introduced into the Empire during the eighteenth century.14 The Grand Lodge of Scotland established one of the first lodges in Aleppo and Smyrna, with Alexander Drummond, British Consul in Aleppo, being named Provincial Grand Master of Pour l’Orient Grand Lodge. Provincial or district grand masters were provided with full power ‘to constitute lodges in any part of Europe or Asia bordering on the Mediterranean Sea, and superintend the same, or any others already erected in those parts of the world’.15 Additional lodges in Constantinople allegedly worked under the Grand Orient of Geneva, the Grand Lodge of Poland and others.16 But it was only one hundred years later that freemasonry indeed started to expand, though even then Constantinople and Cairo remained the main focus.17 In his articles, Paul Dumont referred to

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the proclamation of the 1839 Reform Edict, which guaranteed more rights to Ottomans and foreigners alike when establishing philanthropic societies ‘without fear of legal proceedings and punishment’. According to Dumont, the increasing number of lodges came as a result of a new trend towards European influences: ‘receptiveness to economic penetration and political influence, receptiveness to ideas prevailing in Europe, and also receptiveness to individuals coming from the West’.18 When so-called irregular freemasonry – lodges not recognised and controlled by Western masonic bodies – seemed to get out of hand, it was Sir Henry Bulwer, ambassador in Constantinople from 1858, who became the first District Grand Master for Turkey in 1862. At this time the lodge Pour l’Orient was working under the Grand Lodge of England.19 Naturally Constantinople, the Ottoman capital and centre of political and economic power, was attractive for freemasons as it had ‘close links with Europe not only in the commercial domain but also on the cultural level’.20 Freemasonry spread in a certain pattern, whereas lodges were built in important commercial centres like Smyrna or Alexandria and Cairo in Egypt, centres of Western occupation like Cyprus or places marked by political instability, such as Salonica.21 The character of the lodges depended on their ethnic and social structures, and more often than not displayed imperialist or nationalist attitudes. However, Dumont also clarifies that masonic meetings also revolved around other subjects. Some masons simply enjoyed ‘lavish banquets, with a lot of drinking, convened in the trail of masonic ceremonies’ while others ‘preferred to devote their sittings to activities of spiritual character, and more specifically to ceremonies of initiation’. Again others used masonic links for philanthropy and the exchange of ideas. In cases where lodges took on a certain political position, they were either inclined to support French or British interests, depending on the affiliation of their grand bodies, or they promoted the national goals of their own community. This was the case with some of the purely Armenian or Greek lodges founded in Constantinople.22 While the Armenians strove for more autonomy, some Greek lodges worked towards ‘the establishment of a new Byzantine state’, which was

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supposed ‘to unite Turks and Greeks under the shadow of an enlightened Ottoman Sultan’.23 Unlike Dumont, who claims that it was only after the Young Turk Revolution in 1908 that ‘Ottoman freemasons started to feel self-confident enough to display publicly their political opinions’,24 Haniog˘lu convincingly shows the connections between early national activists and the beginnings of the Young Turk movement. According to him, the various nationalist groups – some masonic lodges included – displayed strong support for the Young Turks before the actual revolution took place. Not only did they publish articles in which they justified any attempts to antagonise Abdulhamid II, they also supplied ‘Young Turks with safe houses where they could take cover from government agents’.25 At the end of the day, however, with the overthrow of the regime, this symbiosis between the numerous groups came to an end. It was commonly understood that an ‘alliance with the Young Turks had been based on mutual interest’, but that now, with the beginning of a new era and a big part of the population ‘fired by the emergence of Turkish nationalism’, the movements’ future goals diverged or were even mutually exclusive.26 As has been observed in relation to European lodges and their evolution during the nineteenth century, attempts to nationalise freemasonry took place everywhere, with the Ottoman Empire being no exception. When in power, the Young Turks were keen to have their own lodges under their own obedience, which would oppose the foreign influence that they perceived as ‘masonic colonization’. This endeavour naturally triggered alarm among the Western masonic bodies, which consequently decided not to accept and recognise the Ottoman Grand Orient as a regular masonic body.27 The Grand Lodge of England, for example, kept a low profile during this period, when British foreign policy had to deal with a moral dilemma and was more indecisive than ever before. Its non-recognition of two grand lodges – the Grand Lodge of Egypt, founded in 1908, and the Ottoman Grand Orient, established in 1909 – while having created the Provincial Grand Lodge of Turkey (1862) and having recognised some forty years earlier the Grand National Lodge of Egypt (1870) is proof of its cautious attitude.28 The British government considered the reforms carried out

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by the Young Turks to be promising. However, by no means did it want to encourage its subjects in neighbouring Egypt to follow the same path, thereby claiming their rights for a constitution and selfdetermination. Hence, by ignoring the two new grand bodies for the time being, it tried to avoid any indirect encouragement for separatist and nationalist movements. With the end of World War One, the Ottoman ventures in freemasonry, which had only been successful in the areas in and around Constantinople, cease, along with the task to establish one national freemasonry for the Empire as a single entity. In Egypt many of the lodges, though created by Europeans, ‘included Egyptian intellectuals, professionals and notables’. Among this group was Prince Halim Pasha, Muhammad Ali’s youngest son. Apparently he became grand master and a leading figure of freemasonry until exiled in 1868.29 ‘Generally speaking, Freemasonry in Egypt worked toward the promotion of brotherhood, philanthropy and charitable institutions, although sometimes it was used for undesirable purposes.’ What is here meant are political interferences, such as the unsuccessful attempts of Prince Halim Pasha and his followers to agitate against the rule of Ismail, the khedive of Egypt, using masonic connections in Egypt and in exile. Prince Halim Pasha who was the youngest son of Muhammad Ali felt betrayed when left without any powerful position.30 Lodges seemed suited for these kinds of activity thanks to their secrecy and the steady initiations of the ‘educated and public-spirited classes’.31 ‘On May 8, 1876, a reorganisation resulted in three separate Grand Masonic Bodies, the National Grand Lodge of Egypt, the Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite, and the Sovereign Grand Council of the Memphis Rite with the National Grand Lodge in 1879 being proclaimed as “free, sovereign and independent” of any other body.’32 In the same year, Al-Afghani gave an interview to the London Times, calling for an ‘Egypt for the Egyptians’.33 While it may be true that Al-Afghani had no notable influence on Egyptian nationalists, as he had already been away for three years, ‘he left behind an elite of intellectuals and revolutionaries whose activities matured and strengthened in the ensuing years until they culminated in the ‘Urabi revolt of 1881–82’.34

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And again, freemasonry proved to be a convenient vehicle to transport and spread nationalist ideas while ignoring contradictory interests at least for the time being. Though, even less successful than Constantinople, Egypt under British occupation never freed itself from Western masonic obedience. In 1899 the District Grand Lodge of Egypt-Sudan was founded, with Lord Kitchener as grand master. This date corresponds with the start of Anglo-Egyptian protectorate over the Sudan.35 Most of the lodges, district grand lodges and supreme councils in Ottoman Turkey and Egypt fit perfectly into the system described by Jessica Harland-Jacobs. Thus, with the gradual disintegration of the Ottoman Empire and the advance of single proto-state entities under Western hegemony, European freemasonry also expanded in the region. In doing so the fraternity conformed to newly occupied areas and their redefined borders. However, it is significant that freemasonry was also adaptable in terms of innate nationalist causes outside Western reach. This was the case when cooperating with the Young Turks: ‘Young Turks used freemasonry to circumvent freemasonry, at least this specific type of freemasonry which expressed, within the Ottoman Empire, the certitudes of the conquering West.’36 This understanding of freemasonry as a tool for their own purposes will be further analysed in the following chapters, when dealing with lodges founded in Ottoman Syria. Any nationalist purposes of early Syrian lodges were far less pronounced and not yet politicised, but what they had in common with the freemasons in Constantinople and Egypt was a shared attitude towards the institution of freemasonry itself: it may have arrived as a colonial souvenir from the West, but Syrians soon managed to form it into something of their own. Backed by French and Scottish masonic institutions, freemasonry in Ottoman Syria nevertheless developed in its own realm. From the point of view of the Western powers, the Ottoman Empire counted as one entity with grand masonic bodies to be placed in Constantinople or in Egypt, which was governed independently and, after 1882, functioned as a British protectorate. Contrarily, lodges in Syria willingly used to choose different affiliations, which will be further analysed in the following chapters. Lodges affiliated with the Scottish, French

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or Italian masonic bodies – unlike the early lodges described in Constantinople – did not express strong pro-Western views. Rather, they proclaimed a commitment to peaceful cooperation among the inhabitants of Syria in order to secure their own individual interests.37 Only the Young Turk Revolution changed this apparent lack of national interest, with the foundation of two lodges under the obedience of the Ottoman Grand Orient and the Grand National Lodge of Egypt (Appendix II). Before that, only loose links to Egyptian lodges or other lodges outside Syria were established by migrating freemasons. Many of these masons joined the Star in the East Lodge in Cairo, which worked under the patronage of the United Grand Lodge of England and was established as a result of a petition signed by Mohammed Abduh. Abduh himself had been a member of La Concordia Lodge.38 A thorough examination of the list of members of the various lodges indicates that lodge-hopping was not confined to Syrian masons.39 The English lodges in Egypt and Constantinople were mainly composed of Europeans who undertook lodge-hopping.40 In general, the Syrians in Egypt were less prone to join foreign societies, whether they were political or social. A study of secret societies in Egypt in 1911 shows that almost no Syrians were involved in any of these endeavours.41 Lists of names, nevertheless, have to be treated carefully as they were compiled by the British Secret Service Bureau in June 1911 without further re-examination. Other Syrian freemasons went to Palestine, which was still considered as part of the Syrian Lands, but which nevertheless was unaffected by the masonic network span in the area during the years before the Young Turk Revolution. One of the masons was Alexander Howard, whose original name was Iskandar Awad and who had joined Le Liban Lodge in 1871.42 He moved from Beirut to Jaffa, serving as the local representative of the British travel agent Thomas Cook. He ran the first bus between Jaffa and Jerusalem and owned several hotels and houses in the latter city.43 His splendid house in Jaffa was adorned with a marble frieze over the entrance, with an inscription that read Shalom al Israel (Peace over Israel, see Figure 5), which is still extant and has, according to Leon Zeldis, functioned as a masonic hall.44 Howard later on joined Barkai Lodge in Jaffa.

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Figure 5 Photograph of the Entrance to Alexander Howard’s House in Jaffa (photographed in 2008)

Already in 1868 the travelling American freemason Robert Morris had named ‘J. G. Eldridge now Deputy Grand master for the District Syria’, when he visited Beirut. Whilst the post was already occupied, Morris supported the idea of a provincial grand lodge established in Jaffa under the supervision of the Grand Orient of France; a proposal which was declined as, according to Morris, the petitioners except for ‘Excellency Noureddin Effendi’ were not French masons.45

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According to other sources, it was only in 1921 that the Grand Lodge of Scotland considered the establishment of a District Grand Lodge for Syria, which may have arisen as a consequence of British and French control of the area before France was assigned the mandate in 1923. However, no further steps in this direction were taken.46 It was as late as 1955–6 that the Grand Lodge of New York finally established a District Grand Lodge for Syria and Lebanon, without consent from the Grand Lodge of Scotland.47 By this time, however, other national masonic grand bodies had already been founded and in Lebanon alone there were at least three different allegiances at work: the Grand Orient of Lebanon, the Grand Lodge of Lebanon and the Syrian-Lebanese Grand Lodge.48

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CHAPTER 4 FR EEM ASONRY IN BEIRUT

Beirut in the second half of the nineteenth century served as a melting pot for Syrians and a broad spectrum of Europeans, who ranged from missionaries, businessmen and politicians to pioneers and adventurers. Describing Ottoman port cities in general, Emrence mentioned that they attracted ‘with their dynamism and diversity [. . .] Europeans with an opportunistic agenda and appealed to immigrants with social ties in the city. Merchants from Europe, missionaries from the West, social relatives from hinterlands, and seasonal labourers from less prosperous regions’ then ‘constituted the multi-ethnic and multi-religious character’ of the city.1 Consequently, difficulties arose from such a diverse population, especially when trying to find a common denominator for a shared social space. People from Mount Lebanon had come here largely out of fear of further disturbances or with hopes for better businesses in the city. In 1860 civil unrest, in the form of a war between Christians and Druzes on Mount Lebanon, led to French intervention which will be further explained in Chapter 5. In Beirut, tensions were mounting. Europeans claimed the government was behind religious aggression and the Ottoman regime accused Europeans of provocation. Indeed, foreign consuls in the city had assumed de facto power over the city: through philanthropic activities, commercial businesses and by exploiting capitulations, while enjoying ‘the same exterritorial privileges as ambassadors’.2 Fawaz

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explains capitulations as ‘treaties arranged by capita or headings that recognised and codified their special status in the East’.3 Capitulations were ‘based on the idea that each state possessed its own laws to exalted for others too enjoy’. Hence, they actually thought Ottomans benefitted from this principle, as they ‘meant that all subjects of a foreign monarch and citizens of republics [. . .] remained under the laws of their own king or republic once the capitulatory favour had been granted’. Moreover, ‘[p]ersons with capitulatory status also enjoyed full exemption from Ottoman taxes and customs duties’. As such and with growing popularity ‘they [capitulations] came to dangerously undermine’ the sovereignty of the Empire. Naturally Ottomans used this opportunity when working with Europeans. It was only during World War One that the capitulations were unilaterally abolished by the Ottomans, after years of twisting them ‘into something they had never been intended to be’.4 According to Ralph Bodenstein, ‘until the 1830s, Beirut had only been a minor harbour, ranking behind Tripoli, Saida and Acre’, but Ibrahim Pasha made it the administrative centre of the region during his governorship.5 In the 1830s he introduced social policies that emphasised the rights of non-Muslims. Additionally, as Zachs writes, ‘the period of Ottoman restoration and the implementation of the tanzimat that followed also saw the growing economic penetration of the region by the West’.6 Under Ottoman rule, Beirut first became capital of the vilayet of Saida and then in 1888 it became the capital of its own vilayet, with jurisdiction over Tripoli and Lattakia in the north and Acre, Haifa and Nablus in the south. The sub-provinces were separated from Beirut by the coastal strip of Mount Lebanon.7 Its port evolved to become the main centre for imports and exports from Mount Lebanon and its Syrian hinterland. The city’s growing importance was reflected in the size of its population: in the 1840s Beirut only numbered 10,000 inhabitants, but by 1900 it had grown to 120,000.8 As a whole the province numbered 533,000 individuals in 1895.9 Beirut’s merchants profited from the territorial division, but other communities, such as the inhabitants of Nablus, felt aggrieved by the new administrative structure. Instead of having to visit Damascus in

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order to settle legal matters, they now had to venture further to Beirut.10 Beirut managed to defend its dominant position against Tripoli and Haifa, the two other port cities, due to what Hanssen describes as ‘the acute sense of political geography of its intermediary bourgeoisie and foreign residents and their intimate contacts in Istanbul’.11 After European interference during the events of 1860, it became clear that there was actually no way for the government to regain dominance, let alone hegemony as European forces grew steadily stronger and the Empire seemed definitely inferior: either it played according to the rules of the foreigners, or it supported its Muslim population – both options were inherently problematic. As Leila Fawaz notes, ‘the foreign presence and particularly the growing role of entrepreneurs in the economy and society had already made it impossible for the Ottomans to take control of the city without European interference’.12 Moreover, as Hanssen writes, European financial injections ‘raised the economic stakes of European imperialism’. Notwithstanding the actual condition of Syria or the Ottoman Empire as a whole, Europeans pressed for adoption of a legal system suitable to a form of capitalism that was trying ‘to monopolise a share of the colonial market through military conquest, trade tariffs, and economic dependency’.13 Consequently the Christian subjects of the Ottoman Empire suspected of collaboration felt increasingly isolated and antagonised. Muslims, on the other hand, felt betrayed when Fuad Pasha, who had been sent to enforce Ottoman law, reacted to the unrests in 1860 by prescribing severe punishment against Muslims. Whilst Fuad contributed in positive terms by overseeing the construction of the Beirut municipality, the ‘deterrence executions’ he sanctioned in Damascus left a bitter taste for some Muslims and, as Hanssen notes, ‘the restoration of Ottoman order [. . .] had come at a huge fiscal price in form of special taxes from the province of Damascus and the port of Beirut’.14 According to Fawaz, the authorities in Damascus represented ‘an old and prestigious Muslim and Ottoman centre’. In contrast, after the flow of immigrants from the Mount, the Muslims in Beirut became a minority compared with the Christian majority.15 The city changed into a port used for the employees of administrative services and the imperial bureaucracy, with bureaucrats forming ‘a conspicuous social

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group in Beirut distinguishable by their Ottoman civil service uniform’. They dressed differently, were addressed as effendis16 and became associated with modernity and authority. Some Ottoman officials intermingled with the rich and traditional Beiruti families through marriage, thereby securing a place in local networks. At the same time, the fathers of the brides used links to the Ottoman government.17 The upper echelons of Beirut’s society, so Hanssen argues, ‘managed to twist capitalist penetration to enhance [its] own vision for the city’.18 Self-interest led merchants to cooperate regardless of religious differences. Such actions were not only undertaken to save the city from European exploitation, but also in order to use European consumerism for their own individual profit. Hence, on the one hand influential families tried to limit European penetration, whilst on the other hand they did not hesitate to sell concessions to European bidders, thereby earning high profit margins. A positive consequence for all Beirutis was the continuous improvement of the city’s infrastructure, alongside the establishment of a number of foreign and Ottoman educational institutions and the wide proliferation of newspapers. A significant contribution came from Beirut’s citizens themselves. In competition with Tripoli, Damascus and Haifa, they were eager to provide the best conditions for modern industry and trade. A fitting infrastructure was a significant factor and therefore actively supported by the elite. In short, competition between the Ottoman government and Europeans and among the Ottoman citizens themselves was in some way the most important factor contributing to the growth of a liberal atmosphere in the regional capital.19 Parallel to this, the European powers were contending with each other for influence, with both the British and the French striving for political and economic dominance.20 However, the Public Debt Administration, which was set up to monitor Ottoman fiscal policy and to directly dispose of tax revenues, was composed of seven European nations, rendering it impossible for a single power to dominate. Furthermore, as a result of European initiatives to integrate Beirut into the global field of financial capitalism, other cities were subsequently degraded to peripheral locations.21

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Influence fluctuated and prejudices were amplified due to the varying rivalries and loyalties. As Fawaz writes, ‘European biases about the Ottomans were passed on to local clients and partners and local prejudices about Ottomans were passed on to the Europeans’.22 Ottoman Christians profited most from this unstable situation by developing relations to European consulates and traders as well as informal networks. A newly-built harbour opened at the end of the nineteenth century, financed almost entirely by the French. This facilitated a steady increase in imports and exports until World War One. With advancements in the region’s infrastructure, perception of time and space had radically altered. While the population as a whole benefitted from the economic and commercial flow of traffic, it was nevertheless the European merchants who were able to use the expansion to the greatest advantage. European investment in Beirut was one of the developments, as Fawaz notes, accompanying ‘a world economy under Western hegemony in the age of imperialism and industrial revolution’. The concessions of the Sublime Porte, in the form of capitulations, were the most significant factor for the European powers. First granted to French subjects, they soon applied to many more Europeans and equipped them with commercial and judicial privileges. In form of berats – documents that granted the holder protection and exemption from taxes and from the jurisdiction from local courts – they were handed to Ottomans who served as intermediaries for European traders and diplomats.23 Over the years, the interpretation of these privileges experienced dramatic change, as the Ottoman government increasingly lost out against growing European influence.24 Having been the first to sign capitulations, the French were able to dominate trade, much to the detriment of local traders and merchants. Moreover, in cases when economic advantages were not forthcoming they bought concessions, which under Abdulhamid II were preferably sold to Ottoman subjects and resold for higher prices. Hence both parties gained from the deal. Another agreement the Empire committed itself to was the 1838 Anglo-Turkish Commercial Convention. ‘The Original treaty was signed in Balta Liman in August 1838 and came into effect in March 1839.’ Though scholars are still arguing about its impact, the treaty

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certainly ‘severely reduced the ability of the Ottoman government to raise tariffs later in the century, making it impossible to protect domestic industry from the full force of foreign competition when the free trade damage became clearer’. The treaty eliminated local monopolies and exempted foreign merchants from internal customs.25 Additionally, foreigners could also ask their consuls to act on their behalf. French influence was felt in economic areas and in the sociocultural sphere. The country’s commitment in Beirut served Christian groups well in general, with Maronites benefitting most. Both Britain and France established educational and missionary activities in the Beirut area. The French focussed on Maronites and Greek Catholics, who made up a larger number than the local Greek Orthodox population. The latter group constituted potential clients for British missionary efforts. At the end of the nineteenth century Beirut was home to two prestigious foreign universities: Saint Joseph’s University, established by the French, and the Syrian Protestant College (SPC), built by American Presbyterians. As Fawaz notes, ‘by 1861 the British colony in Beirut, though not numerous, included employees in the consulate-general, other diplomats on mission, army staff, doctors, engineers, clerks, scribes, teachers and governesses, as well as merchants’. Merchants were also involved in educational matters, including the board of the college. Moreover, they often served as representatives of British interests.26 But the French retained a majority in terms of Europeans resident in Beirut, although the total number was low and increased only slightly over the course of the nineteenth century. Accurate statistics are scarce, but it is recorded that in 1863 Beirut was home to approximately a hundred Greeks, whilst in 1891 it is recorded that 132 Britons and merchants were resident in the city. According to Fawaz, ‘in Beirut, foreign entrepreneurs played a smaller role than they did in Alexandria or in North Africa. Instead, local entrepreneurs were many times the ‘agents of change’, though in an age of Western domination they often ‘filled that role by first of all securing Western consular protection’.27 Greek Orthodox merchants benefitted from Greek, Russian, British and French protection, while Maronites pinned their hopes on the latter. Greek Catholics turned to either France or the Austro-Hungarian

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Empire. For European business, the mediatory services of the Christian community in the Beirut area were crucial in successfully acquiring land and in establishing efficient management. In turn, the Muslim community was in most cases excluded from such dealings. This led to resentment and the Christians’ visible power and networking resulted in growing antagonism between the different communities. Thus, established Muslim families relied on other means to preserve their economic position and control over internal trade, particularly looking for influence among officials of the Ottoman government.28 However, as Fawaz writes, only ‘Muslim merchants who managed to involve themselves with Western trade were in a position to become really rich; they alone could cheaply acquire the Western manufactured goods that the hinterland craved’.29 In general, it was more important for Beirutis involved in trade and entrepreneurship to know how to deal with all kinds of people and to create stable and reliable networks, than conducting business according to communal affiliations. ‘Among the wealthy the gulf was narrower, since they were less apt to let communal affiliation stand in the way of economic cooperation and social and political action.’ If tensions arose, they first became visible among the poorer part of the population, while, according to Fawaz, ‘merchants still had more in common with one another than they had with their European counterparts’.30 The provincial council served notable Beirutis as the most powerful linchpin for their administrative hinterland. As Hanssen writes, ‘the Ottoman Provincial Law had turned provincial capitals into powerful political centres where decision-making and lobbying converged’. Member records of the provincial council show that the body was largely composed of Beirut’s prominent families and that ‘their administrative positions allowed them to be inside the provincial decision-making apparatus and wield extensive powers in the process of Beirut’s “financial capitalization”’.31 One of their main tasks consisted in maintaining Beirut’s reputation as a global economic city. With the expansion of the railways and better transport possibilities, Beirut had to compete against other ports and against its hinterland. The members of Beirut’s middle class bought concessions for all kinds of businesses and were lobbying to receive financial help for different development projects.

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Simultaneously they increased the status of their own positions, became world players on global markets and showed solidarity with members of Beirut’s lower class, who were fighting against exploitation by the colonial powers. Although physical resistance was only carried out by the labourers themselves, local cooperation between them and the merchants was also silently supported by Abdulhamid II.32 Emrence defines the late nineteenth century as a period when one can observe the beginning of ‘new forms of collective actions’ with ‘collective claim-making’ being ‘a novel democratic tradition in the port-cities of the eastern Mediterranean’.33 Beirut’s administrative system did not simply imitate the West, as it was modelled on Istanbul’s civil structures. A strict system had already become necessary during the period following the struggles of the 1860s, when refugees had flooded into the area and Europe’s criticism of the lack of discipline and order must be seen in relation to the Western fear of losing former privileges and the curtailment of consular influence. Foreigners were less able to intervene when faced with the fact that the local council and political organisation were making improvements.34 However, for urban planning and social reforms, the efficient functioning of a local and central administration was a necessity. In a period when cholera raged, it was especially important to adopt modern and powerful methods of minimising or halting its effects without depending too much on foreign aid.35 While the first steps to establish suitable institutions were of a private nature, the Ottoman government soon recognised that the only way to keep foreign penetration at bay was to secure the backing of the local population. Education proved to be the most effective tool in this endeavour, as it helped to guide young minds towards a sense of loyalty, morality and pride in their motherland, which, it was anticipated, would bolster support behind the Ottoman regime. At first, private institutions were simply taken over, but at the end of the nineteenth century secondary state schools were built and in 1895 an Ottoman college opened its doors to Beirut’s intelligentsia.36 As Hanssen states, ‘entitlement, masculinity, pride and independence of mind were the attributes which the school administration aspired to impart to its students.

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[. . .] But Beirut’s Ottoman school also planted the seeds of Arab nationalist sentiment for an entire generation of Muslim youths.’37 While secular-minded Beirutis tried to overcome religious differences, foreign institutions like, St. Joseph’s University and the SPC, aimed, in a sense, at the exact opposite: they were missionary institutions seeking to prove the superiority of their religion. They sought to emphasise the dissimilarities between confessional communities. This conservative and dogmatic mind-set was the main reason for students and professors turning their backs on the SPC and embracing more liberal institutions.38 From the perspective of the missionaries, those trying to avoid the blessing words from the West simply displayed their ignorance. I verily believe a form of religion without the power is worse than no religion at all. And this, it seems to me, is the difficulty we have to contend with all over Palestine. There is no lack of outward profession of religion, but each man thinks that the religion of his father is good enough for him, and that if he performs the ceremonial part correctly and regularly he is quite safe. Of personal spiritual religion there is very little. Yet, the same man described Jerusalem as ‘a city of the dead’, which was ‘surrounded by cemeteries, which contain the dust of ages’ and was ‘full of dead churches and dying creeds. “The Holy” is its common name, but it is full of unholiness’, an opinion he certainly shared with some of his missionary brethren lodged in Beirut.39 At the same time, identification with the city itself led to an increased desire on the part of the newly-growing elite to influence its fate through their own abilities and actions. The new middle class cared for Beirut as its own survival depended on the city’s performance and reputation. During the reign of Abdulhamid II, the provincial council functioned like a collective pool of men, who perceived themselves to be the new vanguard fighting for Beirut’s modernisation. These men came from different backgrounds: economics, journalism, the educational sector and from the local merchant class. Together they were

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eager to prepare Beirut for a new and modern world, full of unknown possibilities and risks. Their goal was to equip the city with the necessary tools in order to compete with the Europeans and their own neighbouring states. Unsurprisingly, the traditional Sunni Ulama, Muslim religious scholars and Christian dignitaries, took no active part in this endeavour; neither in the form of participation in the council, nor as members of any of the newly founded benevolent and scientific societies.40 Only wealthy men were able to enter most of the societies and the provincial council itself. Candidates for the council had to be older than thirty and had to have lived in Beirut for at least ten years, while at the same time also being wealthy enough to pay for their councillorships. Moreover, they were barred from working for foreign institutions. These rules resulted in only a small percentage of Beirut’s inhabitants being eligible for the council. Hence, individuals joined the council and affiliated societies not for financial profit, but rather to improve, or consolidate, their socio-cultural standing and reputation.41 Besides enhancing their own civic standing, some of these individuals also wanted to revive the fortunes of Beirut as a city with modern and open-minded inhabitants. In the light of the events of 1860, Beirut’s leading personalities were optimistic of brightening the city’s future by means of knowledge transfer and educational support. The political, social and cultural efforts stemmed from a desire to build a new foundation and to reconstruct the city’s urban social space, alongside a burgeoning sense of national consciousness.42 At the same time, Beirut’s elite was keen to prove how far Beirutis had progressed since the supposedly backward and ignorant times of the 1860s. As Hanssen writes, ‘the police system was under intense scrutiny by the foreign community, which regarded occurrences of criminal activity, whether assault, theft, or smuggling as irrefutable signs of state weakness and moral laxness, in particular when they led to sectarian violence’. Natives themselves, still remembering the events of the 1860s, perceived the urban order as fragile and under threat. The individual was seen as naturally dangerous and in need of social and legal controls.43 Immigrants from the mountain region appeared even more suspicious. A long period of mutual distrust was

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predominant, especially among the common people who were alienated from provincial politics. While the denizens of the city attempted to pass Beirut off as a civilised and developed urban space, its rural surroundings were considered to be inhabited by savage, ignorant and undisciplined people who insisted on preserving unsustainable and out of date traditions. When Beirut was included in the arena of global politics and capitalism, its traditional social relationships were undermined or destroyed. In response, people tried to adapt the fabric of their lives to these new realities, to establish new alliances and to strengthen relations to other groups. Thus at various times, depending on the situation, the city’s denizens chose to stand firm behind the Ottoman government, but then sided with the Europeans against laws introduced by the regime. This shows again the pragmatic thinking mentioned by Emrence, in regard to the newly developing middle class ‘under the influence of global flows on one side and domestic realities on the other’.44 On other occasions they defended religious groups and confronted their own ‘heretical’ neighbours. This complex layering of loyalties enabled them to shift in a flexible manner according to each case. However, everyday dynamics added to the uncertainty of their status in an increasingly complicated era.

Masonic Lodges in Beirut Medieval, Renaissance and Enlightenment influences had blended together to create an institution that seemed to reflect the progressive spirit of the age, with ideals of brotherhood, equality, toleration and reason. Yet even as freemasonry emerged and spread as a world-wide movement, it diversified in the most bewildering way. [. . .] It is as if the lodge system, combined with secrecy, ideals of loyalty and secret modes of recognition, had created an ideal organisational framework, into which members could put their own values and which they could adapt for their own uses.45 Members of Beirut’s middle and upper classes started to show interest in the establishment of masonic lodges – affiliated with the Grand

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Orient de France in Paris – from 1860, but they had to wait another eight years until they received a warrant from France.46 It is likely that the civil disturbances after the incidents in Damascus and Mount Lebanon delayed the response from Paris. In the meantime the Palestine Lodge, No. 415, was founded in 1861. Though working in French, it was under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Scotland. One can speculate about the reasons for choosing French and ask if the official working language corresponded with the actual language spoken during lodge meetings, but it seems that some Syrian masons were proud of their identification with France. However, this did not automatically go hand in hand with approval of France’s foreign policy. Lebanese lodges founded as late as August 2010 preferred French to Arabic for their meetings, conceding the use of English or Arabic if necessary. Though, Christians did not automatically demonstrate a full commitment to their French education as the lodges were and are composed of Muslims as well.47 Rather, the choice of language corresponds to the main assumption made in this thesis that Syrians embraced European freemasonry and made it their own. They adopted it as they also adopted European languages when suitable. The decisions were not directed and controlled by Western powers; the Syrians themselves were the ones who were in charge, using the fraternity’s universal principles and languages that were historically linked to it for their own needs. This behavioural pattern perfectly corresponds with Stevenson’s quote above, whereby freemasonry provided the ‘ideal organisational framework into which members could put their own values and which they could adapt for their own uses’.48 Additionally, in the early years of freemasonry, rules, titles and rituals were not yet translated into Arabic. It is likely that the usage of European languages was supposed to demonstrate respect for and loyalty to the original virtues and traditions by lodges founded outside the familiar masonic spheres (i.e. the West). The Palestine Lodge received its charter in an unusually prompt manner and the Grand Committee of the Grand Lodge in Edinburgh mentioned ‘that this should form no precedent for the future’. Disappointingly, it is not known who these ‘most anxious’ founders in spe were, but they had handed their application form to Lieutenant-Colonel

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Burnaby, the ‘Commissioner of the British Government to the French Army of Occupation’, who subsequently travelled to Scotland for a short period of time.49 Blue was chosen as the colour of Palestine Lodge’s regalia, which also became the preferred colour of subsequent lodges in the region.50 The choice of this colour seems to have been partly the result of a misunderstanding. The first Grand Lodge established in England had taken blue as its colour, as did the Grand Orient of France. However, in Scotland the colour of the apron changed according to the grade, and lodges generally were free to choose their own particular colour. It seems likely that Lebanese lodges associated the colour blue with regular lodges. Hence, it was only in the twentieth century that lodges in Ottoman Syria came to understand that different colours were permissible under the jurisdiction of the Scottish Grand Lodge. The Sunneen Lodge, No. 969, which was established in Shweir in 1904, initially adopted the colour blue and then changed to black. Furthermore, the Zahle Lodge, No. 1047, which was founded in 1908, adopted green, whereas Emessa Lodge, No. 1125, in Homs, changed from blue to green in 1923, some ten years after its establishment.51 Possibly, this change of colour reflected displeasure at the commencement of the French Mandate in the same year and a strengthened affiliation with Islam as green generally is seen as the colour of Islam. Names given to lodges were accompanied by associations and tended to express a certain political position. While Palestine was a proper name for a lodge situated in Beirut, whose vilayet included the north part of Palestine, Le Liban already displays a patriotic connotation. What may be true as well is that Peace Lodge was named according to the main concern of its members. Names like Sunneen and Kadisha, which identify a mountain and a river respectively, illustrate the masons’ desire to create links to their natural surroundings. The same is true for Carmel Lodge, No. 1085, which was founded in Haifa in 1911 or El Mizhab Lodge, No. 1130, which was founded in Tripoli in 1914. Both were named after mountainous areas.52 One can also find a name like Noor al-Dimashq Lodge, No. 1058, which was founded under the Grand Lodge of Scotland in 1909, meaning Light of Damascus. In the Qu’ran, noor is sometimes also

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translated as guidance for believers. While masonry was not seen as a religion, it certainly did have a para-religious meaning for its followers. Moreover, lodges in Damascus were set amidst traditional surroundings. Thus, people were less likely to forgo religion, but rather tried to enrich their ritual and charitable lives – something freemasonry was supposed to do.53 The practice of the fraternity regarding humanism and philanthropy, although originating in Christianity, was not foreign to religious Muslims. What is more, freemasons cited exactly this principle in order to demonstrate the compatibility of freemasonry with Islam, as the Provincial Grand Master of Turkey stated in 1866: ‘Nothing can be worse founded, and nothing more unjust than the prejudices of ignorant Mussulmans, because as the more learned and more pious knew there is a very intimate association in principle, and a close resemblance in practice between Masons and the more spiritualistic and devout Mussulmans.’54 Before Noor al-Dimashq, Damascus was the main playground for Siria Lodge, which was established under the jurisdiction of the Italian Grand Orient in 1880. The lodge survived for eleven years and attracted only a few members of the influential Damascene families during this period. According to Quilty, the Azm family, who were former rulers of Damascus under the Ottoman government, for example, were able ‘to engineer a political recovery at the end of the century with the aid of their commercial enterprise’.55 The family’s fate was tied to the future of the city: it accumulated its wealth through commercial activities and intermarriages with other significant and powerful families. Sari Nusseibeh aptly depicts these trends in reference to his grandfather, who apparently had various useful ways of securing the family’s future, which included ‘investing his inheritance in new business ventures, or spreading it freely as acts of charity, or social climbing, which, judging by his nuptial preferences, was a skill he certainly mastered’.56 Having found some members of the Azm family in different lodges clearly indicates the function of lodges as social networks that could attract men for various reasons, including business. As Quilty notes, Ahmed, the founder of one branch of the Azm family, ‘married ten women from notable families in Damascus, Hama,

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Aleppo, Egypt, and Beirut; the seventeen ensuing children were born into an imposing network of socio-economic and political relations’.57 One of Abd al-Qadir’s sons was a lodge member, together with some members of the Christian Qudsi family. Two of the Qudsis – Abduh and Khalil – worked as dragomans for European consulates, but at the same time the family also had strong connections to the Ottoman administration. Working already for European institutions may have also inclined them to join a European fraternity. Salim Mishaqa was another dragoman, and the head of the protestant community, who joined the lodge.58 One can only speculate about his motives for joining, but it becomes clear that over time religiously active men lost their constraints and joined freemasonry in order to intermingle with men belonging to other congregations. However, in general, Siria Lodge does not seem to have met the expectations of its members. Indeed, many members soon joined other lodges. Again, this was probably due to Italy’s steadily deteriorating image in the region, accompanied by the growing importance of Britain and France. In Noor al-Dimashq Lodge only the founders had prior masonic experience. By 1912 the lodge numbered around 110 members.59 One can also mention Al Ittihad Lodge, meaning unity or union – a term also adopted by L’Unione Lodge. The name Hilal (crescent) was chosen for two lodges – one under the jurisdiction of the National Grand Lodge of Egypt, and the other under the jurisdiction of the Ottoman Grand Orient. The crescent was a favourite Ottoman symbol, which already in the Byzantium period gained popularity when it was connected to Artemis, the goddess of hunting. At the same time it was used by the Al Qahtaniyya Society, founded in Istanbul in 1909. The name Al Qahtaniyya means ‘named after Qahtan, a legendary ancestor of the Arabs, and the society was organised after The Society of the Young Arab Nation ( Jam˓iyyat al-umma al-˓arabiyya al-Fatat), which was a secret organisation established in Paris during the Young Turk period. In contrast, Al Qahtaniyya Society was composed of politicians and army officers, who, as Eliezer Tauber notes ‘sought to raise the cultural, social, and economic level of the Arabs, and to demand equal rights for them within the framework

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of the Ottoman Empire’. The society adopted Hilal as a code word among members.60 Since only a few scarce sources of the different secret societies are available, no thorough study comparing overlapping membership – taking into account even freemasonry – has to date been carried out. However, as with the various scientific and benevolent associations, these societies naturally attracted like-minded men, who were mainly from a middle class who were looking for reform and crucial changes.61 Although Palestine Lodge was only short lived, it attracted approximately 150 members before it closed in 1889. All members belonged to the elite, with at least a third being foreigners – Europeans as well as non-Syrian Arabs – initiated during the early years.62 The lodge was of strategic significance, as is made clear by an article that appeared in Freemasons’ Magazine and Masonic Mirror in August 1865: ‘[The lodge is] situated, as it were, at the gate through which European institutions and European civilisation find an ingress into Asia.’ It apparently acquired ‘considerable importance for the diffusion of the light of Masonry amongst the Mahometan inhabitants of the West of Asia. [. . .] Freemasonry should be, and means to be, a truly humane confederation, and a link of fraternity between men of all creeds and of all countries.’63 Inherent in this statement is the clear proposition that Western, i.e. Christian, civilisation is superior to anything else and therefore worthy of expansion. It seems not too far-fetched to take this statement as being characteristic of the dominant mindset of European freemasons at that time. As biased as it sounds, this opinion was nevertheless probably shared by many Syrians. Among the initial motivations in joining freemasonry was a desire to form an entity that was able to overcome their assumed backwardness.64 There certainly was something to be learned from the West and joining a Western institution was a start. In Palestine Lodge tradesmen constituted the largest group, followed by intellectuals (professors, teachers, students and doctors), with employees of the Ottoman government constituting the third group. However, it is important to stress that these categories are problematic and almost artificial since they do not encompass the diversity of jobs held by the masons at this time. While a large part of the

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higher middle class was composed of businessmen, these same men also worked as dragomans or held different representative positions for the European powers. Moreover, they were also authors, poets, journalists and amateur translators. What can be noted, at least initially, is the distinctive European flavour of the lodge and the small number of landowners it attracted – a typical feature of lodges in a capital city. Among the members of the lodge were Muhyiuddin, the second son of Abd al-Qadir al-Jaza’iri, Nassif Mishaqa and Dimitri Sursock. According to Zachs, the Mishaqa family, from which I already mentioned Mikha’il and Salim, who were Greek Catholics, ‘became rich from the commerce brought by the region’s growing ties with the West’ and ‘lost most of their earlier gains as a result of the oppression of Ahmad Pasha al-Jazzar, [. . .] and then recovered their initial success – if not becoming even more affluent – under the patronage of Amir Bashir’. The family was originally from Corfu, where their surname was Batraki. However, after moving to Greater Syria the head of the family decided to change their name to Mishaqa, as a consequence of their hemp and flax trade in shipyards, as the word ‘derived from the process of filtering fibres of silk, linen, hemp and cotton. [. . .] the word mushaqa refers to the waste that remains after the process of filtering’ which is the floss.65 Early family members were mainly merchants, who established international contacts through business ties with the American consulate, American missionaries and other Western representatives. At least one member of the family, Mikha’il, converted to Protestantism.66 Others, like Khalil, who was chief dragoman at the American consulate-general in Beirut, and Nasif, who was dragoman for the Americans in Damascus,67 both joined the Palestine Lodge. A pattern can be established whereby men who were in daily contact with Europeans were also attracted to Western organisations. The Sursock family were members of the Greek Orthodox Church and by the second half of the nineteenth century they had become the wealthiest family in the Ashrafiyyeh neighbourhood in Beirut. The family traded in all manner of goods, such as silk and grain, whilst at the same time also serving the needs of Europeans. Dimitri Sursock, according to masonic registration books beginning in 1818, joined the lodge between 1866 and 1867. He was an independent merchant who

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had become, like many other intellectuals, a dragoman for the American consulate.68 Another member of the Palestine Lodge was Cesar Catafago who worked for the Prussian Consulate and who also joined the Syrian Society of Arts and Sciences, which was established in 1847.69 This early Syrian society, which according to Edward Salisbury was dedicated to ‘the acquisition of the sciences and arts [. . .] the collecting of books, and papers’ and ‘the awakening of a general desire for the acquisition of the sciences and arts’, was composed mainly of European representatives who belonged to the SPC. The likes of Eli Smith, Cornelius van Dyck and Yuhanna Wortabet were all members. As another member of the society, Colonel Henry Churchill showed the same kind of open mindedness and interest in science and educational associations.70 Additionally, he was among the foreigners initiated into the Palestine Lodge. Other members of the society derived from Beirut’s Christian upper middle class and included Selim Naufal, Butrus al-Bustani, Mikha’il Mishaqa and Nasif al-Yaziji.71 ‘[M]odelled on European academic organisations bearing the modern name of the country’, the society was established in 1847.72 While it attracted exclusively Christian members, ‘its successor the Syrian Scientific Society, founded in 1857 [. . .] had no less than 50 Muslim members’.73 Members of this kind of institution, which were dedicated to science and education, who at the same time belonged to masonic lodges were not only to be found among Christians. Hassan Bayhum was one of the Muslims among the masons of the Palestine Lodge with other Bayhums active in the Syrian Scientific Society. Additionally, Hassan was listed as a member of Beirut’s municipality council in 1898. As Zachs notes, the Bayhum family in general was one of the Muslim families ‘that succeeded in penetrating the export business in the Syrian region’. They were the co-founders of the Muslim Benevolent Society (al-Maqa¯s.id al-khayriyya) and served in various positions for the Ottoman government. With the exception of only nine years, the family was represented in the municipality council between 1868 and 1908.74 Another lodge member connected to the SPC was Elias Habelin, a Maronite. Originally from Mount Lebanon, Habelin was editorin-chief of the Lubnan journal and held a post at the French consulate

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in Beirut. At the college and other ‘well known schools’ he taught French and Arabic.75 Socio-cultural developments, such as the Lewis Affair in 1882, concerned foreigners and Syrians alike. After defending Darwinism, Professor Edwin Lewis and some of his students were suspended from the SPC, whilst some students voluntarily resigned and consequently strikes were held. Among those who left in protest and went to Egypt were masons and authors like Faris Nimr, Yacub Sarruf and Jurji Zaidan.76 Ensuring a place in the lodge for the leading Druze family of Mount Lebanon was Hasib Bey, one of the few landowners who joined Palestine. Julius Løjtved was another extraordinary mason of the same lodge. In a travel guide published in 1904 he is mentioned as one of the recommended German doctors – although he was from Denmark77 – together with Dr Brigstock, who was also initiated into the lodge.78 Not only did he produce an extraordinarily precise map of Beirut and its foreign institutions for Abdulhamid II in 1876 (see Figure 6),

Figure 6 Map made by Julius Løjtved in 1876 (University of Birmingham, Special Collections, CMS m012-29E)

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he was also Honorary Vice Consul in Beirut and served later as Consul between 1886 and 1898.79 According to information from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Denmark, Løjtved was made a Knight of the Danish Order of Dannebrog in 1884. He was also an Officier d’Académie in France, a Knight of the Swedish Order of the Polar Star and was decorated with the third class of the Turkish Order of Medschidie. The Palestine Lodge seems to have lured him with yet another title. Meetings of the Palestine Lodge must have resembled the Babylonian confusion of tongues at times, as is illustrated by the Freemasons’ Magazine and Masonic Mirror of 1865: ‘[The] W.M. being a Greek (Bro. Aleais), the S.W. an Englishman (Bro. Eldrige), and the J.W. a Frenchman (Bro. du Chene), the German Nationalities being represented by three Germans and Swiss (one of whom, Bro. Eduard Koller, of Zurich, acts as Treasurer), while the Secretary of the lodge is an Italian, Bro. Vergi.’80 Though initially formed to fulfil European expectations and a desire to ‘enlighten’ the East, Palestine developed into a multi-religious body that soon took on a form specifically aimed at Syrian society. Far from the European masons’ one-sided mission, the lodge helped to bridge internal gaps and was at the same time sufficiently attractive to draw in Beirut’s higher middle class. As Hanssen states, a ‘high degree of genealogical continuity [. . .] on the municipal council is matched with an equally high degree of councillors’ membership in the highly influential political lobby groups and literary organisations’.81 Taking into account the prestige of its members, it is very likely that the Palestine Lodge also served similar purposes. One can say without doubt that freemasonry had entered Ottoman society at a high level, taking in first men from prestigious families belonging to the new middle class, which ‘operated in modern institutional settings to make their case for political reform, social peace and renewal’. The council and the lodges likewise would allow them ‘to experiment with reformist projects and test the practical limits of their social ideas’ though ‘local politics was also about power’.82 In an informal way, the lodge presumably functioned as a meeting point for a circle interested in international affairs and enabled the creation of political and business networks while affirming the local socio-cultural

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position of the individuals. Hence participation was as much directed to internal affairs as it was useful for Syrians concerned about external matters. Characteristic of these diverse memberships was the numerous overlapping of masonic lodges, the municipality and new cultural associations.83 All these societies and institutions, established during the second half of the nineteenth century, promoted scientific and educational issues, or served as charities and benevolent societies. A ‘keen interest in science and technology, the idea of an Ottoman public, and catching up with the civilized world were the major aspects of middle-class thought’.84 Additionally, the men involved in these activities ‘were genuine reformists on the political front’ and ‘campaigned for representative political institutions and formulated the idea of an imperial fatherland’. They were not against the Sublime Porte as all of their ideas ‘were compatible with the ideals of the Tanzimat and did not promote political nationalism’.85 Categorising these features as part of the Empire’s public sphere, historians during the past decade have started to pay attention ‘to new themes to be considered as public-sphere activities, such as festivals, parades, rituals, and other forms of public performance’.86 Masons were among the men who founded the Hamidie Society in Beirut in January 1893; one year after the Ottoman Company in Istanbul was established. Initiated by Suleiman Bustani, the Ottoman Company ‘had the sole rights in organising the Ottoman pavilion at the World exposition’ in Chicago. Suleiman’s cousin Nassib was appointed the company’s representative in Beirut.87 Nassib Bustani was one of the early members of Kadisha Lodge in Tripoli, later joining Le Liban Lodge. The general manager of the Hamidie Society, which was responsible for representing the Ottoman Empire at the World Fair exposition in Chicago in 1893, was Khalil Sarkis. He was assisted by Raji Saikali and Najib Sursock, together with Nakhle Bustros as treasurer. All the families were well connected to various lodges during this time. The Society even received a financial guarantee from Allan Ramsay, a co-founder of La Turquie Lodge in Constantinople in 1908, who worked for the Ottoman Bank.88 Abdulhamid participated in the exhibition mainly in order to improve the Ottoman Empire’s image beyond the Arab world.89

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Attractions of the Empire’s contribution included belly dancers, show fighting and Arab horses. Although some doubted that all the horses were thoroughbreds, the import and sale of Arab mares to the USA during the World Fair marked the beginning of prosperous business ventures. The Farrah family, who were Christian traders from Baalbeck, and who went on to have close links to Sunneen Lodge, were the original owners of Nejme (star), a prized thoroughbred. As Joe Achcar notes: ‘In March 23/03/1893 in front of the diplomatic corps, the Turkish officials and thousands of Beirut’s inhabitants, the Hamidie’s 247 officials, riders, and lads together with 40 horses, 12 camels, 7 donkeys, 3 sheep, 6 Sloughi dogs, embarked on the Cynthiana’, a large steamer that transported them to the New World.90 Although the show itself was a financial disaster – the Sursocks, the Bustanis and other rich Syrian family businesses involved lost substantial sums of money – it nevertheless had a long-lasting impact on visitors to the World Fair and the press were impressed by ‘the romance and color of the Orient’. The public were also attracted to the music, dances, the mosque on display at the exhibition (which was converted to a synagogue during Yom Kippur), its show and the animals.91 Moreover, Syrian and Egyptian masons were among the luckier ones who travelled to the exhibition, as at least they could rely on help from their American masonic brothers.92 Freemasonry was an internationally valid password; a tool that facilitated fraternisation, irrespective of national origins. This was one of the reasons why lodges affiliated with the Grand Lodge of Scotland prospered, as they were able to avoid the potential obstacles for masons belonging to the Grand Orient of France.93 Naturally, the same was true the other way around: foreign masons entering Ottoman territory could count on masonic hospitality. Between 1894 and 1895, General John Corson Smith, a freemason from Chicago, travelled around the world with his daughter Ruth Augusta.94 In Egypt and Greater Syria, they were warmly received by fellow masons. As Smith notes, ‘W. Bro. Y. Sarrouf, Ph.D., followed and delivered a few but choice words with reference to the great amount of good Freemasonry has ever done in the world, and alluded to the warm hospitality and fraternal assistance received through the hands of

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M.W. Bro. General J.C. Smith toward the brethren that called in Chicago during the world’s great fair.’95 It is more than likely that Smith had some contact with Syrian emigrants and visitors at the World Fair. During his visit, Smith was showered with all kind of gifts from fellow masons, such as Shahin Makarius, Colonel Mousally Bey, Dr D.M. Altaf and Ragab Nousrat Bey. They were Syrians who had settled in Egypt because of what they considered the Christian fanaticism of their former colleagues from the SPC or after censorship in Greater Syria had hindered them from publishing.96 Smith received flowers, embroideries and items made of glass, bronze articles inlaid with gold and a cup for his eldest son, who, according to Makarius, ‘was so kind to our Egyptian brothers where as W.M. he welcomed them to Garden City Lodge, No. 41, when in Chicago at the Great Fair’.97 In Beirut, Smith met masons whom he knew from the World Fair, including Kalil Rayess, Joseph R. Kanawati and J.F. Aftimus, who was ‘the architect of the Turkish, Egyptian, and Syrian buildings’ and it proved extremely beneficial to take advantage of his masonic links in what must have seemed a strange and exotic realm to him and his daughter.98 In his descriptions Smith mentions a certain R.E. Erny, referring to him as ‘Worshipful Master of the Palestine Lodge’.99 However, according to Scottish records the lodge had ceased functioning five years prior to Smith’s visit to Beirut. It is likely that former lodge members either ignored the ruling of their former Grand Lodge or considered themselves to be lifelong masons – irrespective of whether the lodge actually convened. Scottish records indicate that the Palestine Lodge was marked as ‘dormant’ from 1881. Yet, it continued to exist until at least 1889, as up to this year it paid for newly initiated members. However, it appears to have subsequently vanished into thin air. The political situation may have played a role. As the Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Scotland indicate, ‘a letter was read from the Lodge Palestine, No. 415, asking counsel in the circumstances of difficulty in which Freemasons have been placed through recent political changes in Syria. Remitted to Grand Secretary.’100 What had happened in this period?

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In 1876 Abdulhamid II came to power, and quickly dissolved parliament, overruled the constitution and began advocating oppressive and pervasive methods to eliminate lodges throughout the Empire; this was partly reasoned by ‘the suspicions of the Hamidian regime which kept a careful eye on all Masonic activities and took harsh measures to curb them’.101 According to reports sent by freemasons, all lodges were forced to close down on more than one occasion. A short time into Abdulhamid’s reign, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro became independent and Bulgaria became autonomous following the Congress of Berlin in 1878. Furthermore, in 1881 France took control of Tunisia and the following year Britain occupied Egypt. In addition, the Ottoman government, which was deeply in debt, had to accept European control over its finances. Consequently, Abdulhamid’s already excessive paranoia increased. He must have perceived masonic lodges as secret vehicles of the West that promoted separatist goals among his people, which – as has been illustrated – was not completely unjustified. ‘The freemasons became a special target of repression when Abdulhamid II got wind of their efforts in Europe on behalf of Murad V’, his older brother who briefly reigned as sultan before being declared mentally ill.102 Additionally, conservative Muslim and Christian circles disliked and distrusted this growing European intervention and penetration. We can only speculate as to the reasons for the problems faced by the Palestine Lodge. No further documents are extant, except for the registered members and an application for the erection of the District Grand Lodge for Syria, which were sent to Edinburgh in the lodge’s last active years, apparently without answer.103 However, the Palestine Lodge turned out to be at the vanguard of further masonic proliferation. Why else would its members have risked being branded ‘as “a habitual source of sedition,”’ being repressed and spied on?104 In general Abdulhamid had no problem with voluntary initiatives of all sorts, which he even supported in order to be seen as the main motivating power behind charitable and other worthy causes. Yet, freemasonry developed outside his area of control over imperial philanthropy. Consequently, while being part of the civic sphere, the fraternity played no role as a key element of ‘the Hamidian regime’s

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legitimation strategies’.105 Rather, freemasonry was considered as a risk factor, constituting a gateway for Western culture, which in turn would be able to exploit the regime’s socio-political weakness. Hence, Abdulhamid was not only wary of the fraternity as an unchecked institution possibly holding separatist movements in disguise but also of the consequences of growing Western influence in general to be able to break ‘the paternal bond between the sultan and his subjects’.106 Lodges, notwithstanding, constantly reformed, reopened and resumed their activities. Not only did former Palestine Lodge masons find new homes in other existing lodges, but they also succeeded in setting up new lodges that were only suspended as a result of World War One. Migration from one lodge to another was partly a sign of the socially unstable situation and the result of changing economic conditions.107 Yet, it was also the result of purely utilitarian thoughts: a high profile among as many freemasons as possible secured – as emphasised already before – a better socio-political standing. For traders, it enabled them to make contact with other traders, improve their common situations on the market, to be in contact with potential clients and to widen their business network in general. Palestine seemed finally to have surrendered to the persecution inflicted on its members by the Ottoman government and the clergy. But, according to the masons themselves, although the authorities tried to silence what is referred to as ‘universal masonry and philanthropy’, the masons withstood this pressure and ‘their zeal, so far from diminishing under such adverse circumstances, has, on the contrary, developed, and some of the brothers have united to form a lodge under the name of the Lebanon Lodge which was opened in 1868 in Beyrouth under the constitution of the Grand Orient de France’.108 This lodge, called Le Liban, proved to be more successful in many ways. Working under the patronage of the Grand Orient of France, it was the child of skilled freemasons. A formal request to establish a lodge whereby all the petitioners have to prove their masonic background is necessary by masonic law and the founders of Le Liban Lodge displayed their partly shared, prior experiences. Alphonse Lambert, a French engineer, had been initiated into a lodge in Lyon; Loutfallah Haggi’s previous lodge was in Constantinople and Louis Gaston Ferriere had

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been a member of an African lodge. Constantin Dombrowosky was a former member of a lodge called Réunion Bienfaisante, while Emile Gallais left a Scottish lodge in Alexandria. The other members, with the exception of the Persian consul A. Corseiri, were former Palestine Lodge members: Anton Nahhas, Jules Kulph, Joseph Fayad, Joseph Gedai, Dimitri Sursock, Assad Fayad, Michel Fiani, Joseph Gelegh, Habib Gelegh and Selim Achou.109 With the recruitment of some of Palestine Lodge’s most prestigious members, Le Liban Lodge grew rapidly and by 1869 some of its members were already complaining about its size. Consequently, this dissenting faction established La Chaine d’Orient Lodge, and included Kulph, Dombrowosky, Louis Monasterski, Jean and Alexandre Sursock, Loutfallah Rizcalla and Moyssiades Telemagen. The reasons for the establishment of this lodge were outlined to the Grand Orient of France by Monasterski, the chief of the dragomans. He cited the size of Le Liban Lodge, which had accepted nearly all membership applications, together with the inordinate amount of time required to produce French-Arabic translations of the procedures. According to him, Le Liban Lodge had become a sedate and cumbersome institution. Additionally, Monasterski described how they wanted to support the government against the clergy and that the more lodges that were established and that were actively working towards unification and tolerance, the better.110 One has to take into consideration that mentioning the government in a positive way was no obligation when corresponding with the French. Rather, it seems that Monasterski noted it down because this was his original thought. Freemasons, at least until the Young Turk Revolution, did not try to overthrow the Empire. On the contrary, they sought ways to strengthen it. La Chaine d’Orient Lodge did not survive for long. It is possible that one of the reasons it closed in 1896 was because it only attracted a limited number of foreigners. Indeed, only a year after its inception the lodge adopted Arabic as its principal working language. It is also possible that persecution by the Ottoman authorities curtailed opportunities to meet, as was allegedly the case with the Palestine Lodge. Additionally, lodges like Le Liban were affected by an outbreak of cholera in October 1875. A year later it closed temporarily, according

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to its own statement, because of tyranny, despotism and due to intimidation from Muslim fanatics.111 Letters of Le Liban Lodge mention aggression from Jesuits, which also forced another unnamed lodge to close in 1889, although this claim is questionable as Thierry Zarcone notes in his research. It is more likely that lodges tended to exaggerate the difficult working conditions in order to secure attention and good will from European masonic grand bodies.112 By 1913, the prestigious Le Liban Lodge had initiated over 560 members. Among them were 219 tradesmen, 138 employees of the Ottoman government, 60 physicians, 13 pharmacists, 44 landowners and 42 ‘men who performed remarkable services for their country like Mohammed Abdou, Mufti d’Egypt, Ibrahim Yaziji, the grand man of letters for Arabic, Dr. Sarruf, Dr. Nimr, Makarius, Dr. Zalzal Hourani etc.’, eighteen lawyers, sixteen engineers and eighteen members of the Ottoman army.113 Apart from these members, the lodge also included Bishara Zalzal and Ibrahim al-Yaziji the co-editors of the Al Tabib periodical, which was owned by the American Dr. George Post, a professor of surgery and botany at the SPC.114 In his letter to the Grand Orient of France, after providing a proud and appreciative summary of the number of masons initiated at the lodge, George Dimitri Sursock mentions its charitable activities. Hence it is described how the lodge lent support to the building of a national hospital, two charitable organisations, an educational institution and a sanatorium. It cooperated with other lodges in order to help both freemasons and needy persons in general. Thus, Le Liban Lodge’s success in its endeavours to improve living conditions for the population of Beirut was real. According to an anonymous article, published in an edition of The Freemason in 1914, it was ‘always in [the] forefront of all humanitarian movements’ and helped to establish new ones, such as the International First Aid Society of Cairo, which ‘owed its initiation to Bro. Vittorio Buccianti and its promotion to the Ramses II Lodge, no 63’.115 This is acknowledged by W.S. Nelson, non-mason and former missionary to Syria, who described masonry as having ‘supplied to Syria a unifying principle, an organisation in which all creeds and sects, Christian and Mohammedan alike, can find common ground and meet together as men and brothers whatever their

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religious differences’.116 And again, this dense web of local masonic meeting points, which just started with Le Liban and Palestine, was only initially woven by European masons, but it was the freemasons of Greater Syria who utilised freemasonry. They established something completely new, something that Europeans could not govern. Remarkably, all the men named as members of Le Liban were also connected to other lodges, thereby creating a masonic network. These men knew what to expect and wanted to expand their masonic horizons and networks. Many of the members of Le Liban Lodge, including Abdu, Yaziji, Sarruf and Nimr, had lived and worked in Egypt. Regarding Shahin Makarius, it seems that he was a collector of titles and memberships, travelling from one lodge to the other and taking in all his impressions. Subsequently, he published numerous masonic articles, a journal and books.117 Emin Arslan, a former governor of Dhour-el-Shweir, a village on Mount Lebanon, even wrote a letter to the Comité Turco-Syrien des Reformes in Paris, in order to express his support for Makarius’s publishing ambitions.118 Arslan himself once had led this committee before it merged with the Committee for Union and Progress (CUP).119 Makarius was probably the most knowledgeable man in his field in regard to the foundation of lodges in the Ottoman Empire. Nevertheless, his statements are sometimes sketchy, as when he described various cities and their masonic activities. He simplified the matter, for example, when he wrote that the Palestine Lodge simply changed its name to Le Liban.120 It not only changed its name, but also swapped affiliations. Indeed, though Palestine members were the initiators of Le Liban, there must have been a point when both lodges coexisted. This is suggested by a letter written in 1876 from Nicolas Haggi, grandmaster of Le Liban, to the Grand Orient of France, in which he mentions cooperation between members of both lodges.121 Sursock’s letter names two masonic publications: the twice-weekly Taqaddum journal, which was edited by Assad Isak, and the scientifically-oriented Muqtataf periodical that was edited by Yacoub Sarruf, Faris Nimr and Shahin Makarius.122 Having said this, though the publications may have expressed masonic ideas with some of the articles displaying corresponding mindsets, it was only Sursock who refers

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to Taqaddum and Muqtataf as masonic. This was probably reasoned by the fact that most of the journalists and writers were indeed members of masonic lodges.123 Sarruf and Nimr were also the co-owners and worked for Makarius’s newspaper, entitled Muqattam. Indeed, they were responsible for the publication of an article on the visit of the American mason Smith in March 1895.124 These writers are well known for their intellectual output, dealing with the future of Syria and of the Arab nation during the nahda, with their writings being partly regarded by fellow masons as a defence against the accusations made by the Jesuits in their journal Le Bashir.125 Herein, the Jesuits accused freemasons of working under French protection against the Ottoman government and also being responsible for the spread of revolutionary placards in Beirut and Damascus – an accusation Le Liban Lodge vehemently denied in more than one letter.126 It is not surprising to note that Le Liban Lodge, which belonged to a French grand body, also appealed to students and graduates of the SPC. This rather strengthens the thesis that affiliations to European grand bodies did not predetermine the characteristics of lodges. Medical students were particularly attracted to becoming initiates of Le Liban Lodge, which again correlates with the Lewis Affair and the mainly pro-Darwinian outlook of freemasonry.127 Darwinism was prominent among freemasons who supported scientific research in general and theories answering questions about human existence and evolution in particular. Hence, some of the students who had to leave the College at the same time because of their pro-Darwinian attitudes also belonged to different masonic lodges. Many young men from Damascus studied medicine in Beirut and became members of Le Liban Lodge, such as Ibrahim and Joseph Arbili, who were born in 1872 and 1876 respectively, as well as Joseph Elias Qudsi.128 The short biographies of the former students/masons provided in the directory of the American University of Beirut, the AUB – Directory of Alumni 1870–1952, indicates their various honorary titles and distinguished occupations. Najib Barbour, for example, worked as an intern in Brooklyn before returning to Beirut to become a physician at St George Hospital. He was awarded various honours,

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including being made an honorary member of the Société Académique de Paris and a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur. He also contributed to local Arabic medical publications, as well as being a past master of the Damascus Lodge in New York, the President of the alumni association in the city and a member of the American Medical Association.129 Another member of Le Liban Lodge was Bishara Zalzal, who, together with Ibrahim Yaziji, published the bi-weekly literary journal Al Bayyan.130 Zalzal was born in Bikfayya, but lived in Beirut, Cairo, Tanta and Alexandria.131 One can also mention Shukri Boutagi, who was an absolvent of the SPC and a physician. At one point, as mentioned in the Directory, he left for Jaffa, where he worked in an English hospital.132 What is more, Najib Dibs, from Zahle, worked as a medical officer in different Syrian cities before finally returning to Zahle. The list of persons linking Le Liban Lodge with the SPC also includes Bakhus Hakim and Ibrahim Kafrouni. The latter had a position working for the Ottoman government, while his final jobs were as a translator for the Department of Public Instruction and Ordinance in Cairo and as an instructor of mathematics.133 What these young men have in common, besides constant mobility, is their membership in masonic lodges combined with a scientific mindset. One is probably not mistaken when characterising freemasonry in these cases as a tool to adapt more easily to unfamiliar surroundings by finding like-minded men in lodge meetings. Wadi Shibli was also initiated into Le Liban Lodge. He hailed from a completely different background, but is also an example of a member of a middle class family. His family was among the first custodians of al-Manara’s lighthouse at Beirut’s port.134 The Shibli family were originally from Bikfayya on Mount Lebanon, but had taken over servicing the lighthouse from the Rajji family at the end of the nineteenth century and ‘have done so from Ottoman times until the present day, Lighthouse keeping is in their blood. At one time the family looked after lighthouses in Haifa and further up the Syrian coast, as well as the one in Al-Manara.’135 Wadi Shibli was probably the first member of his family to go to university, where he studied medicine.136 As a final example, the Trad family should be mentioned here. Six of its members joined Le Liban Lodge between the late 1860s and

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1900, with Michel Trad also being initiated into the Peace Lodge in the early twentieth century. The Trad family came to the Greater Syrian region during the tenth century from Yemen. Some members of the family settled in Egypt or Morocco, where they converted to Islam, while those who settled in Syria joined the Greek Orthodox Church. One branch was mainly active in banking – even today there is the Trad Bank – while another branch established the Trad Hospital. Alexandre and Selim Trad were both members of Le Liban Lodge and active in the diplomatic and consular sphere, where they worked as translators attached to the Russian Embassy. It seems that only one of the Trads did not pursue a career. This was Benjamin Trad, who lived in Constantinople and was known as Don Juan. He was the only Christian in the 1860s who was allowed to enter the harem of the Sublime Porte. The veracity of these stories is uncertain, but he did hold the post of chamberlain to the sultan. When he died, ‘all women from Istanbul swarmed out to grieve for him’.137 In contrast, Elias Trad was ‘a grand intellectual and man of letters who had published many literary and juridical books’ and who in addition was employed at different tribunals.138 The Trad family was close to the Sursock family and they frequently intermarried.139 They are also known to have become disillusioned with European (and particularly French) politics. As the general consul of France, Fouqes Duparc wrote: In the year 1907 Faris Mishriq and Nagib Trad criticised France’s policy in Lebanon [. . .] as they explained, the French influence decreased from day to day; the population’s continuous turning away from us aggravated in an alarming way and the French general consulate took side with the Maronite clergy against the people and the freemasons who, because of that hostility, turned to the Scottish lodges.140 Indeed, Duparc was right with his views on masonic mobility and also with his suspicions against Najib Trad and Faris Mishriq. Although the Ministry of Foreign Affairs decided not to take the two men too seriously, it did carry out investigations on both of them. While Najib

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Trad had been seemingly unknown throughout the country, ‘regarding Faris Mishriq, [. . .] of narrow education, originally from America, he is in his district of very small political importance, hence, the name is only known thanks to his contribution into a foundation of a masonic lodge for Shweir, a village, which is mainly orthodox’.141 This might have been true in the eyes of the French diplomats, but for Lebanese masons Mishriq played a significant role as head of a lodge in Shweir in 1910. He served also as a witness for petitions made to work under the Grand Lodge of Scotland by the Salah ed-Din Lodge, No. 1071, in Acre and the Carmel Lodge, No. 1085, in Haifa.142 Another member of the Trad family, Petro, was a member of the reform movement in Beirut and was accused of conspiring against the government. He featured in newspaper headlines in 1913 when he was exiled to Paris.143 Not all members of Le Liban Lodge attended regularly. Indeed, by 1913 a total of 292 members had already died, whilst 160 were at that time out of the country and 53 did not attend the meetings. Nonetheless, Le Liban Lodge had a sizeable 56 active members. It is significant that the lodge was founded under the jurisdiction of the Grand Orient of France, and not the Grand Lodge of Scotland, as was the case with Palestine Lodge. This may have been reasoned by the fact that France was deeply involved in political events and had interests at stake in Syria. Though not succumbing to Western colonial ambitions, masons probably wanted to keep a door open in case they indeed needed support from their masonic grand bodies. Le Liban thereby put up with restrictions in its work due to the split that had occurred in freemasonry in 1877, which rendered the Grand Orient irregular in the eyes of the Grand Lodge of Scotland and the Grand Lodge of England. Most of its members decided not to change obedience after this split, maybe in the hope of forging a channel to the French government through the Grand Orient connection.144 With only about 20 Muslim masons among a total of approximately 300 up until 1903, the lodge did not hesitate in sending petitions and complaints to its French mother lodge and thereby playing the Christian card or even a general anti-clerical card.145 It described Syria as being in a state of ‘physical decadence’,146 and also had no qualms in speaking out against Muslims in general, mentioning ‘the Muslim community, which has

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always been hostile to our philanthropic principles’.147 Paradoxically, the same letter expresses an equal degree of happiness about new Muslim members. On the one hand, this seems to be a bit like saying: all Muslims are bad but our brothers are the exceptions. On the other hand, more probably the writer of the letter only wanted to confirm what he thought was the stereotype preferred by French masons in order to establish a closer bond. In contrast to Kadisha Lodge, No. 1002, Le Liban was quintessentially urban in its composition: its upper middle class members were not used to the daily life of the average person and the gap between the affluent and the poor in Beirut during this period widened. The correspondence of lodge members with the Grand Orient also reveals the feeling of physical proximity in the city and the adoption of European lifestyles. Indeed, Maronites were called Petits Français and the masonic congress was planned on the same day as the anniversary of the French Revolution – together with the World Fair – in Paris.148 Le Liban Lodge did adopt French principles, such as laïcité, liberté, égalité and fraternité, but tried at the same time not to be completely imitative of the French, avoiding subjection to French policies on the one hand and harm to the relationship on the basis of audacious and independent actions on the other hand. As mentioned before, members of Le Liban, who were fully aware of masonic privileges, experienced problems when travelling. This was particularly evident after 1877, when they encountered problems of recognition everywhere outside the Ottoman Empire and turned to their Grand Orient for help. However, as with their political petitions, the lodge members were left unsupported. When the Peace Lodge, No. 908, first gained a charter on 1 May 1900, its founders asked the Grand Lodge of Scotland for recognition. Their decision may have been financially motivated, as the fees of the Grand Lodge of Scotland were lower than equivalent fees demanded by the United Grand Lodge of England or the Grand Orient.149 Until 1908 the Peace Lodge had almost 200 members, with some clergymen amongst them. As in Le Liban Lodge, tradesmen formed the largest group, followed by professors, doctors and students.150 The proliferation of educational institutions at the turn of the twentieth

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century led to an increase in the number of scholars joining various associations. However, by 1908 only about 50 masons (out of a total of over 1,000) had attended the SPC.151 Nassib and Amin Abcarius were two of the graduates from the SPC, who embodied the new growing middle and upper classes in Greater Syria.152 The Abcarius family originally came from Ak¢ehir, a town and district in Central Anatolia. They moved to Jerusalem when Hagop Abcarian was appointed Patriarch of Jerusalem in 1815. Afterwards he served as a bishop in Armenia, before leaving the clergy and settling in Beirut in 1825. In his lifetime he was not only English Consul of Saida, but also of Syria and Constantinople. His son Iskandar was a poet and well connected to the circle that convened around Butrus al-Bustani and Ibrahim Yaziji. He received the honorary title of Poet Laureate of Egypt and one of his works can still be found in the National Library of Paris. Like his father, Iskandar worked in Beirut as a consul for America and Portugal. Both of his two sons first studied pharmacy. Amin moved to Egypt and became a merchant, whilst Nassib continued with law studies at the SPC. Nassib finally received his diploma in Paris and did not return to Syria. After working for the Egyptian Ministry of Justice he moved to Jerusalem, where he acted as a lawyer and advisor to the government during the British occupation. He also worked as a legal officer in Khartoum. During his lifetime he amassed badges of honour as well as money and received the honorary title of Bey. Both Nassib and Amin joined Le Liban Lodge in 1893.153 Their family home in Jerusalem still stands; though unfortunately today it reveals nothing of its history (see Figure 7). Another student from the SPC, who joined Peace Lodge in Beirut, was Habib Khalil Malik, a physician born in the village of Btirram in Koura. Malik went to Egypt, where he served as director of a medical clinic, before returning to Greater Syria to be a captain in the Ottoman army and a municipal doctor in Adana. He also worked as chief physician of the military hospital for some time, while contributing articles to local Arabic publications.154 The presence of photographers as early members of masonic lodges in Greater Syria can be observed from 1865, and three of the first photographers in Beirut were freemasons. Antonio Beato (1825–1906),

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The Abcarius House in Jerusalem (photographed in 2008)

who joined the Bulwer Lodge, No. 1068 in Cairo, being the first. Beato was also the co-petitioner for the foundation of the Grecia Lodge, No. 1105, in the Egyptian capital. He worked together with his business partners Felix and James Robertson.155 The photographer Theophil Leeuw, originally from Manchester and who was initiated in Alexandria Lodge, became a member of Le Liban in 1869. Some forty years later the Sarrafian Brothers joined Peace Lodge. Abraham Sarrafian (Figure 8) had studied at the American High School of Mardin. Alongside his brother, Boghos, he worked as a photographer in his native city of Dikranagerd, east of Diyarbakir. The Sarrafian brothers went together to Mosul in order to take photographs and to trade in antiquities. They left for Beirut shortly after their return to Dikranagerd in 1895, as a result of massacres against the Armenian population. In their newly adopted city they established a photography shop. Soon, the two brothers had branches all over the region. ‘Having become the grand editors of postcards, the Sarrafian brothers opened shortly afterwards a second studio in Jerusalem where they specialised in the sale of coloured postcards of holy places.’156 In the space of thirty years their company published

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Photographs of Abraham Sarrafian (courtesy of his grandson, Walid Buheiry, Beirut: 2008)

more than a quarter of the postcards available in the Ottoman Empire, spanning countries as far afield as Libya, Yemen and contemporary Turkey.157 As Figure 8 suggests, the brothers were able to make good money with their business. Abraham can be seen with a neat hairstyle and wearing a fashionable shirt, jacket and tie. On the reverse side of the photograph can be seen a depiction of a temple to Venus (see Figure 9), which fits into the concept of non-Muslims stressing the importance of the area in terms of its classical heritage. Abraham was less known for his intellect than for his charitable deeds during World War One. As Sisag Hagop Varjabedian notes: ‘Leaving aside all his work and family, [Abraham] started helping these poor people day and night without stopping. He became of even greater help to them when he was named chairman of the National Union. With his useful advice he also greatly helped the Near East Relief.’158 Apparently Abraham was so busy with philanthropic deeds that as a result he overestimated his own physical strength and died

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Figure 9 A postcard of the Venus Temple, early twentieth century (made by the Sarrafian Bros., Archive of the University of Birmingham, Special Collections)

after a heart attack at the age of 53. As Varjabedian notes, ‘he used to help the Armenians, Arabs, Christians and even non-Christians and for that he was loved and honoured by all’.159 The same is said about his brother Boghos, although his Armenian patriotism also comes to the surface. Indeed, Boghos was mainly concerned with helping and supporting local Armenians. Once again, as Varjabedian states, ‘maybe few people know how much the Armenian Community of Beirut owes its safe and secure life to [his] exceptional ability’.160 The Sarrafians were highly respected and enjoyed an extraordinary reputation among Armenians and others. Varjabedian emphasises that ‘the Sarrafians were great patriotic personalities who were loved, honoured and highly respected by the Armenians, Arabs and foreigners alike’.161 Patriotic sentiment in this case can be best understood as a sense of loyalty and care in regard to fellow men. A similar picture emerges about lodge member Armenag Kehyayan, who joined Peace Lodge around the same time. He was an Armenian, whose family was from Caesarea, and who belonged to the second generation of photographers.162 His family are said to have been pillars of social life for the Armenian poor. Armenag himself was educated at

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the St Garabed Monastery in 1902 and afterwards at the SPC. He later travelled to Manchester, where he married and had four children.163 Up to 1908 there were only about 50 Armenian masons in Ottoman Syria out of a total of over 1,000 masons.164 With the rise of Armenian nationalism and the feeling of belonging to one of the minorities in the Ottoman Empire, they could have perceived masonic lodges as providing a sanctuary from ethnic persecution.165 However, it is questionable whether those still living in Greater Syria at that time trusted the social cohesion of the lodges, after having already experienced massacres. The so-called ideals of freemasonry – liberty, equality and fraternity – had been trampled underfoot in many areas of the Ottoman Empire. On the other hand, in some areas in which many Armenians had settled down, some lodges, like the one in Adana, did emerge with a sizeable Armenian contingent. Luce Lodge was established in 1887, working under the obedience of the Grand Lodge of Italy. In 1913 it became independent; a decision taken in the wake of the Italian-Turkish War of 1911–12.166 Additionally, freemasonry in Italy had profited from association with the spirit of Risorgimento but in the Ottoman Empire it encountered growing difficulties due to the diminished reputation of the Italian language. As the Baedeker travel guide from 1904 notes: ‘Italian having been together with Arabic the main language has been pushed away by French since many catholic Christians send their sons to the felicitous institutions of the Lazarists and Jesuits.’167 The Treaty of Ouchy, signed in 1912, stipulated a continuation of some of the former ties between Italy and the Ottoman Empire;168 the latter declared itself ‘ready to reinstate [Italian subjects] in the positions which they had left’ and even emphasised that it was able ‘to use its good offices with the institutions with which it is connected (public debt, railroad companies, banks, etc.) to the end that they may act in the same manner toward the Italian subjects who were in their service and are in a similar situation’. Nevertheless Italy’s reputation in the Ottoman Empire was damaged and in theory it even agreed to an abrogation of the capitulations, ‘provided agreements be negotiated by Turkey with the Powers enjoying the benefit of the capitulations’.169 This would not only have been unfortunate for Italians working in

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the Empire but was also disadvantageous for Ottomans connected with Italy and thereby enjoying certain privileges and protection. The Ottoman government’s concession of territory, especially areas inhabited by Arabs, once again illustrated its weak position.170 Up until 1925, the Luce Lodge was composed of about forty members, of whom only ten had joined when it was still under Italian patronage. However, this lodge lasted considerably longer than the Henderson Lodge, which was founded in Aintab in 1887 and was under the jurisdiction of the Grand Orient of Italy. It only lasted three years in its initial guise, with only five Armenian members: Krikor Borghossian, Eghia Derghazarian, Iskandar Hikimian, Deervelt Poladian and Philippe Sarkissian. In 1890, the same five founded Ehden Lodge, No. 773, in Aintab, with five fellow Armenians, and chose to be affiliated with the Grand Lodge of Scotland. The last correspondence from Ehden Lodge dates from 20 May 1896. At the end of the nineteenth century, massacres and persecution against Armenians increased and Aintab was not spared. According to the Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Scotland between 1896 and 1897, ‘hundreds have been killed and thousands have been robbed. More than four thousand people, reduced to utter destitution, have been saved from imminent death by the timely help of British and American Christians. [. . .] Anything that the Grand Lodge of Scotland will send will be taken charge of . . .’ A latter report noted: ‘It was resolved to recommend to Grand Lodge to grant One Hundred Pounds towards the relief of the distressed brethren in Aleppo and Aintab.’ In the same year, grants were given to Ehden Lodge and Palestine Lodge.171 Notwithstanding this support, Ehden Lodge apparently did not survive. Zenop Bezjian Senior belonged to Ehden Lodge, but Moses Bezjian, a pharmacist born in Aintab, was a member of Le Liban Lodge. He was among the early graduates from the SPC and went on to work as a pharmacist at the American Mission Hospital in Aintab. Bezjian also received his degree at the SPC and carried on his medical career as a doctor in the Ottoman army and in the government in Ottoman Palestine. He was in charge of treating infectious diseases in a hospital in Aleppo, and then worked in the American Hospital in Aintab, followed by a position in Constantinople. He left this job in order

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to work as a physician and the chief doctor for Near East Relief in Lebanon during the 1920s, before becoming an orthopaedic surgeon in London and France. He returned to the SPC surgery in Beirut, but left again for Iraq and Palestine, where he worked for a further seventeen years before finally returning to Lebanon.172 Only scarce sources are extant vis-à-vis Armenians living in Arab cities during this period if they were not involved in public activities like cultural societies. One surviving reference is the directory of the SPC, where some of the Armenian masons matriculated. One such Armenian graduate from the SPC was Mihran Bedrossian, who was originally from Adana and who was a municipal physician in Ajlun between 1900 and 1901 in the sancak (administrative unit) of Hauran. He later joined Luce Lodge in Adana. Another Armenian graduate of the SPC was Boghos Effendi Takvorian, who was the chief engineer in Adana and a member of La Syrie Lodge in Aleppo.173 Animosity against freemasonry was expressed by most of the clergy in the region, although this apparently weakened at the turn of the twentieth century. This is indicated by the initiation of Joseph Jarjar Jidaun and Yacub Hagguri into Peace Lodge, who were both religious scholars.174 One of the only Jewish masons in Peace Lodge was Moshe Bercoff, who was the director of the Jewish college. He later moved to Haifa, where in 1911 he co-founded the Carmel Lodge under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, with Michail G. and Towfik Majdalani, who were former colleagues from Peace Lodge. Other Syrian masons can be found in Egyptian lodges after they left Greater Syria. Salim Mishaqa and Antoine Diab, who were from Rishmayya in Mount Lebanon and Beirut respectively, joined the Mansurah Lodge between 1882 and 1885. Another Beiruti, Alexandre Tueni, was initiated in the Egyptian La Régéneration de la Grèce Lodge at around the same time.175 Besides the excursion into short descriptions of other lodges, the freemasons mentioned above highlight the typical social structure of lodges in Beirut. They belonged predominantly to politically and commercially active families connected to educational institutions or associated with the introduction of new technologies. On the one hand,

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these early lodges in the provincial capital were oriented towards nonSyrians in the area: masons could profit from the diversity of lodges and affiliations because of the related privileges and the variety of protection given through European connections. On the other hand, lodge foundations expressed the serious concerns about Syria and a longing for a lasting peace. With the spread of lodges, due to ‘the idea to establish lodges under other obediences’, masons wanted to create and strengthen the unity of all its inhabitants. In other words, they wanted ‘one union and a real liberal government’.176 For the members of Le Liban Lodge or Peace Lodge, freemasonry was the ideal instrument to achieve that goal. It offered a non-sectarian and geographically unlimited vision of fraternal association. Yet a filter was still inherent in freemasonry, as membership fees and other costs ensured that only members of the middle or upper class could afford to enlist. Hence, while Syrian freemasons could speak about their desire to unite the people of the Empire, they still paid tribute to the ideas of an elite functioning as a vanguard. Freemasonry experienced its peak in the region around the time of the Young Turk Revolution. This trend was due to the behaviour of masons, who set about opening many new lodges. It was also a result of the social changes that transformed the Ottoman Empire. In Beirut, a general economic revival took place, which was not automatically accompanied by improved political conditions or social security. In many ways lodges acted as outlets and sanctuaries offering some respite from social ills. Syrian freemasons wanted unity through diversity. However, especially after 1908, some of them were a bit too zealous in their desire to attract others to the fraternity. Consequently, they had to be reminded by the Grand Lodge of Scotland that it was against masonic constitutional law to take part ‘or be concerned with the working or promulgation in any manner of way of any Degree, Rite or Order, purporting to be Masonic, which is not authorised by Grand Lodge, or by one of the other Masonic Grand Bodies with whom the Grand Lodge is in amity’.177 Syrian lodges belonging to European masonic bodies either willingly ignored or were not always aware of masonic rules regulating

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ways to deal with other associations. Thus, they sent letters to Scotland and France, for example, requesting clarification as to how they should relate to members of the Rite of Memphis and the National Grand Lodge of Egypt.178 The same holds true with regard to their general attitudes towards European grand bodies. If they felt mistreated by the European powers, the Ottoman government, the Jesuits or by Maronite patriarchs, they sent complaints to the grand body that seemed most willing and able to intervene.179 Joining a certain lodge never automatically entailed agreeing with the politics of the grand body’s home country. Even the grand lodges or orients did not always side with their own governments. Moreover, if a mason was not satisfied with the manner of his own lodge, he could easily move to another, as many Syrians did. Salame Ghureiggeh, a teacher in Beirut, joined Le Liban Lodge in December 1905, but moved only two months later to Peace Lodge. The same holds true for Georges Salhab, a merchant who was not only initiated in Peace Lodge, but in the same year entered Sunneen Lodge. Furthermore, one can cite the example of Hikmet Cherrif, the director of a Tripoli school who joined the Kadisha Lodge in 1914, but frequently visited the El Mizhab Lodge in El Mina.180 Edouard Lair was also originally initiated in Sunneen Lodge in Shweir, but ended up in Peace Lodge.181 Changing from a lodge belonging to the Grand Lodge of Scotland to one affiliated with the Grand Orient of France was relatively easy. The French body recognised the Grand Lodge of Scotland. However, in theory, the Grand Lodge of Scotland did not recognise the Grand Orient of France. Yet, in practice, the matter was not so clear-cut. As George John Gibson notes, ‘[w]ith regard to the atheistic or agnostic Latin Orders of excommunicated and quasi-Masonic origin, we can never contemplate any federation, any recognition of an official character, since T.G.A.O.T.U. (The Great Architect of the Universe) is openly regarded as a myth by the official spokesmen of these Orders’.182 In reality, the situation vis-à-vis different masonic bodies was quite different. Anton Nahhas, a customs officer in Beirut, who was originally from Jaffa, and Joseph Fayad, a member of the criminal court, for example, switched from Le Liban Lodge to Palestine Lodge.183 One could

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also simply remain within the sphere of one grand lodge and at the same time be initiated into different lodges. This was very convenient for men with commercial connections in various cities. In addition, relocating sometimes made it necessary to enter a lodge away from a mason’s original association. Kedivan Saloom and Selim S. Shweiry, for example, were first initiated in a Brazilian lodge in April 1905, but after their return to Syria they joined Sunneen Lodge.184 Another common feature of masons was to praise the European country to which the lodge was affiliated or with which networking seemed most profitable. Members of Sunneen Lodge, for example, even managed to laud France, whilst belonging to the Grand Lodge of Scotland: ‘thanks to France we found us illuminated through the sun of truth’.185 What is more, Alexander Barroudi complimented Great Britain, when consecrating a new lodge under the Grand Lodge of Scotland: ‘Salah ed-Din the beloved name of the famous * great * just king of the Mouslims in the time of the Crusaders who had much to do with the English King Richard I (Coeur de Lion)’.186 In theory the split between the Grand Orient of France and other masonic associations should have curtailed lodge-hopping, or at least limited it to mutually recognised lodges. However, in practice, Syrian masons changed their affiliations in what seems like an opportunistic manner. Before the Young Turk Revolution and the Italian-Turkish War in 1911, the only precondition apparently in place was that a mason had to be affiliated with a European grand body. As Appendix III shows, a steady movement between lodges ensured that masons knew about the other lodges and the composition of members. In addition, the phenomenon of lodge-hopping enlivened lodge meetings. Pragmatic thoughts underpinned lodge changing, with flexibility and assimilation being key factors in relation to the dynamic surrounding environment. Masons did not necessarily need to change lodges in order to ask for support from other masonic organisations. As already noted, lodges cooperated directly. Hence, Sunneen Lodge, which was founded in 1904 and was under the patronage of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, sent letters to its colleagues in Le Liban Lodge, in which they requested help from the Grand Orient of France.187 Sunneen Lodge did not contact the

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Grand Orient directly, which could be a sign that the men were aware of the fact that they belonged to a different obedience. Thus, extending one’s hand to help another brother was not restricted to one’s own lodge, let alone to a particular masonic grand body. The example of Ahmed Effendi Ashi (1867–1939) will illustrate this fact. Ashi was born in Beirut, but lived and worked as a policeman in El Mina, where he had settled with his whole family.188

Figure 10

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Ahmed Ashi, early twentieth century (courtesy of Nassiba Saati, El Mina: 2008)

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Ashi was the son of Saad Edin Effendi Ashi and Kadisha Khanoum and was married twice during his life. In a certificate issued by the Ottoman Empire, he was described as literate, hardworking and was able to converse in Ottoman Turkish. The photograph of Ashi (see Figure 10) projects the impression of a proud Ottoman official who is confidently wearing traditional headgear. Promotion to a higher rank and an improved salary serve as further proofs of his valued performance. Ashi reduced his working hours in 1929 and retired ten years later. Apparently, he was not only a competent public servant, but also became a freemason of Peace Lodge in early 1904. In 1905, he received the third degree (see Figure 11), designating him a master mason. In 1910, he had reached the eighteenth degree of the Knights of the Rose-Croix, testified by a certificate (see Figure 12) written in Italian by the Supreme Council of Egypt in Cairo. While the first document serves as a perfect example of the brotherhood’s claim for universalism – mixing languages in a way it saw fit – the second is completely penned in Italian and Latin, which may symbolise the Egyptian masons’ own self-perception, detached from any British superior authority. The speed of Ashi’s advancement in freemasonry is not as surprising as the way he managed to harmonise his professional and masonic careers when he was still a full-time employee of the Ottoman government. Ample evidence of this symbiosis exists in the form of letters of thanks sent from various lodges. In 1910, Ashi received a letter in Arabic from Al Mohabba (Love) Lodge in Alexandria, which worked under the jurisdiction of the National Grand Lodge of Egypt. In the letter, the secretary of the lodge, Michel Shakhtuf, sent him three masonic kisses and invited him to a conference organised by the lodge, in order to show his appreciation for the charitable activities of Ashi and his lodge. In the same year, Ashi received a letter from the Grand Master of the same Egyptian grand lodge. Again, masons thanked him for his good deeds. He must have excelled as an individual and the Egyptian Niasi Lodge bestowed upon him a gold medal with his name engraved, which was intended for use at special events and masonic ceremonies. In 1910 Ashi received a further letter of thanks from Faris Mishriq, the Worshipful Master of Sunneen Lodge. In 1930 he also received a

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Masonic Certificate from 1905 (courtesy of Nassiba Saati, El Mina: 2008)

letter from Al-Hilal Lodge, again an Egyptian lodge, which used the opportunity to invite him to its opening ceremony. In a note sent by the Peace Lodge, Ashi and his work were extolled, but he was also reminded of his duties as mason. Ashi must have had an argument

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Masonic Certificate from 1910 (courtesy of Nassiba Saati, El Mina: 2008)

with Sami Azar, a fellow mason. Consequently, George Abboud el-Ashkar, the secretary of Peace Lodge, asked him ‘to cooperate. You are a brother and we are all sons of the widow.’189 No explanation was given in the letter as to the basis of the argument. Another indicator of a masonic network and a spirit of mutual recognition can be found in a letter from El Arz (the Cedars) Lodge,

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working in Tripoli under the jurisdiction of the National Grand Lodge of Egypt. Ashi was described as an honourable and wise man who seemingly worked day and night. Members of El Arz Lodge wanted to thank him for his help and the support he had given to Brother Abdul Zataar Durneika – ‘blessed may he be for his charity and care for the poor’.190 Confusingly, the letter was signed by the Worshipful Master of the lodge, George Bandali in 1929. Eleven years earlier Bandali had co-founded the Mina al-Amin Lodge, No. 245, under Egyptian jurisdiction in Tripoli and visited El Mizhab Lodge in 1919, which was related to L’Unione Lodge in the city that worked under the Grand Orient of Italy.191 Bandali appears to have been a member of different lodges at the same time. This suspicion is strengthened when one looks at Figure 13, which shows a self-confident man in a suit, flaunting all his masonic medals. The masonic life of Shukri Fakhouri, who wrote to Ashi in his position as lodge secretary, is also problematic. In the letter he praises Ashi for his work all over the world and for supporting Fakhouri’s own lodge in particular. Fakhouri wrote the letter as the secretary of Mina al-Amin Lodge, but he was also the co-founder of Kadisha Lodge in 1906, as well as El Mizhab Lodge in 1914. On the one hand, this collection of memberships demonstrates how useful it could be to have more than one association with masonic lodges. On the other hand, it proves how freemasonry had developed in the region: it had transformed from a European-managed concept into an Ottoman enterprise with protective attitudes. Freemasons themselves call it patriotic love.192 In the early years of their existence, lodges were frequented by Europeans. Throughout the nineteenth century the fraternity continued to gain ground among the Syrian population. This development can also be observed with regard to lodges in Beirut, whose Syrian members grew in number towards the end of the century, while the number of Westerners stagnated or dropped. However, the focus on recruiting new freemasons originating from Syria was not reflected in the choice of language officially used during lodge meetings. Freemasonry was not considered by its adherents to be a colonial institution, but rather as a tool that was universally useful.

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George Bandali (El Mizhab Lodge: 2008)

Its traditional roots in European history were respected and honoured and the use of European languages formed part of this attitude. This behaviour was partly opportunistic, but was also pragmatic concerning matters of faith. The National Evangelical Church of Beirut was established in 1848 ‘as a result of the efforts of Congregational and Presbyterian missionaries from the United States. In 1869, the first evangelical church edifice was built to house the Arabic and Englishspeaking congregations.’193 The archive of this church holds registration books with the names of all converts to Protestantism between 1848 and 1915.194 Altogether 736 persons converted to Protestantism, with

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the majority not originating from Beirut. Notwithstanding this, they became affiliated with the Western institution in the city. According to these books, in many cases a person joined the Protestant Church in Beirut on their deathbed, which may have been as a result of the Protestant cemetery being more desirable or that the church took better care of dependants. Foreign educational institutions were favoured by families that were not constrained by dogmatic considerations. This could sometimes be helpful in order to receive a desired education for a child who had the appropriate faith. Hence, by examining all the converts’ names, it comes as no surprise that they include many freemasons and their relatives. Thus, lodge-hopping and religious conversions could both be based on pragmatic reasoning.195 Securing the future of one’s family was an imperative and more vital than showing loyalty in questions of faith when lives were at stake. Sovereignty, rather than religion, was the main issue. As Selim Deringil notes, ‘the Greek claiming Austrian protection, the Georgians being claimed by the Russians, the Greek woman being claimed by the British consul at Preveze, the Jew converting to Protestantism and claiming British protection, even the dead body of a convert, have become grounds of contestation between rival claims of sovereignty’. Conversion served the interests of both parties. Thus, Syrians were able to get their desired protection, including privileges, while the Western side could be satisfied in what Deringil terms an international prestige war ‘in which the Great Powers sought to impose their will on the last remaining non-Christian Great Power [in which conversion] seemed a re-affirmation of their superiority’.196 After an impressive period of flourishing, the fraternity experienced another shift with the onset of the Young Turk Revolution in 1908. At this time, numerous lodges started to work under newly established Arab, Turkish and Ottoman grand bodies that assumed control from European domination; a trend that was only interrupted with French occupation. A question arising during my research was why the Grand Lodge of England was not as active in Greater Syria as it was in Constantinople, Cairo and Alexandria? While it provided some of the provincial or district grand masters, it did not establish any lodges under English

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patronage in this area. This lack of interest derives from many facts: more Englishmen were located in Egypt and Constantinople, where they established lodges as locations for social interactions with their countrymen. This is illustrated by the membership lists preserved in the library of the United Grand Lodge of England in London: almost all lodge members were European.197 Moreover, in Constantinople most of the European lodges were erased or dormant from the late nineteenth century, testifying to the anti-masonic atmosphere under Abdulhamid and the nationalisation of Turkish lodges. From 1887, the lodges with Western affiliations that continued to exist in Cairo and Alexandria, as well as in Constantinople, were regarded as colonial outposts and were therefore probably less appealing to Syrian masons.198 Another factor must have been the experiences of English politicians with freemasonry both before and after the Young Turk Revolution. Elie Kedourie is partly right when claiming that Ambassador Sir Gerard Lowther (1858–1916) suffered from paranoia when suspecting that a Masonic–Jewish conspiracy was behind the Young Turk movement, which was represented by the Committee for Union and Progress. This sense of paranoia later influenced British policy towards the Young Turks.199 However, it would be too easy to entirely dismiss Lowther’s fears. We know that freemasonry in the region around the time of the Young Turk Revolution, and even before, became politicised in Cairo as well as in Constantinople. Yet, it is extremely difficult to ascertain the extent to which freemasons were successful in their political aspirations. Claims made by freemasons themselves, who called for recognition of their involvement in oppositional movements, cannot be accepted without documents and sources. Praising voices from freemasons themselves cannot be taken as being completely true, as has already been proven with the French Revolution and its masonic perception. During the overthrow of the old Turkish system of despotism and the forming of the new constitutional Government, the greatest blessing Turkey has ever had, Masonry played the greatest part. That Turkish Revolution, which has amazed the whole

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world, the first revolution of its kind in the history of the world which has been free from the stain of blood, was accomplished through Masonry.200 However, what can be seen is the transformation from mixed lodges, composed of men with different nationalities, to more homogeneous lodges, consisting mainly of Egyptians or Turks under the jurisdiction of national grand lodges. Without a doubt Lowther was right in claiming that many of the leading members of the Committee for Union and Progress were freemasons.201 While he speaks in respectful terms of the United Grand Lodge of England and the Grand Lodge of Scotland, he, as a representative of the British government, naturally disapproves of all other competing national bodies. Since most of the English lodges in Egypt and Constantinople had already been closed at the time of his letter, Lowther lacked informed insights into masonic life in the region, or concrete facts about lodge membership. Thus, he had to rely solely on speculation and rumours, though he did witness the campaigns to ‘get all masons home’ by nationalising recently founded lodges. The success of Yusuf Sakakini Bey, from the Belgian Supreme Council of Freemasonry, who was raised to the 33rd degree, and empowered to constitute the Grand Orient of Turkey, is questionable.202 However, his intention to nationalise lodges was real. In 1910, Sakakini, who was also Honorary Grand Master ad Vitam and a member of the Ottoman Supreme Council, wrote a letter that originally appeared in the Egyptian Gazette, which was published in Alexandria and reproduced in the English journal The Freemason.203 In his letter, Sakakini accused European masons of hypocrisy in wrongly claiming ‘that Ottoman Freemasonry had for its support the Grand Orient of Paris’. According to Sakakini, this was a falsehood, [a falsehood produced in order] to spread the belief that Freemasonry in Turkey was irreligious, which is not true. [. . .] Ottoman Masons embrace every religion and race in the Empire, and they base their system on the ancient Scottish Rite. Masonry in Turkey has been recognised and has entered

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into relations with the Masonic Bodies of North, South, and Central America, Switzerland, Chile, Colon, Paraguay, Uruguay, Venezuela, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Rumania, Greece, Hungary, Egypt, etc. Ottoman Masonry has sent its circulars to the Grand Lodges of Ireland, Scotland, and London, and if these Lodges have not entered into friendly relations that does not prevent Ottoman Freemasonry from being regular and soundly authorised. In the name of the Grand Ottoman Orient I declare that every Lodge created in the Ottoman Empire after the 1st August, 1909, by Foreign Powers is irregular and should be considered as clandestine [. . .].204 Lowther did not invent Syrian animosity to these Egyptian and Turkish nationalist movements, which mixed masonry with individual political aspirations. However, his fear of Jewish influence was completely exaggerated and his supposed knowledge about Zionist conspiracies remains unproven. A further reason for the absence of English lodges in Greater Syria was that the English, at least before their relations with Abdulhamid worsened, wanted the Ottoman Empire to survive as a whole. They knew how dangerous a nationalist-minded masonic fraternity could be in nurturing separatist minds. When, during the Empire’s last years, this attitude changed, Scottish lodges had already been established. Did the Grand Lodge of Scotland act as a proxy for British political goals? It certainly would never have acted against British interests. Its policy of not recognising many of the established Ottoman, Egyptian or Syrian grand bodies supports this theory. The British grand lodges did not want to prematurely recognise the Ottoman Orient, without knowing what would happen in the wake of the Young Turks assuming power, when the Grand Ottoman Orient itself was too weak and too young to exert real influence on the lodges in the Ottoman Empire. Moreover, after Britain’s colonisation of Egypt and the onset of the Young Turk Revolution, its active interest in Greater Syria was somewhat diminished. On the other hand, it had no control whatsoever over Syrian lodges under its jurisdiction, and while some Syrians may

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have been pro-British, the Grand Lodge had no means of strengthening this loyalty. At this point the complete nationalisation of lodges in the Ottoman Empire, including Egypt and what is today Turkey did not occur. Instead, in the aftermath of Abdulhamid’s fall from power, more grand lodges sprang up, thereby strengthening the impression that the Ottoman Orient was an obscure body without authority over the Empire’s lodges. The Ottoman Orient struggled to improve its image in 1913, when Dimitry Sursock, secretary of Le Liban Lodge, sent a letter to the Grand Orient of France, in which he mentioned a number of different new lodges that had been established under the jurisdiction of various grand lodges without consultation with the Ottoman Orient. Similar to the Europeans, most Syrians did not yet know what to make of the Young Turks and their pro-Turkish attitudes. Consequently, lodges were still mainly founded under the jurisdiction of Egypt, Scotland and France.205 Members of Le Liban Lodge tried to systematically address different individual preferences and thereby enlarge the number of initiated masons. Salim Khalil el-Rayess co-founded the Hermon Lodge under the jurisdiction of the National Grand Lodge of Egypt and Jurji Yanni supported the establishment of Kadisha Lodge. Alexander Barroudi, who originally came from the Mount Lebanon area and had joined Le Liban Lodge in the early 1880s, helped establish Peace Lodge, which like Kadisha Lodge was under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Scotland.206 He also served as one of the early presidents of the lodge. Ahmed Namy established Hilal Lodge under the jurisdiction of the Ottoman Grand Orient. This Orient also controlled Ittihad Lodge, which had been established by S. Sabbagh.207 In his letter, Sursock goes on to list lodges that had also been founded in Beirut, Zahle, Moallaka, Mughara, Merdjayoun, Damascus, Shweir, Haifa, Acco, Jaffa, Homs and Aleppo.208 This extraordinary document shows the predominant spirit in Syrian society after the Young Turk Revolution. People were aware of the unstable social conditions they were living in and many men felt a need for freemasonry as a substitute for a public and peaceful civic society. This was something that was not orchestrated by Abdulhamid himself. Moreover,

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they knew how to play their own game when faced with the interference of world powers in their country. For example, Sursock sent his letter in 1913, but already in 1900 Khalil el-Rayess had sent a letter to the Grand Lodge of Scotland, in which he bemoaned the closure of Palestine Lodge and pointed to ‘the young men having both a good character and a good social standing who are eager to embrace the membership of our holy order but are unfortunately unable to do so because they cannot find a lodge following your honoured regulations’.209 Not only did he praise the Grand Lodge over all others, but he also ran down the Grand Orient of France: ‘This order, as you no doubt know, omits the principle which is the foundation stone of the Masonic order’ – referring to the omission of the oath to the Supreme Being.210 Indeed, most of the founders of Peace Lodge had transferred from Le Liban Lodge: these include El-Rayess himself, after having worked as one of the founders of Hermon Lodge, Esper Shoukair, Michel Bitar, Salim Kassab, Amin Kassab and Hamade Habale. Others had already been members of Palestine Lodge or an Egyptian lodge. Nicolas Haggi, for example, was a former Palestine Lodge mason, but was also among the founders of Le Liban Lodge. The same holds true for Joseph Fayyad, Hamade Bey Hamade and Selim G. Rayess, who were past worshipful masters of Le Liban Lodge.211 Masons apparently tried to spur on the Grand Lodge of Scotland in its support of new lodges in the Greater Syria region. These efforts included references to the dangers of French masonry. At the same time, they used the Grand Orient masons – if they were not themselves still members of a French lodge – as witnesses in support of their masonic virtues. To lure French masons into broader involvement, they sought not to antagonise their Gallic brothers. Hence, they informed the French of the increasing numbers of lodges working under Scottish jurisdiction, but also stated that they were in principle all brothers and deserved support from the French. Apparently, the masonic split that arose in 1877, as a result of the decision of the Grand Orient of France to forgo the oath to the Supreme Architect, convinced some of the Syrian masons to turn to the Grand Lodge of Scotland, which was widely respected. However, they never completely cut off contact with the Grand Orient. One can conclude that due to internal politics and trade, it was always useful to have France on one’s side, while the British were suitable as well for foreign affairs and contacts beyond Europe.

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But the Syrians were not the only ones who played freemasonry according to their own rules; the same is even true for the Scottish Grand Lodge’s mode of dealing with its former sister grand body. As late as five years after the schism with the French, the secretary of the Grand Lodge of Scotland referred to ‘some misconception [that] existed in the Scottish Craft as to Brethren hailing from lodges holding of the Grand Orient of France, and that he had advised correspondents on the point, that although fraternal relations between the Grand Lodge of Scotland and the Grand Orient had been severed, it was competent to Scotch Lodges in their discretion to receive as visitors or to affiliate Brethren under the French Constitution, upon avowal of their belief in God, the Great Architect of the Universe. Approved.’212 Hence, while stopping short of officially allowing lodge-hopping, the Grand Lodge interpreted its own laws in a pragmatic manner. Positions changed at the outbreak of World War One, when the then active European lodges suffered and lost some of their attraction. In 1914 Germany seemed to be the ascendant power, while the former international players on Ottoman territory had had their privileges cut. In late 1914, the Ottoman government started to censor all telegraphic communications and abrogated the capitulations when the Empire went to war against Britain and France on the side of Germany. It closed all foreign postal services and in 1915 started to deport Allied nationals, with some even imprisoned. Ottomans were drafted into the army with Christians serving in the unarmed labour battalions. Others, like the Armenians, were later expelled, imprisoned or eliminated and their estates were confiscated by the government.213 Abdulhamid’s fears of a corroding Empire had found a counterpart in the Young Turks’ radicalism.

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CHAPTER 5 FR EEM ASONRY ON MOUNT LEBANON

After the French intervention in 1860, Mount Lebanon’s administrative and legal system was restructured into a single unit, excluding Beirut, Tripoli and Saida. It may be true that France’s action was intended to help Christians who were suffering at the hands of Druzes and Muslims alike. However, another significant reason was that its economic interests were at stake, mainly in regard to the effective production of silk. Between 1870 and 1914 France imported 40–50 per cent of the worldwide production of silk from Lebanon. Hence, its investment in the Lebanese silk industry was extremely high and seriously threatened by the civic strife in the region.1 It is still commonplace to view the unrest that beset the Mount Lebanon area in the 1860s as evidence that the various religious communities were unable to live side by side. I would argue, however, that the civil strife that erupted in the 1860s was not caused by religious differences but rather by privileges given to certain groups. Affiliation to a specific religious community only made you an enemy if you received more profitable treatment compared to others. Gingeras rightly states that the ‘perceived “communal” nature of violence and mass mobilization is a product of state intervention (since it is the state that gives significance to the geographical and social characteristics of given territory). [. . .] When violence in the provinces

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did erupt, “primordial hatreds” were not to blame’; rather ‘the reconfiguration of political, economic, and social networks that pre-date state reform and globalization produce violent returns’.2 On Mount Lebanon, Christians were perceived as benefitting most from European economic infiltration. Indeed, mainly Christians received protection from European powers in terms of legal status and commercial deals. They were more likely to be trusted by their French co-religionists, and had always been more willing to adapt to new ways of doing business, working-methods or ways of living. Hence, they had fewer problems learning other languages and to adopt or imitate a Western lifestyle. First, the social gap between Druzes and Maronites widened. The social balance had already been disturbed with newly rich people quickly assuming dominant positions in society. Then, familiar trading habits were uprooted. Old elites rightfully feared for their reputations and for their very survival. This became even more obvious when fights broke out in Damascus shortly after those on Mount Lebanon. Another issue at stake on the Mount revolved around the vexed question of land. The area only achieved political stability ‘when the land question was resolved in favour of economic actors. The setting up of a Maronite-dominated autonomous area pacified Mount Lebanon and strengthened the market-oriented agricultural units’.3 The mountain rises from the coast, reaching “imposing heights within 15–20 miles” before declining to the east.4 Due to regular heavy rainfall and melting snow, Mount Lebanon is well watered with streams dividing it into separate regional enclaves. Only with industrialisation and the development of the region’s infrastructure in the nineteenth century was it possible to improve travel and transportation links for those regularly using the ports located in Saida, Tripoli and Beirut. Consequently, as Engin Deniz Akarli notes, ‘commercial relations acquired a greater importance for the Mountain’s economy’. The major source of the region’s financial income was the production of raw silk and silk cocoons.5 The population on the mountain was mainly composed of Maronites, Druzes and Shiites, with some belonging to the Greek Catholic and Greek Orthodox churches.

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Greek Catholics had separated from the Orthodox Church in the seventeenth century. The union with Rome had led to a rising socioeconomic status for Arab Christians, followed by their rise to more profitable crafts and the ‘opportunity to enter international trade in full force’ in the eighteenth century. Though sticking to their communal framework, it was an attempt ‘to assert local communal autonomy from the Patriarch in Istanbul’.6 Greek Catholics comprised approximately 8 per cent of the mountain’s population, while the majority of inhabitants (comprising Greek Orthodox and Sunni Muslim communities) lived in urban areas. In general, Greek Orthodox and Catholics from Mount Lebanon tended to settle in the Empire’s cities, since their power radiated from these urban areas.7 The new laws were introduced in 1861–62 with some revisions enacted in 1864.8 Thenceforth the mountain area was administered as a mutas.arrifiyya – a district relatively autonomous and governed by a mutas.arrif, who was effectively a chief executive directly responsible to the Sublime Porte. The elective administrative council was composed of twelve members according to confessional majorities with five being Christians.9 The area was subdivided into seven districts, which were also ruled corresponding to the different confessions. Although the new framework of rules promised to break with the power of sheikhs, the clergy and the traditional influence of prominent families, the fact that the districts were subdivided into even smaller units still left these religious and traditional personalities with considerable power over the other inhabitants. What is more, notables and members of significant clans made sure that they were integrated into the new political system in order to secure their positions, after part of the land was confiscated and the administration had been restructured. Without a pool of new landlords, peasants filled the resulting vacuum and became independent landowners.10 In the nineteenth century the Maronite Church turned to France for help in different cases, fearing that its old privileges were being further corroded. These fears were not only based on the new laws, which abolished its former rights, but also arose as a result of the new challenges faced by the growth of capitalism and the changes

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to the mountain’s economy, which shifted from a subsistence model to a market economy. Other religious communities also tried to gain favour with European powers, which in turn competed for influence. The Druze population asked the British to protect their rights, while the Austro-Hungarian and Russian consuls strengthened their links to the Greek Catholic and Greek Orthodox communities respectively.11 Europeans, and particularly the French, were deeply involved in the commercial and economic life of Mount Lebanon, using Ottoman concessions – in the form of capitulations – to widen their sphere of influence. The civil unrest of the 1860s, a follow up of earlier clashes which had already started in the 1840s, spread from Mount Lebanon to Damascus with different opposing groups but similar features.12 On Mount Lebanon the conflict was, as Leila Fawaz notes, ‘a result of decades of tension’ and included the struggle that took place in 1857 between ‘peasants and lords of the Maronite north and spread to the mixed districts of the south as hostilities broke out between Christians and Druzes’. It gripped Damascus ‘where Sunni Muslims attacked the Christian (primarily Greek Orthodox) part of town’. Although the initial triggers differed in both of these cases, the hostile activities ‘reflected a displacement of traditionally privileged groups by new centers of wealth and power’.13 ‘While local actors had the upper hand in the age of free trade (1820–1870), the age of imperialism put European companies into an influential position for the next fifty years in regard to the Ottoman coastal economy’.14 While on the Mount the feudal economy and the economic balance between the Druze and Maronite populations had changed in favour of the latter; a seemingly submissive Ottoman government – vis-àvis European hegemony – was additionally weakened by the loss of control of its peripheries. This alerted the Sunni Muslim population in Damascus, who traditionally had been a privileged segment of the community.15 The economic and social changes that occurred at the time of European penetration were experienced by all sections of the communities, either in the form of economic deals or as missionary expeditions. Beirut at this point was still spared from the full brunt of these tensions, mainly due to its significance for Europeans and the Ottoman

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Empire alike as an economic linchpin. Commercial interests were in general still more important than internal discord. Nevertheless, animosity between various communities existed and increased, mainly as a result of provocative actions carried out by a steadily growing mass of immigrants from Mount Lebanon.16 Under the new laws Mount Lebanon was transformed from a feudal area to a cash-crop system, with Beirut functioning as a trade and economic centre. Peasants and landowners from Mount Lebanon became dependent on services provided by Beirut’s intermediaries – mainly Christian traders – while the old social stratum composed of old traditional landlords never completely managed to adapt to this new affluent class.17 During the unrest Beirut stood aside, playing the role of a detached observer, although it was heavily involved in financial and judicial matters. At this time, most of the Mount’s inhabitants, as well as Ottoman and European employees and interest groups, preferred the atmosphere of the urban governing circles as political issues seemed easier to deal with in the city.18 According to Hitti, the Mount ‘maintained its own judiciary and preserved order by a local militia’.19 Moreover no Ottoman troops were stationed on its soil and its inhabitants were not compelled to serve in the army. All revenues from taxes were dispensed locally. Indeed, none of the Mount’s financial budget had to be transferred to the Porte. The coming years saw different governors with varying talents, who tried to enforce reforms and attempted to participate in the growing industrialisation of the Empire. As elsewhere traditional powers fought against losing their grip over the region. Religious groups were now counted as political communities in a confessional system – a fact that heightened tensions. On the one hand, Beirut’s influence was undermined after the administrative restructuring of the Mount. Yet, on the other hand the area maintained its importance for Christian communities. The Orthodox clergy, who were mindful of the necessity to show their presence on the Mount, maintained its administrative set up in the area. Beirut’s dominance became ever more evident after the establishment in 1888 of the vilayet.

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This new demarcation of administrative territory included Mount Lebanon as well as Tripoli, and as Fawaz notes, it was really ‘the heart of the economic and cultural life of Mount Lebanon’.20 Nevertheless, as will be shown when discussing masonic life on the Mount, it was in places like Shweir and Zahle that forms of cultural engagement like the theatre were able to thrive outside Beirut’s limelight.

Masonic Lodges on Mount Lebanon Sunneen Lodge was established in Shweir in 1904 and within four years it had almost 200 members. As Salim Mujais writes, ‘Shweir was once mainly Greek Orthodox, now it is only PPS’ [Pro-Syrian Lebanese party]. While this might be slightly exaggerated, Shweir and its surroundings were indeed constantly involved in political and religious issues or activities. The village of Shweir lies in the mountains, about 26 kilometres northeast of Beirut. It was in a way ‘invisible from the coast’, as it lies in a valley. Thanks to several springs nearby, Shweir benefitted from being surrounded by fertile, though limited, land. Thus, the population ‘had to rely on other sources of income’.21 As mentioned, the inhabitants of Mount Lebanon were involved in the silk trade, but at the end of the nineteenth century they additionally began to benefit from the increasing prosperity of foreigners and Beirutis, who visited the village during the oppressive summer months. Describing Mount Sunneen, which rises nearby Shweir, the Russian Orientalist Agatangel Kremsky wrote: ‘It wears winter on its head, spring on its shoulders, autumn in its bosom and summer sleeps at its feet.’22 As observed with the other lodges, almost half of the masons belonging to Sunneen Lodge were traders, whereas about a quarter held positions within the Ottoman government and a number were landowners.23 It is not surprising, considering its rural setting, that Sunneen Lodge admitted more landowners than other lodges in Beirut. What is more, only one member – William B. Magelssen – worked for European political bodies. Magelssen was registered as an employee of the United States consulate. Missionaries, although less interested in the hinterland, did build schools in such areas. In his map from

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1873 (see Figure 14), Henry J. Jessup marks three missions in the region: the American Presbyterian mission, schools of the Free Church of Scotland and Greek and Catholic monasteries. In an account written in 1899, Shweir is characterised as ‘the city of knowledge because of the large number of schools in it’, which occurred as a ‘result of

Figure 14

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Partial Map of Greater Syria produced by H. Jessup in 1873

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competition among religious missionaries. The apostate Protestants built a school [. . .] so how can the Jesuits not hasten to do the same? Indeed, they built two schools. The Maronites were not far behind . . .’ In addition, between 1896 and 1897 three Orthodox boarding schools opened.24 In its first years Sunneen Lodge was the only lodge in the area and attracted many aspirants from a wide radius. Most of its members belonged to influential Greek Orthodox and Maronite families, which is quite surprising, since the respective ecclesiastical authorities of the Maronite church spoke out strictly against freemasonry.25 This could be interpreted as another sign for the loosening grip religious leaders had over their followers. On the other hand, maybe they deemed it to be wiser to allow some Maronites to join the fraternity, as they in turn could provide valuable insights into the activities of the movement. Up until 1912, only ten of the initiated members of Sunneen Lodge, apart from its founders, had previously been masons. Hence, Sunneen apparently succeeded in appealing to a new audience, but it also suggests that masons from the area preferred to stay in their old lodges for the time being. The petition of the lodge had been supported by Saad Abu Shahla, who was an early member of Palestine Lodge before joining Peace Lodge and by Nicolas Haggi and Alexander Barroudi, who belonged to Le Liban Lodge and Peace Lodge respectively. The petition shows the letterhead of Peace Lodge, written in English and Arabic, which states: ‘To the Glory of the Grand Architect of the Universe’ together with the rallying cry of the French Revolution: ‘Liberty (hurriyya), Equality (musa¯wa¯t), and Fraternity (ikha¯˒)’. The favourable image enjoyed by French freemasonry among fellow masons in the region partly derived from its association with the French Revolution. Some of the founders of Sunneen Lodge came from Brazilian lodges, as was the case with Faris and Elias Mishriq and Ibrahim Naufal. Others emanated from either Peace Lodge or Le Liban Lodge.26 Faris Mishriq was a well-known person in Shweir and the surrounding area. It was he who was responsible for arranging a commercial fair to be established in the village, which helped to increase the village’s prosperity.27

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The lodge attracted former members from Le Liban Lodge, such as Nimr S. Hobaika and George Salhab. The latter was a merchant, who was so fond of freemasonry that he also joined Peace Lodge in Beirut between 1905 and 1906. Another mason, who was initiated into Sunneen Lodge in 1908, was the landowner David Bashir, a former member of Kadisha Lodge.28 The Bashir family were originally from Douma, an Orthodox village in Syria and in 1905 Bashir had founded The Doumani National Association of Douma (Hayat el Watan ed Doumania Douma). The organisation was affiliated with Douma’s Orthodox Church and ensured the funding of Orthodox schools in the Ottoman Empire, thanks to its connections to emigrants from Syria in the Americas.29 Initially known by the name Shalhoub, the family had split into different branches, with some adopting the name Bashir, whilst some kept their original name. One member from the Shalhoub family joined the Helbon Lodge in Aleppo in 1887; another, Antoine Shalhoub, worked for the Ottoman government and was initiated into Le Liban Lodge in Beirut between 1889 and 1890.30 Disappointment with French policy and the Grand Orient’s compliance with its government had set in in Ottoman Syria as early as 1906, when Sunneen Lodge turned to Le Liban Lodge and asked for help against the Maronite clergy. According to Sunneen they were agitating against freemasonry as ‘our existence in Lebanon will depend on it. It is therefore important to demonstrate to the sectarian fanaticism and egotism that freemasonry will triumph, because it has the right and humanity, it is strong and the solidarity has provided an admirable triumph in France and Europe in general.’31 When no response was forthcoming Sunneen Lodge then sent a letter to the French consul: ‘Faris Mishriq, an important freemason threatened that Greek Orthodox members would turn away from French patronage and engage instead in Scottish lodges should France decide to continue its support of the Maronite community.’32 The circumstances involving this letter are rather strange, as it appears that Mishriq, a member of a lodge under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, was warning France of the dire consequence of its inactivity, whereby all masons in Greater Syria would join Scottish lodges if the country continued to neglect its

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duty to protect the people of the region from Maronite religious leaders living on Mount Lebanon. On the other hand, this move is understandable in the light of events: former members of Le Liban Lodge indeed aligned themselves with Sunneen and other lodges under the jurisdiction of different grand bodies. The likely reason for this trend was an attempt to carry out the idea of spreading masonry undeterred by existing masonic rules regarding affiliations to grand bodies of separate orders. However, since Le Liban Lodge continuously stood up for the interests of masons, irrespective of their obedience, and always perceived itself as the mother lodge in the Greater Syria region, it is only reasonable that it preserved its prestige among the majority of masons irrespective of France’s reputation. This was especially true since Le Liban could not count on a French masonic grand body, but was dependent on a functioning masonic network inside Ottoman Syria. The constant commitment of Le Liban Lodge to other lodges added to the on-going lodge-hopping tendencies of its own members and testifies to the fact that most lodges before the Young Turk Revolution were established by Le Liban’s own followers.33 This resulted in friendly relationships and the establishment of a dynamic network of lodges affiliated with various masonic grand bodies. Canaan Bey-Dagher – together with Georges Bey Zouain – was named as a member ‘from our lodge in Beirut’ by Le Liban Lodge.34 In April 1905 he had been initiated into Sunneen Lodge and went on to join Kadisha Lodge a year later.35 This means he was not strictly speaking actually one of ‘ours’, that is, a mason who belonged to a French lodge. Instead, he joined the Scottish lodges. The fact that Le Liban Lodge crossed boundaries initially set by European masonic bodies, by reaching out to all Syrian freemasons irrespective of their affiliations underlines the main argument of this thesis that in real life in most cases it did not matter which lodge individual freemasons belonged to. What did matter was their general participation in the fraternity. Their choice to join showed their willingness to start something completely new, something that would help to unite the Ottoman people when confronted with internal religious contentions and external challenges. For Le Liban this active step alone counted.

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Zouain, who indeed belonged to Le Liban Lodge, was a Maronite from Ghazir, a village in the north of Beirut. He was a director of a school and served in various positions for the Lebanese administration. Dagher worked as a prefect for the district of Batrun, a small city on the coast further to the north. Sunneen Lodge wanted to gather support for Dagher against ‘certain functionaries of the [provincial] Lebanese government’, who supposedly acted against freemasons. The French consul in Tripoli, who is not named,36 was accused of being a particularly suspicious freemason.37 It remains unproven if France indeed influenced the behaviour and treatment of freemasons in Mount Lebanon. In this regard, the end of the affair gives no further hint: Canaan Bey-Dagher was transferred to Matn in order to continue working in its district ‘which is more important than the one of Batrun’.38 Irrespective of this affair and the question of whether the freemasons in the region received help the campaign against them died down. Indeed, the brotherhood grew stronger. ‘Regarding the attacks against our brothers, they partly stopped but continue in a persistent and ignominiously from the side of the Maronite Church. Now without consequences as we are strong enough through our principles to dispose them and the few documents we published in our mother language brought us the sympathy of many, even from supporter of the broken clergy’.39 Here it is significant and worthwhile to further analyse the issues related to local politics in the region at the time. Sunneen Lodge was founded in a tense period in the region’s history. From 1902 Mount Lebanon was governed by Muzaffer Pasha, who was less experienced than his predecessors and lacked European allies. Moreover, he was far more dependent on cooperation and support from locals than other governors before him.40 He found himself wedged between a Maronite patriarchate desperate to maintain its strong position in local politics and to retain the backing of France, and the so-called liberals, who were allies of the former governor. As Akarli states, ‘bureaucrats and politicians saw the Administrative Council as the keystone of a fully autonomous Lebanon under their leadership.’ 41 Rivalries between competing families, which involved the clergy and the governor, had

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already forced Vasa Pasha to look for other sources of support. However, unlike Muzaffer, Akarli notes that Vasa ‘was backed by a crosssectarian alliance of the Lebanese leadership who managed to keep the affairs of the Mountain under control and the opposition literally at bay in Beirut’ until his death in 1892.42 Naum Pasha was a follower of Vasa and had to defend himself before the Ottoman government when confronted with petitions emanating from his own subjects: he was accused of smuggling and corruption, but seemingly his main misdemeanour was his closeness to the Kusa family, who were perceived as being in cahoots with the Maronite Church. According to Akarli, the petitioners denounced the fact that the Pasha was ‘behaving as if he were a princely ruler and Mount Lebanon a principality of the Kusa family and its local supporters’. Behind these allegations stood secular-minded Maronites and Greek Orthodox believers, who for perhaps the first time in such a movement called themselves Lebanese.43 Their enmity against the power of the clergy resulted in Muzaffer’s election in 1902. As Hobsbawm states, regarding the socio-political changes in early political entities, even if this kind of formation ‘as yet faced no serious challenge to its legitimacy or cohesion, and no really powerful forces of subversion, the mere decline of the older socio-political bonds would have made it imperative to formulate and inculcate new forms of civic loyalty’. Growing possibilities for political influence and interference on the Mountain had turned subjects into citizens with a ‘populist consciousness’ that displayed early efforts to organise their Lebensraum independent of the Ottoman Government.44 Sunneen Lodge assembled a large percentage of the men responsible for the petitions. They were Ottoman officials, court members and military officials – an explosive mix. In lodges outside Beirut whole families formed clusters, but the Maronite and also some Greek Orthodox freemasons tended to enter Sunneen Lodge individually. Early exceptions were the Daghers, the Lahouds and the Shehabs.45 Elias Lahoud and his son Faris Gibrael belonged to one of the major local silk exporters, which traded with Lyon. The Shehabs, who provided land and mulberry trees for the silk industry, were also represented by some family members in the lodges.46 As Kais Firro states, silk entrepreneurs during the second half of the nineteenth century had risen ‘to

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the top of the economic and social ladder, a position formerly occupied by the landowners’.47 One branch of the Shehab family had converted to Maronism, like some Druzes of the Abi-l-Lama family.48 Another member of Sunneen Lodge, Habib Sa’ad, served as deputy chairman of the Administrative Council. Moreover, Canaan Bey-Dagher was Muzaffer’s most trusted district governor, which was also one of the reasons for his relocation to Batrun. He was supposed to confront the defiant clergy. According to Akarli, Muzaffer moved him to ‘the heartland of Maronite clerical power, because as he argued in a letter to the Porte, Batrun’s district governor had been unequal to the pressure of the bishops there’.49 George Zouain, of Le Liban Lodge, likewise received an administrative position.50 Another member of Le Liban Lodge – Jerjes Hammam – was one of the founders of Sunneen Lodge. Hammam was a teacher at one of the first secondary schools in Shweir. Apparently he was not content with the available books for teaching Arabic. Having spent some time in England, he published an Arabic–English dictionary in collaboration with Salim Kassab. Furthermore, in 1908 an Arabic–Arabic dictionary for students was brought out and financed by Hammam, Dagher Khairallah, Moussah Merhej and Nehmeh Jafet. Afterwards, Hammam went on to teach, as Mujais notes, in ‘the most important schools in Lebanon and Syria’.51 It would seem that the so-called liberals were often not liberal at all. According to Akarli, they ‘usually responded negatively or reluctantly to the various reform projects that Muzaffer himself advocated’.52 At the same time, some of them were less anti-clerical and more antidogmatic and preferred cooperation with the church. Also some liberal-minded clerics advocated a change in the church’s relationship to secular authorities. Muzaffer had to tread a fine line in order to survive politically, whereby he had to make concessions to the church as well as to the traditional, influential families.53 This was the fate of most of the governors of Mount Lebanon, where, as Akarli notes, ‘fifty years of relatively autonomous and peaceful development had led to the rise of institutions and traditions that helped its people launch organised political action and also provided them with self-confidence in their ability to run their own affairs’.54

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Sunneen Lodge, and later Zahle Lodge, managed to unite rival families, like the Mujais and the Sawayas, although as Mujais notes, Shweir was presumed to be ‘traditionally divided into two major clans centered on the two larger families’.55 Consequently, at the beginning of the twentieth century, that is during the early years of Sunneen Lodge, new and aspiring members of the middle and upper classes gathered with those who had lost out in the bear pit of global capitalism.56 Almost immediately after having been ‘erected and consecrated’ on 2 July 1904, by Alexander Barroudi and others, Sunneen Lodge commenced a troubled relationship with the Grand Lodge of Scotland.57 The lodge welcomed a steady flow of about ten new initiates per year, but nevertheless complained in 1908 about ‘the persecution’ its members were allegedly subjected to, ‘owing to their connection with the craft’.58 Sunneen also sent a petition to Edinburgh against its own lodge master. As the petition was not accompanied by the appropriate fee, the Grand Lodge of Scotland took no action. The normal procedure in such circumstances would have been to use the Grand Lodge as a mediator between the dissatisfied members and their master. According to the proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, a copy of the petition was sent to the master ‘asking him to reply sending answers within eight days of receipt’.59 Unfortunately, Sunneen or its leader did not dwell further on the issue – it either did not want to spend the requested sum of money or the matter was otherwise settled. About a year later, the lodge appeared in a letter sent to Edinburgh from Esper Shoucair, who wrote in his function as past master of the Peace Lodge. He agreed therein ‘to act as commissioner for the Grand Lodge in enquiring into the matters arising out of the Petitions, etc., from Lodge Sunneen, [. . .] and from certain members thereof’.60 Again no further clues are given. The Grand Lodge of Scotland confirmed that it had empowered Shoucair to enquire into all matters and ‘to take such evidence, either documentary or oral, as may seem to him necessary and for that purpose to have full power to cite witnesses and call for production of all books and documents he may think fit’. Results were supposed to be handed out in the form of a report to the Grand Lodge. If required Shoucair was also asked ‘to conjoin with himself’ fellow masons, such as George D. Sursock, Alexander Barroudi, Assad Ofaish and David

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Nahoul. Costs incurred were to be covered by the Grand Lodge.61 The most interesting and astonishing fact is the mention of George Dimitri Sursock, who was Worshipful Master of Le Liban Lodge between 1891 until 1913. Thus, Sursock was affiliated with the Grand Orient of France, a grand body formally not recognised by the British grand lodges. It seems likely that the Grand Lodge of Scotland knew about the circumstances in which the different lodges in Greater Syria were founded, and hence was aware of their longing for unity and stability. This supposition is strengthened by the inclusion of David Nahoul in the list – another mason from Le Liban Lodge. Nahoul was a pharmacist and originally came from Deir el-Qamar and joined the lodge in its early years before 1880.62 Assad Ofaish and Alexander Barroudi, both physicians, were respected members of Peace Lodge.63 Barroudi assisted many lodges during their foundation and inaugurations. He was thanked for his services with regard to Zahle Lodge, No. 1047, in 1908 and the Light of Damascus Lodge, No. 1058, in 1909. Barroudi, a graduate of the SPC, originally came from Saida. His career included being an instructor at the Saida School for Girls, at the SPC and at the Zahrat al-Ih.sa¯n (flower of charity / social responsibility), a social charity. He was also a private practitioner in Homs, Hama and Souk el-Gharb and a physician at Ba’aklin Hospital and at Burj el-Barajni and Hadath clinics. During World War One he was a Red Cross physician. Moreover, he was a member of his local district court for 22 years. What is more, he founded and edited a medical journal, wrote several books, contributed articles and poems to other publications and served as president of the Alumni Association of the SPC. Barroudi was one of the founders of the Medical and Pharmaceutical Society and a member of the Syrian Education Society.64 With this background, it is not surprising that masons and grand lodges alike trusted this pillar of the community. Esper Shoucair was born in 1843. He was a founding member and past master of Peace Lodge, although he was first initiated into the craft at Le Liban Lodge. At the age of nearly 70, Shoucair was still a valuable intermediary for the Grand Lodge of Scotland and he continued to be a court representative for Great Britain.65 The Grand Lodge of Scotland did not reveal any further information about the petitions or any subsequent investigations. But Sunneen

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Lodge was not the only lodge that attracted negative publicity in Edinburgh, as only a year later Zahle Lodge reported the expulsion of Nicholas Habarjeb, one of its members. In this instance, as before, it did not elaborate on the reasons for the decision.66 In the following years the internal storms at Sunneen Lodge seemingly abated. As Mujais notes, the Shweir district had become a ‘favourite summer resort for returning Lebanese immigrants and for rich Egyptians and other foreigners’.67 Sunneen Lodge only turned to the Grand Lodge on one other occasion, in order to ask for an allowance to change facilities during the winter months. Such requests were not uncommon. As the proceedings of the Grand Lodge note, ‘by old custom, wealthy families from the middle zones of Mount Lebanon wintered in Beirut, and many Beiruti summered in the neighbouring hills in Mount Lebanon’. During the 1920s, the members of Sunneen Lodge favoured meeting in Beirut, preferring the facilities available via Peace Lodge to the icy mountains. They received permission on a yearly basis to meet in Beirut until 1926.68 Afterwards, the agreement was renewed for another year, when they met in rooms at the American lodges in Beirut. However, the desire of members of Sunneen Lodge ‘to confer degrees in cases of emergency at intervals of not less than one week instead of two weeks’ was turned down.69 In regard to Ottoman Syria, no Provincial Grand Master of the region supplied the customary annual report to the Grand Lodge of Scotland in Edinburgh, which subsequently became suspicious of the activities of Sunneen Lodge. When officials from Sunneen Lodge once again asked to renew their right to meet in Beirut during winter, the Grand Lodge of Scotland asked for details. As the proceedings from 1927–28 make clear, ‘the Master and Secretary having failed, after repeated applications, to furnish this information, the Committee recommend that permission to meet in Beirut be not granted’. At this point Edinburgh had also received a report by Shoucair (which alas is no longer extant): ‘The Committee had also before it a Report from the Petitions, Complaints, and Appeals Committee regarding irregularities in the working of this Lodge, and concur in the finding’ that it has to ‘suspend the Lodge and recall its Charter’. It added that the expulsion of one of the members – Wadih Berbari – from

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Sunneen Lodge would not come into effect until the lodge was able ‘to give information supporting its action’. In addition, the Grand Lodge of Scotland recommended closing the lodge, suspending its working and ordaining ‘that the Charter, books, papers, jewels, clothing, paraphernalia, and funds (including the Benevolent Fund) of the Lodge, be returned to Grand Lodge forthwith’.70 This marked the end of Sunneen Lodge. No one really knows what happened during these years. Did the lodge become involved in local politics, lodge competitions and religious struggles? It may well have been that Sunneen ignored the stipulated refrain from politics during lodge meetings and violated masonic principles. It would not be an isolated case as in comparison with members of grand bodies. A contemporary English freemason, for example, had warned before that ‘it must be borne in upon the conscience of Grand Lodge members that they exist for Masonry, and that Freemasonry is not just their servant’.71 However, only rumours in local lodges that are still working continue to tell of a connection between the lodge and a number of politicians who allegedly tried to put their fellow masons in high government positions. It is said that in attempting such a course of action they started a fight with the Maronite clergy. Yet, only a few years after Sunneen came into being many other lodges around Shweir were established and masons had no difficulties in finding a new home. Zahle Lodge, No. 1047, was founded in 1908 and started to officially operate on 5 November.72 Until the eighteenth century, Zahle was just a small village of a thousand inhabitants that bordered the Beqaa Valley, halfway between Beirut and Damascus. The population worked in the agricultural sector and engaged in local trade. By the late nineteenth century the town had a population of between twelve and fifteen thousand. As early as 1711 the Abi-l-Lama family had become the most important authority in the area. Two centuries later the family also placed members in Sunneen Lodge. Zahle turned from being a relatively small village, dependent on agrarian activities, into a small town involved in commercial activities.73 Its trade was oriented more towards Damascus than to Beirut, due to a better infrastructure in

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the direction of the former. In political terms, the town stood between the governor of Damascus and the Emir of Mount Lebanon. Since no direct representative of the Ottoman government was present in the town, power resided with the old and prestigious families until the onset of political restructuring. In the 1860s, Zahle experienced massacres against its Christian inhabitants, although rivalry had already intensified in the mid-1840s, when the Jesuits arrived in the town and built a school and church. As Farrah notes, the Jesuits pushed ‘constantly south, into the Druze and Muslim country, and establishing themselves also in Deir el-Qamar and Saida, they unwittingly contributed to discord by arousing the suspicions of non-Christian elements and the scenes of their religious and educational activities became during the civil war also the scenes of strife and massacres’.74 Fights erupted between Muslims and Christians, who according to one observer of the Damascene Al-Hasibi family, ‘openly cursed the Prophet and called their dogs by the names of his Companions’, while ‘Muslims arriving in Zahle on horseback were forced to dismount before entering the town’. Finally, it was the Druze community that seized control and marked ‘the climax of a Christian-Druze conflict which had been raging in Mount Lebanon for several weeks’.75 Christians lived in fear for some weeks afterwards and foreign Protestant missionaries were among the first to be ejected. Fuad Pasha’s punishment of notable Damascene Muslims and the feeling among Christians that they would be protected by European powers encouraged the latter group to return or to stay in Zahle. At the end of the nineteenth century three different missions were active. The American Presbyterians had the largest presence, followed by the British Anglicans and the Free Church of Scotland with its school system.76 With steadily growing trade, a new trade bourgeoisie climbed the social ladder, soon exerting more authority than leading religious figures. Most of the prominent families had one or more members with a foot in the door of masonic lodges: the Maronite Doumani clan, originally from Deir el-Qamar, was represented by the teacher Alex Doumani. Fatik Shehab, also a teacher, was a member of Sunneen

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Lodge and Malik Shehab joined Peace Lodge in 1909. The Druze Assad Abu-Nakad was among the many founders of Zahle Lodge. The Shama’un family, which belonged to the new bourgeoisie, was also represented: Assad Shama’un, a merchant, for example, had joined Zahle in its first year in 1908.77 Unlike in Shweir, Zahle’s inhabitants were mainly Greek Catholics and Druze, who traditionally belonged to the affluent sections of society.78 Zahle Lodge was chartered under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Scotland. Of the initial thirty-two members, some were former members of Peace, Sunneen and Le Liban lodges. Interestingly, four of the initiates had previously been freemasons in Brazil, among them Faris Abu-Jamra, who was either the son or the nephew of Sa’id Abu-Jamra.79 The latter was also an initiate and had been a member of Le Liban Lodge. Faris Abu-Jamra was a journalist from Al-Kfayr, who had gone to the SPC and received his doctorate in medicine from St. Louis University in the United States. He was also the owner and editor of the Al Afkar (the idea, opinion) newspaper. He probably became a member of the press association of Brazil and Vice-President of the Brazil Alumni Association before the whole family moved to Sao Paolo. Additionally, he is remembered as an author and contributor to newspapers and journals.80 These Syrians were introduced to freemasonry during the time they spent in Brazil. In Brazil they succeeded in forming a SyrianLebanese community at the beginning of the twentieth century. They were members of this expatriate community who returned to Syria as masons and continued their masonic membership in lodges at home. Abu-Jamra and Ibrahim el-Abed were co-founders of Zahle Lodge and had been members of the Brazilian Philantropia Lodge. One can also cite Khalil Kadre, who was a member of the Union de Charité Lodge in Brazil, prior to joining Zahle Lodge. What is more, the two Antakly brothers, who were co-founders of the Kadisha Lodge, No. 1002, in Tripoli in 1906, had been members of the Deus et Union Lodge in Brazil.81 According to Jeffrey Lesser, Ottoman Syrians and Brazilians had so much in common that ‘Brazil had assimilated to the older Middle Eastern culture as much as the actual Middle Eastern immigrants assimilated to Brazil: in other words that acculturation, and

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not assimilation, has taken place on both sides’.82 A stereotype was dominant in Brazil, however, whereby the passivity of the Muslim immigrants had led to Brazil’s backwardness. Hence the immigrants from Syria saw in freemasonry not only the chance to connect to other Syrians, but also a way to bind with Brazilians, while also striving to be on a par with them. Syrian emigration to Brazil started at the end of the nineteenth century. Interestingly, in 1925 a Brazilian visitor to Beirut and Zahle noticed Portuguese speakers everywhere and the singing of the Brazilian national anthem in his honour: ‘in the mid-1930s some seventy percent of the inhabitants of Zahle spoke Portuguese and the main thoroughfare’s name, “Rua Brazil”, was painted in enormous letters on the pavement itself’.83 The petition of Zahle Lodge was supported by three members of Sunneen Lodge (Faris Mishriq, David Mujaes and George Nasser), as well as four members of Peace Lodge (Alexander Barroudi, Habib Shahlaoui, Kamil Abu Nasser, who worked for the Ottoman government, and Ahmed Ashi). Mishriq, by this time, had climbed the ladder and served as Provincial Grand Master.84 During its formative years, Zahle Lodge prospered in a conductive cultural environment and likely also benefitted from the experience gained by former members of Sunneen Lodge. In addition, the lodge gained much from radical ideas, enlightened concepts and reformist plans that were circulating in the surrounding atmosphere. In short, it thrived during the peak period of the nahda. Lodges on Mount Lebanon were ideal meeting places for those living in the area and visitors. As Ilham Makdisi notes, ‘professional actors, Syrians and non-Syrians alike, maintained a strong connection with Syria; went on tours there, and even spent entire summers in Beirut and pleasantly cool Mount Lebanon, fleeing from the Egyptian heat’. On the other hand, these short stays may have been one of the reasons why freemasons decided not to join Sunneen or Zahle: if they only wanted to visit some of the lodge meetings, they could do so without being a member. It was probably no exaggeration when the playwright David Mujais, who was a member of Sunneen Lodge, assured his fellow author and playwright, Amin al-Rihani, in their correspondence ‘that if he

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wished to have his play on the 1908 Unionist coup ˓Abdul H . amı¯d fı¯ Athı¯na performed in Zahle, all of Zahle’s inhabitants’ would be his soldiers.85 In 1910, a certain I. E. al Khouri wrote a short report for The Freemason, giving an overview of the state of freemasonry in the Empire. Born in Zahle, Khouri had left the country in 1891 and headed to the United States. However, he was curious to see how freemasonry had developed in his homeland. As he observes: ‘masonry over there during the last few years has been more than the regular meeting of the Brethren, more than the friendliness and pleasantries toward each other. Masonry, of necessity, in the Orient has entered into the affairs of the State, of the Church, of the Home, and of every kindred institution.’86 For Khouri, the masonic heyday in his homeland had only just started, as ‘during the three-and-thirty years the light of Masonry in Turkey and Syria was dim’, but with the ratification of the constitution under the Young Turks, ‘all this suffering came to an end’.87 Although his impressive description seems distended, the end of Abdulhamid’s reign did indeed produce momentum for the germination and expansion of masonry all over the region. Freemasons interpreted the overthrow of Abdulhamid as a positive sign and gave impetus for augmented and extended activities. As Khouri continues, ‘lodges were reopened, and new ones were formed, and in my own city of Zahle[n] in the Mountains of Lebanon, of 30,000 inhabitants, we have now three new Lodges with a total membership of over five hundred, within two years. I shall never forget the beautiful dedication ceremony of the reforming of the Lodge Noor, or Light in Damascus. This lodge has been closed for thirty years.’88 Until World War One, Zahle Lodge had over 150 members, with the majority having joined between 1908 and 1910. It was the first of the early lodges in which artists were listed as members. Fahd Lyon was the artist in question and was 34 years old when he was initiated in 1910.89 Co-member, David Mujais, a Greek Orthodox Syrian, who had studied at the Protestant school in Shweir, was the founder of Al Noor magazine in Alexandria and the Al Hurriyat daily newspaper. Mujais was imprisoned for six months and was excommunicated from the Greek Orthodox Church after he had delivered a speech to

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freemasons in Saida. This event marked the culmination of a longrunning dispute between him and the governor of Lebanon, Youssef Pasha, who objected to Mujais’s anti-clerical and reformist views.90 Mujais then went to South America. Together with George Sawaya, he published the Al Islah (Reform) periodical in Buenos Aires.91 His friendship with Sawaya had probably already been established during their days in Shweir. Sawaya came from the same city and was also a member of Zahle Lodge; and like Mujais, he had also joined Sunneen Lodge.92 Freemasonry functioned as the common denominator upon which reform-minded men were able to meet in a secluded setting away from the gaze of the public. However, the theatre stage, as Makdisi notes, served to ‘disseminate these ideas to a larger audience, but it also allowed the masses to learn their part in the [French] Revolution and rehearse their role as the revolutionary crowd’.93 Mount Lebanon and Beirut were hotbeds of anticlericalism. And, according to Makdisi, ‘the theatre was the main vehicle for the expression of anticlerical ideas’.94 Unlike Damascus, Aleppo or Tripoli, the Mount and Beirut did not carry the dominantly conservative heritage of the powerful and religiously-minded traditional families. Thus, reformist voices were strong enough to continue fighting the dogmatic supporters of the church. This tension between clerical and anti-clerical viewpoints was already discernible at the end of the nineteenth century and is illustrated by many of the letters sent by Sunneen Lodge to Le Liban Lodge. In the letter freemasonry is described as the focus of intellectual and moral enlightenment, which was fighting ignorance, fanaticism and atavistic egotism. The intention of the fraternity is described as being to improve mankind in moral, intellectual and material ways.95 In another letter, Sursock wrote to the Grand Orient of France that members of Le Liban Lodge had translated Le Juif Errant, a play based on the novel of the same name by Eugène Sue. ‘We have to say that the fulfilment of our duties towards our citizens while at the same time challenged to defend ourselves against attacks leaves a lot to be desired. It is out of our reach to bring about even more enlightenment – the only way to unmask our enemies – hence we deemed

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it a good idea to translate Le Juif Errant.’96 Sursock regarded Le Juif Errant as a call for social justice against the overwhelming influence of Jesuit circles. But its performance in 1911 was interrupted by proJesuit students and their campaign ‘was so effective that it gathered nearly four thousand signatures from Beirut and Mount Lebanon, as well as remote villages, the great majority of whose residents would never see the play’.97 Notwithstanding its title, the play was not so much directed against Jews as it was against Jesuits. Its story is about a Jewish boy and his sister, who both do not know that their forefathers had been Protestants. Helped by the shrewdness of another Jew, these forefathers had amassed a fortune. The Jesuits are cast in a highly unflattering light as they try to get hold of the money, and put all kinds of obstacles in the way of the true owners. However, they are undone by their distrust of one another. The storyline concludes with an open ending: the audience is informed that the Wandering Jew and his sister finally found some peace, but no clue is given as to the remains of the fortune. Accusing the Jesuits of greed, while at the same time absolving the Jews who usually were connected to financial matters, highlighted how the dogmatic interpretation of religion and the bigotry displayed by many members of the Jesuit order was jeopardising the development of common social bonds. The theatre, the press, different societies and freemasonry all expressed similar signs of politicisation prior to the Young Turk Revolution. Its actors and members belonged to the middle and upper classes and formed elitist circles, which under Abdulhamid attracted an increasing number of followers. All associations and activities served as channels to promote change and reform throughout society. The press dominated in Beirut, and later on in Cairo, but benefitted from the rather liberal and open atmosphere of Mount Lebanon in order to champion the campaign against authoritarian rule in general and imperialism in Alexandria. With the emergence of what Makdisi refers to as ‘radicalism within the growth of mass politics’, the theatre was an ‘effective tool for the education of the masses’ and ‘provided the necessary space for a rising radical bourgeoisie to constitute itself by constructing a coherent

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ideology that greatly relied on the promotion of an alliance between the middle and working classes’.98 The press served as the perfect channel to deliver this message to the public. And though probably not all men shared common political views, all of them were singing from the same hymn sheet: nahda. Wake up and do something! Do something against the omnipresent enervation! The secular press, including journals and newspapers owned by freemasons, supported all the plays that expressed enlightened ideals in their articles in the form of announcements. Reports and reviews had already started to appear from the early stages in Al Jinan (the garden) owned by the Bustani family, Al Ahram (the pyramids) which belonged to the Taqla family, and Jurji Zaidan’s Al Hilal (the crescent).99 And again, though these publications were not masonic outlets, their outlooks more often than not coincided with dominant masonic opinions reasoned by the fact that such a high number of journalists had at the same time joined various lodges. Pioneers like actors, photographers, printers and all the others asserting themselves on new fields – all those constituted at the same time a clientele receptive for the ideas of freemasonry, for an institution that would connect them all, through which they would be able to cultivate local and regional business contacts, would be linked with same-minded men and would be striving for the realisation of universally valid principles. Members of Sunneen were swearing by continuing work for the ‘emancipation of the Syrian spirit from this state of moral atrophy’ due to ‘fanaticism and aberration’. According to them freemasonry’s main concern was ‘tolerance in matters of religion’.100 A thorough examination of the connections between men related to the theatre, the press and freemasonry is beyond the scope of the present work. However, the networks which were established by means of these overlapping activities certainly existed.101

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CHAPTER 6 FR EEM ASONRY IN TR IPOLI AND EL MINA

When Tripoli was founded around 900 bc, it merely consisted of a port and a few houses. Today this area constitutes the port district of El Mina, while the main part of the city is further inland. The name Tripoli reputedly stands for the three original parts of the Phoenician confederation, which comprised the city in antiquity.1 Over the course of many centuries Tripoli has seen various occupiers – Fatimids, Crusaders, Mamluks and Ottomans – and through the ages it has been given various names. Sometimes Tripoli is still called Al Fayha’a, which derives from the Arabic verb faha and indicates ‘the spread of a certain smell’, referring to the odour of Tripoli’s orange trees.2 Tripoli’s history also attests to the influence of deep-rooted religious affiliations. The Maronite community in the city, for example, named the river that flows nearby the city as Qadisha or Kadisha, which means ‘holy’ in Aramaic. According to John Gulick, the river received this name in honour of the Maronites, who ‘first took refuge high in the mountains near its source’. As the river reaches the city it is more commonly called by its Arabic name – Abu or Abou ‘Ali, meaning Ali’s father – which has a definite Muslim connotation.3 Like Damascus and Aleppo under the Ottomans, in 1834 Tripoli became the provincial capital of the Tripoli vilayet, which included the coastal area ‘from Jbeil to Tartus and the inland Syrian towns of Homs

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View of Tripoli/El Mina (by Giovanni Zuallardo, Il Devotissimo Viaggio di Gierusalemme, Rome: 1595, p. 285)

and Hama’.4 At this time, El Mina had a population of about 5,000 inhabitants, who were predominantly Greek Orthodox. Shahin Makarius had no favourable words for the Christians living in Tripoli or El Mina, who, according to him, were not ‘proficient in Arabic’ and among whom only ‘a few were gifted in writing and arithmetic, and served in government offices’.5 Tensions between Muslims and Christians had grown as a result of reforms that many considered to favour Christians during and after the Egyptian occupation (1831–40). The Egyptians had initially been welcomed, as it was thought that they would bring stability after a long period of chaos. However, the occupiers soon incurred the wrath of Tripoli’s Muslim inhabitants. The newly introduced national army service curtailed the traditional influence of local families, whilst the rural population also lost important manpower. But the change in the status of the Christians, which had been encouraged by the Ottoman Government with the Rescript of the Rose Chamber in 1839 (and further enforced in the second reform

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Figure 16

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Tripoli and El Mina (Karl Baedeker, Palestine et Syrie, Leipzig: 1906)

edict in 1856), arguably had the biggest impact. ‘The edict noted the universal applicability of the new laws. This not only revealed the wish to establish a single legal system for all subjects; it indicated a change in the official ideology of the state.’ Mahmud II had already mentioned his intentions: ‘From now on I do not wish to recognise Muslims outside the mosque, Christians outside the church, or Jews outside the synagogue.’6 The population of the city contributed significantly to the uprising against Egyptian rule in 1833, which was nevertheless quickly suppressed. Indeed, twenty-five members of the ulama from Tripoli were arrested and subsequently executed.7 A continuing growth of Muslim scepticism towards the Christian population, along with Tripoli’s final relegation to the second rank of regional ports (behind Beirut), contributed in significant measure to the worsening situation in the aftermath of the Egyptian occupation.8 In the 1870s Tripoli had to elect a governor (qa’immaqam) for the provincial council. The city chose the Christian Nicula Lutfallah Naufal, whose preferred language was Turkish. The fact that a Christian rather than a Muslim received the post – the first time this

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had happened since the beginning of the tanzimat period in 1839 – shows the dynamic and also pragmatic relations between the religious communities.9 Naufal had already served for the Ottoman state and was well connected through his work for various European consuls and businessmen. Even after the constitution had been suspended, loyalty to the Ottoman government and the absence of free speech were characteristic in Tripoli, where the majority of the population had strong ties to the Empire at the end of the nineteenth century. In combination with strict censorship, this loyalty silenced opposition voices. Tripoli’s only newspaper, Jaridat Tarabulus al-Sham (Newspaper of Tripoli) repeatedly asked its readers to support Ottoman products when facing Western penetration of the domestic market and increasing deficits in competition with foreign products. Its chief-editor and publisher, the Islamic scholar Hussein Al-Jisr al-Tarabulusi, urged Tripoli’s population (especially the affluent) to buy local products.10 Indeed, the wealthy were called on to take the initiative by fostering the construction of educational institutions and social infrastructure in the city. Only then, according to Al-Jisr, would Ottoman subjects be able to compete with Western technology and knowledge.11 At the same time, Al-Jisr advocated religious unity as he argued that the tolerance would strengthen everyone’s position against foreigners. For Al-Jisr, the most significant issue was that people believed in God irrespective of sectarian divisions. Atheism was considered to be a dangerous threat to society and citizens were told to fight egotism through the power of religion.12 The Baedeker travel guide emphasised Tripoli’s increased importance in its French edition of 1912, mentioning the new lighthouse ‘s’élève un phare’, the convenience of its port and its international telegraph.13 However, in comparison to Beirut, Tripoli’s status gradually declined while the provincial capital saw high population growth and developed into a cultural attraction pole during the nineteenth century. As Gulick states, Tripoli was ‘demoted in the Ottoman administrative structure’ and was downgraded to being the chief town of a sub-district of the vilayet of Beirut.14 Foreign institutions established in Tripoli during this period were less prestigious than those built in

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Beirut. In effect, Tripoli, with its traditional communities, had simply become part of Beirut’s hinterland. American missionaries opened a school for girls, but it closed its doors three years later.15 When the missionaries returned in 1865, Franciscan monks had already erected another, smaller, school, where they taught French and Italian. The next attempt of the American missionaries consisted in the establishment of a school for boys. This second endeavour was more successful and in the following years they opened other educational institutions and a hospital.16 The Kennedy Memorial Hospital in El Mina was the first modern-style hospital in Tripoli.17 Consequently, the native Greek Orthodox and Maronite populations in Tripoli instigated their own educational efforts. In short, by the end of the nineteenth century there were foreign, Greek Orthodox, Maronite, Lazarist, Roman Catholic and Ottoman state schools in Tripoli, with El Mina having its own institutions run separately by the Greek Orthodox Church (one mixed school with one teacher and about 40 pupils; one girls’ school with one teacher and 30 pupils), Muslim institutions (two teachers and 76 pupils) and Roman Catholics (two schools: one with one teacher and 15 boys and one for girls with one teacher and 20 girls).18 Makarius seems to have been very familiar with the educational situation in Greater Syria and was disappointed by what he saw, though it must be added that his examination of cities – with the exception of Beirut – was very superficial. According to him, the areas surrounding Tripoli lacked educational facilities overseen by members of the local community: ‘were it not for some foreign schools in some of their villages, the state of its population would have been very miserable. The Americans have great merit [. . .], for they have scattered their schools in their plains and mountains.’19 The two state schools in Tripoli, founded by Muslims, were built in reaction to the proliferation of missionary schools in the area. Both school establishments had been prompted by a visit from Midhat Pasha, but their teaching standards were low. Hence their graduates only played an insignificant role in the city’s development.20 Tripoli did experience modernisation towards the end of the nineteenth century, but it nevertheless remained more conservative and sceptical of innovation and novelties than Beirut.

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Figure 17 Different Views of the Kennedy Memorial Hospital in the early twentieth century (‘Al-Askale in White and Black’ (Al-Askilah fil-abyad. wal-aswad), p. 37)

The reform movement and the first signs of Arab nationalism did not take hold in Tripoli, with the education of the Muslim population continuously being provided by the traditional school system. Consequently, the majority of Tripolitans defended the Ottoman Empire and, not backing most of the reforms, called for the corrective exertion of Islamic principles.21 Tripoli was composed of a mixture of Christians and Muslims, which – if one includes El Mina – was more balanced than in most other provincial cities in Greater Syria. According to Gulick, ‘the Christian aristocrats were primarily merchants, while the wealth of

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the Muslim ones was based primarily on income from estates in the hinterland and from the orchards surrounding the city’.22 While the consuls resided in Beirut, representatives were sent to Tripoli. As Henry Harris Jessup writes, ‘France and England were represented by foreigners, but Russia, Austria, Italy, the United States, Belgium, Denmark and Switzerland [were represented] by Oriental Greeks and Catholics’. He continues stating that in the mundane life of those old days ‘to be vice-consul was greater than to be a king. [. . .] The ordinary Muslims looked on with bitter disdain, but they were careful to keep silent lest they draw the wrath of czar, emperor or king.’23 These representatives and ancillary consuls were mostly members of minorities, who started to form an influential intermediary social stratum between the local population and the Europeans.24 Native translators also held almost the same level of prestige. As dragomans they enjoyed a proximity to foreign delegates and companies, who owed a great deal to their knowledge of European languages and their familiarity with the way businesses worked. During the course of the nineteenth century the consulships were mainly assumed by local Christians, with the Catseflis family standing out as holding something of a diplomatic dynasty. The Yanni family was also closely connected with the diplomatic field and was related with the Catseflis through various intermarriages.25 One should also stress the masonic ties that bound the two families together, which will be illustrated further below. Almost all Muslims in Tripoli belonged to a Sufi Order: the Shadhiliyya Order was mainly composed of the Kawuji and Al-Umari families; the Halwatiyya sheikhs were predominantly composed of members of the Rafi’i, Maykati and the Jisr families. These Sufi Orders worshipped holy men who allegedly possessed magic powers that they had obtained from God. The Umari family, above all, had an outstanding reputation for working wonders.26 Members of the family were found among the early members of Kadisha Lodge. Even today some members of the family enjoy a reputation as important religious leaders. Dervishes had their own quarters in Tripoli. Indeed, a travel guide from 1910 mentions a monastery of Dervishes that was located at the mouth of the Kadisha River.27

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Between 1880 and 1914, Tripoli expanded and its population grew. This demographic trend was not dependent upon direct foreign influence. ‘Tripoli is usually decried as unhygienic, although fevers only appear in the autumn and are rarely dangerous.’28 Tripoli’s infrastructure improved considerably in 1909, when a new road was constructed between the city and Beirut. Furthermore, in 1911 the railway connecting Tripoli with Aleppo was completed.29 In the city itself one could find a carriageway, cobbled streets and pavements. A Turkish telegraph was built in Tripoli, whilst an international telegraph had been constructed in El Mina at the end of the nineteenth century.30 Yet, Tripoli’s proximity to Mount Lebanon proved to be a disadvantage to the city, as the Ottoman government doubted the loyalty of its Christian subjects in the mountain. Consequently, it blockaded the principal road, thereby depriving the mountain population of its lifeline during the war. As Gulick notes, ‘the new railroad was torn up, and until it was repaired after the war, the hoped-for increase in trade with interior Syria did not occur’. What is more, the city’s trade had started to suffer with the opening of the new railway between Rayak and Aleppo, since business was increasingly transferred to Beirut.31 At the turn of the century Tripoli had begun to modernise, without having fully internalised the principles of reform. Intellectuals and Ottoman employees criticised the lack of preparation and the poor educational standards in the city, which were deemed necessary for restructuring and a sustained and stable future.32 It would seem that the majority of Tripoli’s inhabitants were not yet prepared to freely support and express reformist ideas or to articulate modern approaches to municipal planning and government. As in Beirut, communities started to fill the gaps left by the lack of a proper social system and began to establish charitable organisations. The first such organisations were introduced by the Greek Orthodox community at the end of the nineteenth century. In 1892, it founded a general charitable society, followed four years later by institutions that supported the families of deceased relatives and orphans. The different associations were formed by religious followers in order to serve ‘explicitly for the benefit of their own sect members’.33 Around

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1906 Tripoli possessed fourteen mosques of varying size, plus fourteen churches belonging to different Christian denominations. Unlike in Beirut, the few literary and scientific societies in Tripoli were short-lived affairs and never reached the same significance and outreach as the ones in the regional capital. While Beirut emerged as the intellectual centre of Greater Syria, education and cultural activity aroused only limited interest in Tripoli.34 The city was much more conservative than its larger neighbour. Indeed, its population rarely questioned the authority of the Sultan and traditional roles were commonplace.35 In 1877 El Mina was granted its own municipal status. According to Ahmed Mumtaz Kabbara, the port’s electricity problems preceded the onset of this new municipal status. The establishment of the political body was supposed to give the port a larger scope of action when confronting similar problems in the future.36 Relations between Muslims and the Greek Orthodox community on the whole stabilised, or became at least sufficiently balanced to keep Tripoli calm in the midst of the wider religious conflicts in the area at the close of the nineteenth century. As Baria Daher Kheir notes, ‘the existent harmony is visible in the relations between the Muslim judge and the religious Christian leaders, which is reflected in meetings and direct or indirect contacts’.37 Commercial transactions were numerous and Christians did not shy away from defending their cases in front of Muslim courts, as was the case before 1856. As elsewhere in the Empire at that time, Christians in the Tripoli area were officially still classed as Dhimmis – non-Muslims.38 The reform edict changed the relations between Muslims and nonMuslims and put both at least theoretically on an equal level in the eyes of the law. In addition, Jessup wrote on his arrival in the city in 1856 that the Tripolitan population had a ‘reputation for the aristocratic pride of its people, both Moslems and Greek Christians’.39 Jessup was part of the American mission and the co-founder of the SPC in Beirut. His impression differed somewhat from the one of Rashid Rida, who visited the Tripoli area and criticised its inhabitants – particularly the Muslims – and their perceived unwillingness to embrace reform. In his opinion, among the manifold reasons for this

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tendency was the general lack of motivation and ambition of the inhabitants, as well as their ignorance of innovations or contact with reformers. He argued that poor infrastructure also meant that the local population was deprived of an adequate supply of daily newspapers. Until the beginning of the twentieth century, Al-Jisr’s Jaridat Tarabulus al-Sham newspaper remained the only regular publication in the city. Only in 1908 was the press able to make some headway in Tripoli. Consequently, eight new newspapers were established by 1913.40 However, unlike in Beirut where controversial points of view received a platform in the form of letters to the editors, newspaper contributions or articles in journals and magazines, Tripoli’s press conformed to the regime’s strict position of censorship.41 Additionally, in Rida’s eyes, the corruption of the police in Tripoli was endemic.42 Up until 1904 the American missionary station held school classes for girls, whilst the French nuns ran an orphanage and an institution for girls and the Frères des écoles chrétiennes ran a monastery and a school.43 The foreign schools were mainly used by Tripoli’s Greek Orthodox population and until World War One only one Muslim – Arif al-Rifai – is known to have been educated at a Christian school.44 During World War One Tripoli suffered more than cities in the south of the region. As mentioned, the Ottoman government destroyed the recently completed railway, as it did not trust the Christian minority in the mountains. Their loyalty in times of crisis seemed doubtful and consequently the government wanted to avoid the possibility of a revolt. Cutting off the supplies of the mountain inhabitants was deemed to be the best way of achieving this objective. However, this decision proved detrimental for the economic prosperity of Tripoli and its population, who suffered starvation and epidemics during the war. The foundation dates of the city’s first three lodges clearly illustrate that freemasonry was also affected: the Kadisha Lodge, No. 1002, was established in 1906, El Mizhab Lodge, No. 1130, followed in 1914 and Mina al-Amin Lodge opened in 1918.45 During the four years of war, the meetings of El Mizhab were suspended. Freemasonry in the Empire generally suffered a setback during the war years and was not able to continue to expand. In fact, during this period only lodges in

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Egypt were established, such as St Andrew Lodge in Aboukir in 1917, which was under the patronage of the Grand Lodge of England.46

Masonic Lodges in Tripoli and El Mina Kadisha and El Mizhab lodges worked under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, whereas Mina al-Amin Lodge belonged to the Grand National Lodge of Egypt.47 The minutes of Kadisha’s meetings have not been preserved, but it is likely that they were interrupted during World War One and only resumed in 1918.48 Kadisha Lodge was the first of its kind in El Mina and Tripoli. Although the exact location is not known, most of the first individuals initiated came from the port area. Since the later El Mizhab Lodge, which was related to Kadisha Lodge through mutual members, was established at the port, it is reasonable to argue that Kadisha members also gathered in one of the houses near the sea, where a large part of the Greek Orthodox community had settled. This would be consistent with information provided by the Grand Lodge of Scotland. With so many Kadisha Lodge members regularly visiting El Mizhab Lodge, it is even likely that at one point both lodges used the same building and facilities. The building currently used by El Mizhab Lodge was bought by the fraternity in 1947. The rooms on the second floor were originally planned to function as a hospital or medical practice. From the port to the lodge building takes less than ten minutes on foot. On the other hand, the book of attendance from the El Mizhab Lodge, in which masons attending as visitors had to write down their names, lodge affiliation and the location of their meeting places, indicates a different reality. In the period between 1914 and 1920, visitors to Kadisha Lodge either left this space empty or wrote down baladiyyeh, which means of the city and not the harbour. That is, they hailed from Tripoli and not El Mina. However, according to the Grand Lodge of New York, a third option is possible: in a letter received in 2004, Kadisha Lodge was named and located together with Palestine and Peace lodges in the Peace Building in Beirut – at least until the house was destroyed in

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Modern Tripoli (courtesy of the Municipality of El Mina: 2008)

one of the many wars modern Lebanon has suffered. In addition, in 1913 George Dimitri Sursock, who was then Worshipful Master of Le Liban Lodge under the Grand Orient of France, sent a letter to his superiors in Paris, in which he mentioned that Kadisha Lodge was located in Beirut. This would provide a different reason for explaining why Kadisha Lodge masons visited El Mizhab Lodge so often after its foundation in El Mina in 1914. The opportunity to meet closer to their homes proved attractive. Respect for masonic traditions is common among masons. Additionally, it seems likely that the violent history of the Greater Syrian region over the course of the past century and a half has engendered a particularly high esteem among contemporary brethren towards their masonic predecessors. Thus, the few masonic items that survived the wars and that may attest to the lodges’ past are venerated. The reception room of El Mizhab Lodge, which also functions as a lounge, is decorated with pictures of past masters, typical masonic regalia and a photograph of an old lodge in Homs. While wearing

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The Old Lodge of Homs at the end of the nineteenth century (photograph seen at El Mizhab Lodge Building: 2008)

quite modern dress, the men in the photograph are also wearing the fez on their heads, with only three being adorned in turbans.49 This single picture somehow captures the condition of most of the Ottomans, caught between two worlds, trying to re-position themselves in order to make some sense of their troubling and confusing living conditions. In the lodge room itself hangs a dark-brown wooden board inscribed with the names of the lodge’s former masters as well as a framed charter. Even the charter of Mina al-Amin Lodge is still in the possession of El Mizhab Lodge. The sense of pride evident in the attentive care of these objects creates a solemn atmosphere that defies the cheap furniture and shabby interior. Kadisha received its charter from the Grand Lodge of Scotland on 1 February 1906. It chose sky blue as the lodge’s official colour, which it kept until its official closure on 17 October 1930. For the first few years the lodge’s sessions were conducted in French.50

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Charter of Mina al-Amin Lodge from 1918 (El Mizhab Lodge: 2008)

The petition of Kadisha Lodge was supported, once again, by Alexander Barroudi, who had already been very active in helping to establish masonic lodges throughout Greater Syria (see Chapters 4 and 5). His name was associated with laudable principles and honest endeavours. Among the founders of Kadisha Lodge was George Dimitri Sursock, who was also a member of Le Liban Lodge and who had earlier joined

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Chapter Fidelido Lodge. Other founding members had previously been initiated in Peace Lodge and included Salame Ghoraib, Rashid Yaziji, Habib Zabliet, Moussa Nahhas, Michel Rahmé, Antonious Fadel, Elias Zehiel,51 Habib Attieh and Habib Malek. One founding member of Kadisha Lodge – Sami Nahhas – came from Phoenicia Lodge. By 1913 Kadisha Lodge had attracted more than 120 members.52 Throughout its existence, most of the lodge’s members resided in either Tripoli or El Mina. If that was not the case the family had at least business or political connections with the region. Until the outbreak of World War One the lodge was mainly composed of merchants and traders, who accounted for almost half of its members. The next biggest group was formed by government employees – clerks as well as men serving in the Ottoman army. Landowners made up the third largest group, with seventeen members. In addition, the lodge also included teachers, physicians, pharmacists, two lawyers, two hoteliers, a tailor and a printing press manager. Completing this mosaic of professions were two religious men: an imam by the name of al-Umari and a priest. While most of Kadisha’s founders were Greek Orthodox Christians, the lodge itself represented a mix of religions, with over thirty Muslims and a few Greek Catholics and Maronites. Its early members had varied backgrounds, but often shared the same masonic past and Kadisha brought together former members of Le Liban, Sunneen and Peace lodges and yet again a lodge in Brazil.53 Not much is known about the activities of Kadisha Lodge, in terms of charitable deeds, inner-lodge quarrels, its interpretation of the rituals or of its book of constitutions, the attendance of members, or the regularity of its meetings. Preserved in Edinburgh, however, are the names of members registered until Kadisha was forced to close by the Grand Lodge of Scotland in October 1930. It is also known that the majority of these members were involved in non-masonic charities. Furthermore, we know that they regularly visited the neighbouring lodge of El Mizhab. Membership of these two lodges overlapped and they also collectively founded Mina al-Amin Lodge in 1918 under the jurisdiction of the Grand National Lodge of Egypt. In addition, many signatures in support of the foundation of other lodges in the Tripoli area can be found in Scottish records.54

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The first petition sent by Kadisha Lodge to Edinburgh in 1906 was accompanied by a fee of ten pounds and ten shillings for a charter.55 Lodges working under the Grand Lodge of Scotland differed from those belonging to the Grand Orient of France with regard to the amount of money initiates or masons had to pay in order to climb the ladder of degrees. While the Scottish lodges demanded a larger entrance fee than their French counterparts, the lodges of the Grand Orient demanded higher degree fees. One effect of this regulation has been previously described: Le Liban Lodge had been admitting many members within a short space of time during its first years, irrespective of varying social affiliation with the exception of the poor. Although all new initiates belonged exclusively to the middle and upper classes, because of their interest in masonry in general they were consequently not as elitist as the Scottish lodges. The high initial entrance fee for lodges under the patronage of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, on the other hand, acted as a kind of filter – though, as seen in regard to Sunneen Lodge, it did not always work out as planned. The oldest book of constitutions used by El Mizhab Lodge was published in Scotland in 1904 and given to the lodge ten years later. It is most likely that Kadisha Lodge also began by using this version.56 It was only in 1923 that the rituals were translated for the first time into Arabic by Shukri Fakhouri and sent as a gift to the Grand Lodge of Scotland. The Grand Lodge had no objections regarding the book cover on which Fakhouri had added the name Mina al-Amin, which apparently relied on and worked according to the same rituals.57 Mina al-Amin Lodge, however, was not directly affiliated to Scotland, as it was under the jurisdiction of Grand National Lodge of Egypt. Kadisha Lodge initially worked in French, but eight years after its foundation it changed to Arabic. Evidently this seemed more appropriate during a time when the Ottoman middle class found its own sense of direction. This decision came in the wake of a period when the local community refocussed on its own culture and strengths, prompted by the influence of reformist ideas and an intellectual, cultural reawakening. It can be assumed that Mina al-Amin Lodge in 1918 chose the same language, as its letters sent to other lodges were written in Arabic.58 Unlike Beirut, Tripoli and El Mina did not offer

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its inhabitants much entertainment or cultural activities. Besides an old sports club, lodge meetings provided the only way for middle and upper class men to socialise irrespective of religious borders. The activities of Kadisha Lodge must have been comparable to those of other lodges, in terms of its charitable deeds, scientific and literary lectures and sociable meetings. Yet, naturally it was marked by the inclusion of fewer scholars than the lodges in Beirut, as the provincial capital generally attracted more savants. Thus, one can only speculate with regard to the cultural entertainment that took place in and around lodge meetings and draw a comparison to the records of El Mizhab Lodge. The records of this lodge demonstrate the financial and social support given to bereaved families. One can also point to the similarities of Kadisha and El Mizhab lodges in terms of their almost identical composition of recruits. However, while no documents regarding the activities of Kadisha Lodge are extant, the Annual Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Scotland record lodge foundations and extraordinary events, such as when a lodge disobeyed masonic rules or when it was closed down. This was the case when the Grand Lodge received a letter from Kadisha’s worshipful master in the 1920s: In regard of troubles in the lodge caused by the brethren who apparently desire to bring Freemasonry into disrepute. This Master has been re-elected and installed, and Office-bearers whom he trusts have been chosen. The Committee suggest that a letter be written to the Right Worshipful Master, warning the brethren against introduction of alien matters into Freemasonry, approving of his efforts to promote harmony, and trusting that his re-election may ensure prosperity.59 Nothing further was mentioned, but as Syrian lodges were particularly eager to attract new members and had often been reprimanded by the Grand Lodge of Scotland for not adhering to the laws, it is quite likely that Kadisha Lodge faced the same or similar conflicts.60 Additionally, ‘alien matters’ could refer to political or religious matters dealt with during lodge meetings. The state of Greater Lebanon, under

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the French Mandate, was proclaimed a year before and it is possible that lodge members differed in their political views as most of the Muslims were against the new state. Indeed, they boycotted its general census in 1922 and the majority ‘continued to seek immediate annexation to Syria’.61 During the same period, the lodge also struggled with masonic regulations when the Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Scotland reported breaches of varying laws. Apparently Kadisha had disregarded laws 152, 176, 179, 180 and 188.62 These laws refer to the prohibition of meetings held on Sundays, voting procedures, the correct amount for initiation, fees of initiation and their provision. Kadisha Lodge apparently had been initiating new members free of charge without limiting the number of candidates that could be initiated at one meeting.63 These problems were common among daughter lodges. Although one of its worshipful masters, Jurji Yanni, had an excellent reputation in masonic circles, as well as among the middle and upper classes of the city and beyond, Kadisha Lodge fell out of favour with the Grand Lodge of Scotland. As had occurred some ten years earlier in the 1920s, with Sunneen Lodge, Kadisha was charged with ‘irregularities which occurred [. . .] on 17th October 1930’. And again, researchers are left in the dark about any reasons or details of these disorders, except for a note that was subsequently approved in the proceedings stating the following: On consideration thereof, the Committee resolved to recommend Grand Committee to move Grand Lodge to discontinue all meetings of Lodge Kadisha, Tripoli, Syria, No 1002, for a period of one year from 5th February 1931, and that the Charter, books, papers, jewels, clothing, paraphernalia and funds (including Benevolent Fund) of the Lodge be delivered to Brother John Lawrence, Superintendent of Egypt, Palestine and Syria, forthwith, for safe custody. Further, that Brother Yasser Adhamy, a member of said Lodge, be suspended from all Masonic privileges until such time as the Lodge resumes meetings and is able to cite him to attend, to show cause why he should not be expelled from all Masonic privileges.64

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No further documents are apparently extant which would help to explain the reasons for this ruling and that would provide more information about Adhamy, let alone the composition of the aforementioned committee. However, no misbehaviour or neglect of the regulations mentioned above can have given sufficient reason to cause the closure of the lodge. Hence, it is more likely that another reason existed for closing down the lodge. If one turns to other cases, one notes that some lodges were able to survive underground after the withdrawal of their charter by their respective grand bodies. Indeed, some even profited from the fact that their profile had been lowered in times when the public equated freemasonry with perfidiousness. This was not the case with Kadisha, which seems to have been inactive for a long time. However, various attempts were undertaken to restore the lodge at different times. In late December 1966 we find the name Kadisha reappearing for the first time in an unsigned letter to Dr G.L. Colenso-Jones, the ‘Superintendent of the District of the Eastern Mediterranean’. In the letter, it is stated that there were plans to resuscitate dormant lodges and to name them Mount Lebanon and Kadisha, as it was ‘absolutely essential [. . .] to take the necessary and immediate steps and procedure to strengthen Scottish Freemasonry in Lebanon, preserve it in its leading position, and protect the principles and ideals it upholds and stands for’. The writer concludes that it would be a positive step to re-establish as many Scottish lodges as possible. Attached to the letter was a petition for Mount Lebanon, No. 1312, lodge, which used to work in Shweifat, but was then located in Beirut.65 None of the petitioners for the re-establishment of Mount Lebanon Lodge had any direct connection with Kadisha Lodge during its first years of activity, with only Bahij Fakhouri being a member of El Mizhab Lodge. Consequently, the connection between these two lodges is unclear.66 However, three months later Kadisha was the subject of another letter sent to the same superintendent and forwarded to Edinburgh. A similar scenario was played out in this letter: individuals wished to re-establish the former lodge. It stated that the originator and his colleagues were ‘desirous of working for the prosperity of the order and anxious to assist in expanding the right and true principles of

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Figure 21 Bahij Shukri Fakhouri (El Mizhab Lodge: 2008)

our Science, and for other good reasons’. Their wish was to reopen the lodge this time in Beirut and to work again under the Grand Lodge of Scotland with meetings being held in French.67 All the petitioners were from Peace Lodge, except Victor Dichy, a member of an American lodge, Noureddine Mikati, who was a former master of Kadisha and Bahij Fakhouri from El Mizhab Lodge. The petition was supported by Boutros Khoury from Peace Lodge, Adib Andraos from Zahle Lodge and Mahomoud Zouhair from El Mizhab Lodge.68 No new members of Kadisha Lodge were mentioned in the registration books for that time and no official reconvention occurred. The existence of these letters confirms that there was a long period of inactivity, or, at least, that the prestige of Kadisha had diminished if it had been working without European recognition following its official closure.

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During its existence, Kadisha Lodge played an eminent role when inaugurating other lodges and its members actively supported new lodge formations. In 1910 Kadisha’s Abdullatif Omari was awarded the office of Junior Warden for the new Salah ed-Din Lodge in Acre.69 Furthermore, in 1911 El Hakikat Lodge, No. 1088, was founded, with most of the initial members originally coming from Kadisha Lodge. Among them were Samuel Yanni who was the younger brother of Jurji Yanni, Rashid Yaziji, Hannah Hakim, Sami Nahhas and Rashid Moussorany.70 Since the lodge meetings took place in Lattakia, the members from Tripoli probably had some connection to the town as both places were linked through trade. It is unclear what language was principally used in this lodge or how often meetings took place. But a potential reason for the involvement of Kadisha’s members could have been that they simply founded the lodges and took over the essential posts on a temporary basis, before handing them over to newly initiated masons after a period of apprenticeship, in order to spread freemasonry. This behaviour would substantiate my overall thesis: freemasonry was at its strongest when united and only in unity was it powerful enough to fight the prevailing religious conflicts. Samuel Yanni was again active in founding Emessa Lodge in Homs. In the case of El Hakikat Lodge, even the petition is written on notepaper belonging to Kadisha Lodge. On this occasion Yanni took on the role of being a supporter for the petition. His co-supporter was a relative, Constantin Yanni, who was nominated as lodge secretary. Constantin Yanni worked in Homs for the Dalil Hims newspaper, which was affiliated to the Decentralisation Party, which had been established in 1912 in Cairo, with many branches throughout Syria. As Eliezer Tauber notes, the party ‘strived for granting administrative decentralisation to all the vilayets of the Ottoman Empire, but in reality it concentrated its efforts in Syria alone’.71 According to a story found in an anti-masonic book written by Hussein Hamade, Jurji Yanni had written a letter to George Sursock in which he described the events leading to the foundation of El Mizhab Lodge in 1914.72 He apparently encouraged some interested men to found a new lodge in El Mina and they went on to establish Fam el-Mizhab Lodge (later El Mizhab) with Antonios Bassili as its head.

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Hamade goes on to narrate about events related to freemasonry in Homs. First, Kadisha Lodge somehow helped a mason from Homs who had been taken to court. Some members of the same lodge, among whom was Constantin Yanni, then asked for advice from Tripoli regarding their lodge’s affiliation. They turned to Kadisha Lodge, since its fees were lower than those from lodges in Beirut, Damascus or Zahle. Apparently the lodge members from Homs wanted to discard their irregular status in order to receive accredited standing. According to Hamade, Jurji Yanni recommended to Constantin Yanni that he be initiated into Kadisha Lodge, which subsequently transpired. The veracity of this story and whether freemasons had any influence on court decisions is unclear. However, Constantin and his friends were the individuals who petitioned to establish the Emessa Lodge in Homs. At this stage, Constantin Yanni signed as secretary of Kadisha Lodge and Samuel Yanni supported the lodge’s foundation in his function as Deputy Master of Kadisha Lodge. Other members of Kadisha Lodge were Michel Salloum, who acted as senior deacon, Rashid Moussorany, who fulfilled the role of junior deacon, and Mahmud Monkara as tyler.73 Hence, Emessa Lodge must have already been in existence. It was in effect the petitioners’ old lodge and they were simply looking for permission to change affiliation away from an unrecognised grand lodge to the Grand Lodge of Scotland. This un-dogmatic change from one grand body to another again affirms the main thesis of this work about lodge foundations in Greater Syria. It was not the grand bodies that controlled the lodges, but rather the other way around. In other words, the Syrian masons themselves were in charge of their own affairs and cooperation between the lodges was widespread. Deciding on the patronage of a European grand lodge eliminated potential conflicts when visiting the meetings of other lodges. However, the behaviour regarding lodge affiliations and their recognitions varied. In 1913, for example, in the same year as Emessa was recognised by the Grand Lodge of Scotland, two other lodges in Beirut were recognised by the Ottoman Grand Orient.74 At this point the Ottoman Grand Orient had been recognised by only a few masonic bodies. Syrian freemasons, like the European grand lodges,

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were uncertain as to how to deal with the newly erected Ottoman grand body and decided matters on a case-by-case basis. With regard to Emessa Lodge, it was not the actual Scottish affiliation that was significant, but what it made possible. In brief, the creation of equal lodges, which worked according to the same rules and regulations, enabled their members to move in a less restricted manner between meetings and locations. The dynamics of the lodges and the flexibility of their members – as seen when comparing overlapping membership – strengthened freemasonry throughout Greater Syria. On the one hand, this certainly helped to produce more stability in daily life. On the other hand, business relations could be cultivated on a different level. In November 1920 another petition reached the Grand Lodge of Scotland for the establishment of Taurus Lodge, No. 1249, located in Iskenderun, to the west of Aleppo. Two members of Kadisha Lodge – Antonios Gellad and Mounir el-Malek – served as Deputy Master and Substitute Master respectively. The cover letter had been penned by the office bearers of Kadisha Lodge at that time: Gellad, who was Senior Warden, El-Malek, who had been serving as Second Warden, and Jurji Yanni, the Grand Master. As with Kadisha Lodge, Taurus Lodge chose sky blue as its official colour.75 Involvement in these lodge foundations certainly shows an intention to expand the network of freemasonry and unite otherwise conflicting religious communities. However, one must also consider the fact that members of Kadisha Lodge were not disinterested observers of their surroundings. This was especially the case since most of them were traders and seamen. Hence, in business terms they were well connected to inland areas and consequently travelled and traded with other traders – potential masons – in nearby cities. Thus, self-serving motives helped the masons of Tripoli and El Mina to reach out to neighbouring areas and to spread ideas of tolerance and peaceful coexistence. Before Taurus Lodge came into existence, members of Kadisha actively supported the erection of other lodges. In 1910, for example, Abdullatif Omari and a fellow brother participated in the establishment of the Salah ed-Din Lodge in Acre. Though the economic importance of some of the cities in which lodges had been established

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had decreased by that time, the main reason behind the support of these foundations can be found in freemasonry itself. It served as a perfect network that was applicable to all areas, irrespective of religious affiliation. Trade relations may have been established over a long period of time and families knew each other. Therefore, the extension of lodge life to a city like Acre seems logical. The second lodge established in Tripoli was El Mizhab, No. 1130, in 1914. The foundation of this lodge once again proved the spirited nature of Kadisha’s members. Indeed, only one of the founding fathers came from Sunneen Lodge, while all the other members knew each other from Kadisha. However, Kadisha was not the first masonic lodge for some, as a number of individuals had initially been initiated in Peace Lodge. It is unclear how Kadisha Lodge was able to survive after El Mizhab Lodge started to work, as the names of Kadisha members can be found in the latter’s attendance book and the men involved must have been quite busy visiting all the various lodge meetings. However, the fact that these men not only supported the foundation of other lodges, but also sent a letter of thanks to Ahmed Effendi al-Ashi, who belonged to another lodge, illustrates that they succeeded in their efforts to establish a pan-regional network of lodges. Depending on location and the composition of men, lodges probably also had varying priorities and standards. Though one can indeed state that the Syrians were striving for masonic unity, every single member had his own understanding of freemasonry and had a range of choices with regard to which lodge he chose to join. That is, the main principles of freemasonry were valid for everyone and religious tolerance was certainly one of the dominant tenets, but masons were not restricted in terms of location. Who were these people? What made them join freemasonry and seek to bring it to areas previously beyond the fraternity’s reach? Under what conditions did these men live? Which communities did they belong to? These were the questions I asked during my field trip to Tripoli. Some of them were answered; others remain open. However, to grasp the nature of freemasonry in Tripoli, one has to start somewhere. Thus, in the next section a sample of the builders of these lodges will be examined. Unfortunately, some of the families involved left Lebanon entirely and their ancestors’ lives are no longer traceable.

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Builders of Lodges Kadisha’s petition for a charter was written and signed by ‘Dr Alex. N. Baroody; Editor of At-Tabeeb’ in January 1906, with an attachment from the ‘W.M. [Worshipful Master] of Lodge Peace’. The Grand Lodge of Scotland received the petition ten days later.76 In its first years Kadisha Lodge attracted local men from the middle class, who lived and worked in El Mina and Tripoli.77 Tripoli lacked prestigious educational institutions like those in Beirut or organisations, charities and social groups in general. Those already existing in Tripoli were all structured along sectarian lines, in order to alleviate the distress of their respective communities. What was missing was an all-inclusive ideology, or in other words, something that men could identify with in order to establish a bond between them and secure their most basic need: to live in peace together. The first masonic lodge was at the same time the first society for a long time in Tripoli that transcended religious and class boundaries. Its most important tenet was to provide a common forum for those with a shared interest in the life of the local and regional people. At the same time, its members continued to be active in other organisations, thereby playing a significant role in the socio-cultural life of Tripoli and El Mina. Most of Kadisha’s early members were from the Greek Orthodox community, but Muslims and Maronites also joined. However, in correspondence with the population’s composition, no members of the Druze community were found among the initial members of the lodge. A noticeable feature of the original composition of the lodge is the fact that many of their ancestors actually migrated to El Mina and Tripoli. This increases the chance that they had experienced freemasonry in other areas. While the foundation of the lodge was a way to weld together the citizens of Tripoli and El Mina, at the same time it may have provided a means for outsiders to feel included in the community. Abdelkader Arnaout belonged to a family of migrants from Albania, with most of the male members being employed as teachers or merchants. Wadi Assmani’s family came from the Hasroun region in the north of Lebanon, which is situated in the Valley of

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Kadisha. Nassib Bisbany’s family had come to settle in Tripoli from Deir el-Qamar. Nassib had first joined Le Liban Lodge before being initiated into Kadisha. Having belonged to Hermon Lodge, which worked under the Grand National Lodge of Egypt, Yasper Yaziji and his son joined Kadisha when they moved from Safita to Tripoli. Safita was among the cities in which Abdallah Ghoraib, another Kadisha member, served as governor. George Dimitri Sursock The Sursock family enjoyed the reputation of being the wealthiest Christian family in Beirut, and even today they still embody Lebanese notions of noblesse and tradition. The only surviving member of this family is a practising Catholic and chose not to support my research. When I visited the lady in question in 2007 she lived in the Sursock Quarter, next to the Sursock Museum in the Sursock Palace. Reference to the discovery of some members of the Sursock family in the registration books at the archive of the Grand Lodge of Scotland did not persuade her to talk about the family’s masonic past.78 Strictly speaking, the Sursock family was largely based in Beirut, but George Dimitri was among the founders of Kadisha Lodge during his time as Grandmaster of Le Liban Lodge.79 The Greek Orthodox family was closely connected with exporting silk and wheat to London and Cyprus, with some members also being linked to the banking sector. Most members of the family were working for different European consulates as vice consuls and dragomans.80 George Dimitri was employed as a dragoman at the German Consulate. His masonic interest may have originated in his father’s membership of the fraternity. Dimitri Sursock Senior was originally initiated into Palestine Lodge, but then supported the foundation of Le Liban Lodge, which his brother Ilya later joined. Dimitri Senior was an independent merchant, but was also employed as a dragoman at the American Consulate. Ilya was the acting consul for Persia. From the eleven Sursock family members involved in freemasonry until about 1910, eight were members of Le Liban; George A. joined Peace Lodge and Alexandre and Jean had been initiated into La Chaine d’Orient

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Lodge. Over time, George Dimitri had different masonic positions, which included being the grandmaster of Le Liban Lodge at one point, as well as being a co-founder of Kadisha Lodge. Khaireddeen Abdulwahab The Abdulwahab family stands out in many ways: Khaireddeen Abdulwahab was one of the few Muslims who joined freemasonry in Greater Syria from its very inception in the region. Subsequently, some other family members followed in his footsteps and became masons. Khaireddeen’s brothers, Adel and Toufik, joined lodges. When members of the American University in Beirut were asked in 1962 to name the most prominent Muslim and Christian families in the city, the Muslim Abdulwahabs were mentioned by all those who were questioned. Christians in Greater Syria thought of them as belonging to the elite of Muslim society, while Muslims categorised the family as an eminently respectable Christian family.81 The confusion or insecurity regarding the family’s affiliation and its high standing among both Christians and Muslims attests to its pragmatic approach towards religion. One of Khaireddeen’s grandsons is also one of the few members of the Abdulwahab family who remembers anecdotes and details about his grandfather’s generation.82 In 2008 we met in his commodious flat in El Mina. He was comfortable speaking English and German and some younger family members then lived in Germany. For a period the grandson had belonged to the Rotary Club, which was not uncommon for members of his generation that had ancestral links to freemasonry. Indeed, according to my observations, many men whose fathers had joined masonic lodges turned towards service societies like the Rotary Club, the Lions or Kiwanis. While the traditions, rituals and histories of the Rotary Club and freemasonry differ, their guiding principles bear similarities, in that both organisations seek social improvement on a large scale unhampered by religious barriers. Khaireddeen Abdulwahab was born in El Mina in 1877 and died in the hospital of the American University in Beirut in January 1944. This was the same year as his grandson had enrolled in a boarding school

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run by Jesuits.83 The grandson I interviewed had studied in Germany and in the USA, but always treasured his childhood in El Mina and consequently returned there to start his own family. Even then, years later, when he came back to his home, people would remember his grandfather.84 This was also reasoned by the fact that Khairedeen had served as mayor of El Mina for twenty years until his death.85 As the oldest of five brothers, Khaireddeen was the first to be sent to school. Hence, his carte d’identité issued during the French Mandate reads not only that he was ‘commerçant’ but also ‘lettré’. When Khaireddeen’s younger brothers enrolled in school, different options regarding selection were already available. Some of the boys were sent to the new American Missionary School, with one

Figure 22 Shukri Fakhouri, Khaireddeen Abdulwahab, Jerry Harris with a further servant (from left) (courtesy of Khaireddeen’s grandson: Summer 2008)

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going on to complete his medical studies at the American University of Beirut. However, having been involved in the Lewis Affair he was either expelled from university or left by choice. Khaireddeen survived a following trip to Cairo but was consequently sent as a prisoner to the Island of Arwad, as he illegally wanted to leave the Empire. At that time, the French navy had occupied Arwad, and Khaireddeen formed a friendship with Sarlout, who had trained to be a priest and later became the head of the prestigious St Joseph’s School in Antoura. His brother Adel, who had attended the American Missionary School for Boys in Tripoli, at one time went to Argentina. On his return to Greater Syria he became a partner in Khaireddeen’s business. The two brothers continued their father’s transport enterprise. Italians used El Mina to export citrus fruits from the Tripoli region. Due to the dimensions of their boats they could not moor in the port and thus depended on smaller boats for carrying the cargo to and from the shore. Members of the Abdulwahab family invented tank boats with a much higher speed than boats without motors and thereby changed the whole transport system in the region. They were also the first people to make transport boxes out of wood by means of a newly invented machine. Besides, Khaireddeen cultivated his relationship to Jerry Harris, the American Consul, who came to El Mina in 1883 and who opened the Kennedy American Hospital. Together with Shukri Fakhouri, Khaireddeen served as his mediator. All three were also connected in different ways – either as members or as visitors – to El Mizhab Lodge after 1914. Judging from the photograph of the men above (see Figure 22), Khaireddeen acted as an agent between the Ottomans and the West. He also chose to show his affiliation when dealing with foreigners in the way he dressed. Unlike the other two Ottomans in the photograph, he is not wearing any headgear and is sporting a simple frock coat, which matches the appearance of Jerry Harris. This differs from Shukri Fakhouri and the second servant, who are both dressed in the style decreed appropriate in 1829 by Sultan Mahmud II for civil and religious officials. This included the wearing of a fez and pantaloons.86 Khaireddeen received an open and liberal education, unlike his son, Abdulghani, who was taught in a very strict manner by Lazarists

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during the period of the French Mandate and who took over the business after his father’s death. Khaireddeen was born into a Sunni Muslim family, but he was not particularly religious. Nevertheless, he continued the religious traditions of the family regarding marriage: an Abdulwahab always married a woman from the religious Abduljalil family. Sheikh Abduljalil brought up his clan in a religiously conservative way, hence the religiosity of Mariam, Khaireddeen’s wife. They lived together in a primarily Greek Orthodox neighbourhood, where Khaireddeen showed respect towards his wife’s religious faith and even agreed to send her to Mecca in order to take part in the Hajj pilgrimage. The Abdulwahab family sought to counterbalance their reputation as adventurous smugglers and pirates by marrying with the Abduljalils, who were held in high repute in both civil and religious terms.87 My interviewee supposes that his grandfather also profited from the positive attitudes of the Greek Orthodox community towards European concepts and innovations. Western ideas and concepts, including freemasonry, were embraced more willingly in such an open environment in the region. Khaireddeen was one of the first Muslims who supported the fraternity and helped it to expand in his hometown. Having first been initiated into Sunneen Lodge,88 he then became a member of Kadisha Lodge, and later co-founded El Mizhab Lodge.89 When asked about education, the interviewed man smiled and commented: ‘We’re illiterate, we don’t read and we don’t calculate.’ Though this was certainly an exaggeration, it would seem that no intellectual connection to Beirut’s early freemasons existed. It was the flourishing business of the Abdulwahab family that provided them with enough money to build the first villa outside the port area. Together with Assad Bort and George Batashe, Khaireddeen belonged to the most active section of the Minawi population in regard to industry and commerce. However, at least until World War One, Khaireddeen remained very careful about embracing new ideas and concepts: he did not like the theatre with its European plays and he found it problematic to take on all Western manners and innovations without changing or adapting to the different conditions prevalent in Greater Syria.90 On the other

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hand, he did realise the benefits of a Western education when sending his girls to school: his daughter Fatwa was the first girl at the AUB. According to my interviewee, his grandfather never took freemasonry seriously, nor did he really believe in its traditions and rituals: ‘Everything good in the West, coming to the East, goes to the dogs.’ One is tempted to disagree: Khaireddeen’s constant activity in favour of freemasonry and his general support of new lodges reveals a different mind-set. He was among the first men initiated into Sunneen Lodge in Shweir, which was established in 1904. Moreover, between 1900 and 1902 Khaireddeen was a co-founder of Al Marfa al-Amin [Worthy Port] Lodge and he also became a regular member of Kadisha Lodge in 1906.91 After World War One, Khaireddeen and Toufik Abdulwahab regularly attended meetings of Mina al-Amin Lodge, which some of his friends had helped to establish. Khaireddeen’s participation in the fraternity and his closeness to various lodges once again illustrates the typical features of Ottoman freemasonry. Abdulwahab’s grandson may have thought that Khaireddeen did not take freemasonry too seriously, but his grandfather’s actual behaviour and masonic agility prove him wrong. He belonged to the circle of men that tried to reach out to others when propagating and expanding freemasonry in order to unify all masons – with the whole of Ottoman society in mind. Khairedeen’s social and political efforts were concentrated first and foremost on El Mina. However, the principles he stood for – religious tolerance and moral emancipation – were universally valid. Shukri Fakhouri Khaireddeen Abdulwahab’s friend, Shukri Fakhouri, originally came from Saida. He studied at the SPC and received a bachelor’s degree in science. Figure 23 shows a man who is seemingly conforming to the official standards of Ottoman fashion: the suit with the checked tie is combined with the fez. Yet, Fakhouri’s eyes suggest a defensive, challenging attitude. At one point in his life Fakhouri had intended to visit some family members in Sudan, but after being approached by Harris he decided to

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Shukri Fakhouri (El Mizhab Lodge: 2008)

take up a position as an assistant physician at the American Missionary Hospital. In addition to his work at the hospital, Fakhouri was a priest at the Protestant church in El Mina between 1890, when he arrived in Tripoli, until his death in 1923. He was shot dead, together with his son, by a stranger during a Sunday Mass in his church. Having been among the early members of Kadisha Lodge, Fakhouri was also one of the founders of El Mizhab Lodge in 1914 and of Mina al-Amin Lodge four years later.92 Fakhouri served as grandmaster of El Mizhab from 1919 until 1922. A year later his translation of the book of rituals from English into Arabic was approved by the Grand Lodge of Scotland. The main connecting points with other freemasons were their common work for Harris and the care for the people of El Mina. An outstanding feature is the fact that Fakhouri was a priest and therefore a representative of a minor faction in all the Ottoman lodges observed,

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Rituals (El Mizhab Lodge: 2008)

although the Protestant church probably had the fewest problems regarding masonic membership.93 Assad Bort Assad Bort was another friend of Khaireddeen Abdulwahab. In El Mina I met with one of Bort’s relatives, on whom I rely heavily for his biographical information.94 According to the relative, Assad was not able to read or write. He described how Assad was ‘a self-made man’, whose mother died when he was nine years old and whose father, a fisherman, was not wealthy enough to pay tuition fees for his son’s education.

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At an early age, Bort had to leave his parents’ house for financial reasons. The interviewee proudly cited his grandfather’s achievements: Assad founded Assad Bort & Son, which delivered all kinds of construction materials from central regions to the Ottoman periphery. Having begun his working life as a street peddler, Bort soon became a representative for the Sachs Company, which traded in iron in the Middle East. Bort was born in 1851 and lived in El Mina until his death at the age of 96. He married a woman from the Kanawati family, and was a representative of the Greek Orthodox Church, with diverse honorary distinctions. Contrary to his prominence and activity in church and social matters, he never wanted to be involved in politics, as he preferred to make deals by informal networking. The portrait shown in Figure 25, which hangs together with the others on the walls of El Mizhab Lodge, displays a rigorous and feisty man. He is seen wearing a fez with a suit, like some of his fellow masons. Around his shoulders he proudly wears a masonic sash and his facial expression suggests a strong will without much tolerance for disagreement. Bort regularly donated to charitable organisations and helped to nationalise the water system. Thereafter the local population only had to pay what they could afford for water. He was enlisted into the Ottoman army at the outbreak of World War One, and subsequently many of his assets were stolen. The interviewee described his grandfather, who died when he was only six years old, as a man of short stature though handsome and elegant. According to him, Bort never drank or smoked but loved honey. He was also a tough guy who used to work non-stop and would beat his grandson when he stole his walking stick. Assad Bort joined Kadisha Lodge in its early years and his name can be found among the founders and the early presidents of El Mizhab Lodge.95 Like his friend, Khaireedeen Abdulwahab, he distinguished himself through his humanity and was one of the most generous donors to Greek Orthodox charitable organisations, which accords with his grandson’s statement: ‘Ours may not be a famous family but it is a correct one.’ Another side comes across with regard to business and the way Bort seemed to have preferred to deal with people. What else was better suited for networking than freemasonry, with its widespread lodges throughout Ottoman Syria?

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Assad Bort (El Mizhab Lodge: 2008)

One did not necessarily have to be a pure do-gooder to join the fraternity. In the case of Bort, he benefitted from masonic membership in the form of useful links for future trade. One family who did not share the same respect for Bort as his grandson was the Oweida family. Both the Bort and Oweida families traded in construction materials and hence were natural competitors, but yet Assad Bort and Mustafa Oweida were still brothers in the same lodge. Mustafa Oweida Mustafa Oweida was the first dentist in Tripoli. As was common for doctors and dentists at the time, Mustafa had studied in Istanbul.

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He sent his children to a French missionary school, defying his Muslim religious affiliation in favour of providing his children with a good education. According to the ancestor I interviewed, Mustafa was the masonic chairman for the north of Lebanon. Subsequently this position was assumed by his son, Hanni. Unfortunately all documents that could corroborate these statements have been lost and no such position has been mentioned in any of the grand lodges visited, though Mustafa is registered in the books in Edinburgh as having been initiated in Kadisha Lodge in 1906 at the age of fifty. Oweida, like Abdulwahab, did cross religious borders and was interested in a coherent society in El Mina and in the whole of Syria. Like Bort he probably joined freemasonry because of a mixture of financial and civic aspirations.96 Abdallah and Alexandre Ghoraib In the summer of 2008, I had the chance to meet A. Ghoraib in his luxurious flat in Tripoli. Together with his wife, he tried to come up with some memories of his grandfather and uncles. Incredibly, the family preserved certificates, a sabre, a belt and even a uniform from their ancestors that dated back to 1792.97 Figure 26 shows the uniform’s belt, which is treasured by Ghoraib’s relatives. However, the only masonic item in A. Ghoraib’s possession is a tobacco box handed over to the family by the brotherhood. The two Ghoraib brothers who were freemasons were both born in Tripoli in the 1870s. Under the Ottoman government their father was responsible for the financial affairs for the area between Tripoli and Lattakia. One of the brothers, Abdallah, went to university in Istanbul in order to study law. After graduating he was appointed by the Ottoman government and then the French governor for different districts, and worked throughout the Greater Syrian region. According to his grandson, he was a very strict but honest person, who owned seven houses and one garden. Abdallah believed in the principle of learning: ‘to tell the truth and the truth will show you the beauty of life’. The male members of the family predominantly worked for the state and were politically active. According to other citizens from El Mina, the Ghoraib family belongs to one of the oldest and best-known family clans in the region. In 2008, the weekly Tamaddun journal

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Ottoman Belt (Ghoraib/Tripoli: 2008)

wrote in its From the Past section that eighty years earlier Abdallah had taken the place of Michel Muawwad as governor in Metn, when the latter had left for Ehden.98 Alexandre was a colonel in the Ottoman army and afterwards became a medical officer. Like his brother, he knew Turkish, but he had studied at the American University in Beirut. This fact was of importance to him as he chose a university building as the background for a photograph of him (Figure 27). Sitting on a horse and wearing an Ottoman uniform he looks comfortable and self-confident. His face is adorned by a large moustache, bestowing seriousness and a sense of will power to his appearance. Both brothers were initiated into Kadisha Lodge. Alexandre joined L’Unione Lodge at a later stage, which initially belonged to the Grand Orient of Italy but then became independent. However, their cousin Salame was the first member of the wider Ghoraib family to join freemasonry. Indeed, Salame was one of the founders of Kadisha in 1906, when he was already a member of Peace Lodge. No further details of

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Alexandre Ghoraib in front of the AUB (courtesy of Toufik Klat: 2008)

him are known, except for the fact that he later became a member of El Mizhab Lodge. The Ghoraibs became connected to the Klats through intermarriage. I met T., the first offspring of this relationship, in 2008 at his gift boutique just outside Beirut.99 The Klats were originally from Armenia, where Akhlat, their original name, was the financial centre of the area. T. guessed that the family left Armenia during the invasion of the Mongols in the thirteenth century, when Armenians fled to Mount Lebanon. This experience may have contributed to their negative attitude towards the Ottoman regime and its approach towards minorities. In the time of the Empire the Klats abstained from political activities and only one family member ran for a seat in parliament between the 1960s and 1970s. Both of his grandfathers, Alexandre Ghoraib and Lutfallah Klat, were heads of the Greek Orthodox community. However, before the

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Eastern Anatolia and Lake Van (Akhlat lies to the North West of Lake Van), (Map of the Ottoman Empire: 1845)100

families were united, their relationship was hostile and competitive. According to T., Lutfallah was completely against freemasonry, which he regarded as irreconcilable to religion. He became known in Tripoli as an intellectual and poet, who published in different journals. However, he was exiled in World War One because of his nationalist writings. At one point he returned to his home country and continued publishing, but all his journals were burned and none of his contributions have been preserved. Lutfallah died in 1962.101 His brother, Toufik, was a member of Kadisha Lodge and later El Mizhab Lodge. Two other members of the Klats family were masons in Kadisha Lodge: Zaki Klat, who first belonged to Sunneen Lodge and Constantin Klat. Esaad and Antoine Klat were active in Le Liban Lodge, but all of them settled in Tripoli. T. also told me what he remembered about Alexandre Ghoraib.102 As a doctor, Alexandre had to examine Ottoman soldiers. When asked to look after soldiers from Tripoli and El Mina, he provided them with certificates to exempt them from what was an unpopular duty. Like the Abdulwahabs, the Ghoraibs were also associated with wealth and prominence. Unlike Khairedeen Abdulwahab they were not among the supporters of the Ottoman government. In a similar manner to Assad Bort, they were not interested in politics. At the same time they did care for the people of Tripoli and El Mina in general. This once again demonstrates that the activities of Kadisha and other lodges were not about resistance to Abdulhamid’s reign. Rather,

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they focussed on the idea of the possibility of a common denominator for all Syrians. Constantin Doumani Another memorable meeting during my time in Lebanon in 2008 took place with the Doumani brothers.103 Although they were only one and three years old when their grandfather Constantin died in December 1924, at the age of forty-nine, they knew a few things about him. As a banker, Constantin was a respected figure. He had three brothers and two sisters. Some stayed in El Mina, whilst others moved to Egypt and Turkey. Among his friends was Towfik Mabro, another member of Kadisha Lodge,104 who worked as a wood merchant in Egypt and whose sister married Constantin’s brother.105 Another was Alexandre Habib, who also had joined Kadisha in the lodge’s first two years, when he was twenty-four years old. Like other families, the Habibs were less known for any political involvement than for their active support of charitable societies. Constantin probably went to school in Alexandria, where he had lived occasionally. He travelled to the World Fair in Paris in 1889.106 Constantin began to work for the German-Palestine Bank before the outbreak of World War One. After World War Two he became the director of the Banco di Roma. The Doumani family was not only connected to the Antakly and Hakim families through intermarriage, but Constantin Doumani, George and Salim Antakly and Jean Hakim all joined Kadisha Lodge at the beginning of the twentieth century. For another time, the aspect of travelling has to be recalled. As a freemason it was much easier to find a ‘home’ in foreign countries and adequate support when needed. It is not too farfetched to speculate that Doumani also profited from this masonic perk when visiting Paris. This is especially the case when one remembers that he travelled during the time of the Fair, when ceremonies were held to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the storming of the Bastille. It is also significant that this trip also coincided with the first international masonic congress held in Paris.107

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Jean Hakim The first striking feature of Jean Hakim was his flexibility with regard to his name. He adjusted his forename depending on the type of document he was to sign. For his regular visits to El Mizhab Lodge he used his Arabic forename, Hannah. He is registered as member of Kadisha Lodge as John, and, finally, under the French Mandate he signed himself as Jean. Hakim (see Figure 29) appears to have completely absorbed Western influences. Unlike others, Hakim does not seem too much interested in the camera as he avoids directly looking into it. Indeed, he gazes to the side with a sceptical, almost dismissive expression. His working life seems to have defined his lifestyle, that is, being diplomatic without much patience for nostalgia. I stayed in the orphanage in El Mina, which is headed by the wife of Hakim’s relative.108 Her husband M. not only answered my questions, but also showed me the building where the lodge had met in earlier times. His uncle Jean and his father Theodore had both been masons.

Figure 29

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Jean Hakim (El Mizhab Lodge: 2008)

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Jean had been a diplomat and the Ambassador of Syria in Bonn until his death. At one point during his life he also served as the president of the AUB, but it was probably during his time as a maritime agent that he met and became friends with Khaireddeen Abdulwahab. With him he shared a similar occupation as a mediator between European consulates and Ottoman Syria. Moreover, his participation in a prestigious educational institution shows a feature common with other freemasons, who supported improved conditions for learning and studying. Jean’s relative, M., introduced me to one of his cousins, Julia Labban, an offspring of the Antakly family. George and Salim Antakly George and Salim Antakly were members of Kadisha Lodge. Judging by their name, the family probably originated from Antioch (Antakya).

Figure 30 Salim Antakly (El Mizhab Lodge: 2008)

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While they were not founders of the lodge, Salim attained the position of lodge master and was twice master of El Mizhab Lodge in 1924 and from 1933 until 1937. This double membership indicates once again the proximity between Kadisha and El Mizhab Lodge. Moreover, cooperation may have been further facilitated when Kadisha Lodge switched to Arabic as its principal working language; a choice El Mizhab made from its establishment. The fact that Syrians had to travel to make ends meet at times is also evident in the personal histories of George and Salim, who were first initiated into a masonic lodge in Brazil.109 In the photograph of Salim (see Figure 30 above), he appears as a sturdy man. Like Hakim, he is not wearing any Ottoman or masonic vestures or emblems. Salim and George were traders, who travelled between Greater Syria and Egypt. The Antakly family belonged to the elite of society, without being politically active, and were connected to the Catseflis family through intermarriage. Edouard and Rodolf Catseflis The Christian Catseflis family originally came from the Greek island of Corfu and its members settled in Tripoli and Alexandria. According to Zachs, ‘they engaged in literature and culture alongside their other occupations, particularly at the consulates’.110 Members of the family are principally known as poets, although the family’s international character and proficiency in languages is also stated by Middle Eastern historians. It seems that it was the family’s interest in literature and culture that led some of them to join lodges in Beirut, where the cultural life was much more pronounced. Among these individuals was Rodolf, who became a member of Le Liban lodge. Edouard joined Kadisha and more of the Catseflis family appear several times on the member lists of the lodges, but only these two individuals can be clearly identified on an individual basis. Unfortunately, the only direct descendant still living in Tripoli during my period of field research was not contactable. According to information received from some interviewees, the family suffered bankruptcy some time ago. In Alexandria they had been involved in

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Antonius Bassily (El Mizhab Lodge: 2008, D.S.)

the timber trade, together with Antonius and Assad Bassily. The latter was also a member of Kadisha lodge.111 Antonius Bassily’s photograph (see Figure 31 above) is too shadowy to reveal much of the man’s face. However, his suit and winter jacket give the impression of a resolute and urbane man. The Catseflis family had links to the Yanni family through intermarriage. Jurji Yanni’s sisters, Barbara and Tiyudura, were married to Qaysar and Tiyudur Catseflis. Both families also shared interests in literature and freemasonry.112 Jurji Yanni The Yanni family has played a significant role in the history of Syria and provides an excellent example of the overlapping networks of masons and men interested in their cultural surroundings. Mikhail is the first of the Yanni family about whom some biographical details are known. With his family roots in Greece, he travelled by boat from Mykonos

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to the Syrian coast to carry out some business, but his boat was shipwrecked near Tripoli and he was stranded at El Mina. According to the Lebanese historian Omer Abdulsalam Tadmori, Mikhail lost all his possessions at sea while he was saved by Jean Catseflis, a translator for the British consul in Tripoli, who then acted as Yanni’s patron.113 Mikhail stayed in Tripoli, married and had children. One of his sons, Jurji, was the father of Antonius and the grandfather of Jurji and Samuel Yanni. Antonius served as consul for America and Belgium. He also wrote for Al Jinan, the newspaper published by the Bustani family. Mikhail worked as a foreign affairs journalist, and collaborated with Joseph Diab and Abdullah Naufal in Tripoli. All of them were members of the al-Jam˓iyya al-Su¯riyya (the Syrian Society), an academic association established in 1847. Yanni’s house was a meeting place for intellectuals and generally welcomed like-minded visitors from Europe and America. Among Antonius’s assets was his reputation for tolerance and even-handedness towards varying religious denominations. He was close to Christian and Muslim religious leaders, which was put to the test during the interreligious struggles during the 1860s. During this period the Algerian Emir Abd al-Qadir al-Jazairi distinguished himself as a mediator between the fighting groups.114 Yanni’s list of displaced people and his descriptions of their misery were sent to America. In reply he received a letter of thanks from President James Buchanan. So close was he to evangelical Europeans that he converted to Protestantism. A missionary from the American Board called Antonius a ‘liberal and enlightened man’, who was ‘engrossed by business’ and ‘full of vivacity’.115 Jurji was born in 1854, in the midst of an atmosphere laden with political, literary and reformist discussions. He was educated in the evangelical school in Tripoli and in Butrus al-Bustani’s national school in Beirut, before returning to Tripoli. During these years Y. Choueiri notes that he ‘acquired knowledge of foreign languages such as Italian, French and English’ and wrote articles for Bustani’s Al Jinan journal.116 At the age of nineteen, he was entrusted with all of his father’s diplomatic and social functions. Jurji was less of a politician than his father and preferred activities linked to literature and science.

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As Zachs states, ‘in 1876, he helped establish a literary society headed by Iskander [Catseflis], in which he served as secretary’.117 Five years later he co-founded the Keftin School in the Khoura district close to Tripoli with some Greek Orthodox scientists. In the same year he published his history of Syria, in which he emphasised Greater Syria as a historic entity that was much older than Islam and recognised by the Phoenicians.118 In this opinion one can see reflected one of the major subjects discussed by the Syrian Society.119 Jurji Yanni also wrote on the history of the Franco-Prussian War and translated a book on maritime and commercial assets, which paralleled his thoughts in his translation of the History of a New Civilisation.120After his father died in 1882, he acted as consul for the USA and as a vice consul for Belgium. Another step bringing him closer to the people around him occurred when he gave up his Greek nationality and became an Ottoman subject. His personal networks were reinforced by his marriage into the prestigious Jumblatt clan. Yanni also involved himself in diverse literary circles and publishing projects. Together with his brother, Samuel, he founded the Mabahith (Researches) journal, which was printed until 1927. He was a member of the Eastern Scientific Association of Beirut, the Eastern Society of Leiden, the Arab Scientific Society in Damascus and the Asian Scientific Association in Paris. Apart from that, he still found time to write articles and he contributed to the Muqtataf and Al Mashriq newspapers.121 Jurji Yanni died in 1941. The masonic activities and overlapping membership of various lodges evident in Jurji Yanni’s biography can serve as another example of a man who belonged to early lodges in Ottoman Syria. Yanni was exceptional in his close links to Beirut and its cultural reformers. No other freemason from Tripoli is known to have immersed himself so thoroughly in literature and the history of Syria. Hence, Yanni’s profile more closely matches those commonly found in Beirut’s lodges and it comes as no surprise to learn that the first lodge he was initiated into was Le Liban in Beirut before becoming active in Kadisha. Samuel Yanni also joined Kadisha Lodge. He first studied at the American school in Tripoli before subsequently changing to the AUB. Both brothers demonstrated a lively interest in the support of other lodges.

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Notably, one foreigner became a member of Kadisha Lodge. The person in question was Jerry Harris, who was a doctor from the USA who came to El Mina in 1883. Although initiated into Kadisha Lodge, Harris regularly visited El Mizhab Lodge until the outbreak of World War One. He worked at the American hospital, as well as being the president of a preaching association and gave his money to the poor during the famine prior to his death in 1915.122 Besides his contact with Shukri Fakhouri and Khairedeen Abdulwahab, Harris was also a friend of Ibrahim Khouly, another member of Kadisha. Khouly was a doctor himself and was respected as someone who would visit his patients everywhere. He published articles in Al Muqtataf on the treatment of various illnesses.123 Another man who was highly esteemed in Tripoli at the time was Kadisha member Pious Douba. Born in Tripoli in 1858, Douba learned French and Italian and worked as a pharmacist at the only pharmacy in the city. When he came back from Constantinople, where he received his diploma, he initially worked for Michael Lutfi at a pharmacy on Mar Michael. At one point he also worked as a chemistry teacher; but none of the documents he published on this subject are extant.124 For the last few examples of men involved in freemasonry, the fact that the fraternity fostered science and education was probably a key attraction. In addition, they all shared a general interest in the welfare of people from Tripoli and El Mina and considered participation in freemasonry as a useful way to work towards the better realisation of this concern. There were many more men involved in freemasonry in Greater Syria at the time, but I have restricted myself to these examples in order to show the variety of characters the lodge attracted. When studying the book of attendance for El Mizhab Lodge the question of dual membership came up: why did all of Kadisha’s early members visit or become members of El Mizhab Lodge? At the time El Mizhab was founded in 1914, as the archives in Edinburgh prove, Kadisha was still active. As proceedings within different years show, the lodge continued to accept new members and paid for documents sanctioned by the Grand Lodge of Scotland. Most of the men were members of both lodges at the same time, which was seemingly not a troubling matter to them in terms of membership fees.

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The merging and overlapping nature of the two lodges points to the significance of freemasonry in Greater Syria at the time. Freemasonry was ideally suited to fill the gap that existed in terms of a sense of a lack of community spirit in Tripoli and El Mina. One major reason for this deficit originated in the fact that, as Gulick states, ‘sentiments of social responsibility [were] largely confined to sect and family’. Additionally, Gulick argues that there were ‘various attitudes toward the municipal government, none positive’.125 If the men could not rely on their government, they had even more reason to cooperate and look towards protecting their own future. The perceived weakness of Abdulhamid and his officials certainly contributed to the popularity of masonic lodges, in which members learned sometimes for the first time in their lives about how to organise themselves into a united community. Having said this Gulick notes that, ‘Christian and Muslim families in Tripoli who have high social prestige have a number of interests and tastes in common and these may actually draw them together even though they would never intermarry. Differences in social prestige within a sect group, on the other hand, may considerably dilute that group’s over-all solidarity.’126 Likewise, freemasons belonged to the same class. The brotherhood was definitely not for the poor, who had to worry about food. Indeed, it is interesting to note that a list of prominent Muslim and Christian families dating from the 1960s in large parts complies with the names linked to freemasonry in the region in the nineteenth century. Among the Muslim families listed, with previous links to freemasonry in Tripoli and El Mina, were the following: Karami, Oweida, Muqaddim, Ghandour, Husayni, Monkara, Zreik, Mossarani, Kabbara, Al-Omari and Abdulwahab. There are even more Christian families with links to freemasonry, including Bort, Klat, Naufal, Nahhas Khoury, Dib, Sawaya, Boulus, Ghoraib, Nini, Yanni and Batashe. The author’s opinion is striking, stating that ‘while sectarian identities tend to keep people of different sects apart, similar positions in the socio-economic hierarchy give them something in common. Thus, there seems to be a certain amount of Muslim-Christian fraternization among upper class people, as evidenced in the Rotary and Lions clubs.’127 I suggest that he would have come to the same conclusion had he included the masonic

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lodges existing in a much earlier period. Furthermore, his assumption directly corresponds with my argument regarding, among others, the Abdulwahab family. There apparently exists a certain attraction for service clubs, such as the Rotary Club, the Lions and Kiwanis, among the sons and grandsons of freemasons. Like freemasonry, these organisations were primarily intended to function on a local level and it was then envisaged that they would expand on a regional, national or even global scale. Unlike charities, which concentrated on the followers of their own religious denominations, freemasonry aimed at the people in general. Unlike educational institutions, lodges were not so narrowly focussed. However, whilst freemasons were not disinclined towards educational and literary groups, their targets were less specified. First and foremost they wanted to change the reality of daily life. Therefore, the fraternity was also different from cultural societies, which were mainly attractive for academics and journalists. Finally, unlike with political activity, freemasonry as an entity did not require and usually even refrained from direct interference or engagement in political affairs. It was not supposed to bring together political strategists. During my interviews in El Mina, almost everyone knew a story about the Muqaddims. The Muqaddim family is generally believed to be from Tripoli and demonstrated a constant commitment to politics, while at the same time also being associated with gun gangs. They were allegedly pro-French, unlike the Karame family, who were said to have supported the British. This resulted in a strained relationship between the two families, with the Muqaddims having been considered as anti-Karame. However, both families were represented in Kadisha Lodge. Hassan and Ismail Muqaddim on the one side, and Mohammed Rashid Karame, who was president of the city’s administration at the time, on the other. It is highly unlikely that they would have met and socialised if the lodge had primarily been a political institution or think tank. Coming together with no shared political basis, they nevertheless tried to work for a common cause. Gulick was probably right when he stated that a similar socioeconomic position made cooperation easier. Indeed, I would emphasise that this status was even a precondition that enabled engagement in an institution like freemasonry at all. Moreover, only with sufficient

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power – socio-cultural and economic – was a movement able to produce change on a large scale. While Beirut profited most from developments towards a cosmopolitan centre, Tripoli and El Mina had to rely on their own forms of power. On the one hand, there were Christians that benefitted from European contacts and trade relationships in general. On the other hand, exactly the same men had to rely on their Muslim neighbours in order to sell their products in the interior of the Empire. Muslims living in Tripoli also wanted their products to be traded overseas. Thus, networking with their Christian neighbours was a necessity in order to survive in a world where Westerners seemed increasingly superior in all areas. The realisation of this fact was probably the main reason for freemasonry being able to expand outside Beirut and its cosmopolitan atmosphere. Masonic principles of equality that emphasised common humanity, instead of varying political or religious inclinations, were extremely useful for a community in which no prior sense of cohesion had existed. In the late 1960s, when John Gulick wrote his book on the history of Tripoli, he did not comprehend the meaning of freemasonry, nor did he even mention its existence. Does that make it less important? Is this a sign of the fraternity’s failure? Was it not sufficiently relevant to Greater Syrian society? If one compares lodges in Tripoli with others in European cities one can note a common feature: although not a secret society, freemasonry is almost invisible to the public eye. Its meetings are not widely advertised and its charitable deeds are not widely known. Nevertheless, the same largely holds true regarding the Rotary Club or the Lions – two societies that are not perceived as having secrets and that do not shy away from public attention. But there seem to be sufficient reasons for these groups to continue existing. Perhaps Gulick did not delve deeper and therefore did not mention masonic lodges simply because he was not aware of their existence? Perhaps he did know about them, but as an outsider he did not deem that it was possible to be introduced to their histories and their contemporary significance? It is also possible that these lodges did not produce the results they were aspiring to and they were not able to bridge the gap between the religious communities on all levels.

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However, their existence was, and most probably still is, significant for a great many members of Syrian society. Freemasonry certainly profited from the similar socio-economic standing of its members, though at the same time these were exactly the people most likely to produce an improvement for the entire populations of El Mina and Tripoli. The overlaps, the minimal presence of foreigners, the connectedness through intermarriage and business – all these were signs that freemasonry was supposed to be a cohesive force to keep the city and its port together. Hence, this foreign concept could indeed work in Tripoli and El Mina. And if it worked on a small scale, and if people would use their power and prestige for an all-inclusive system of welfare, then why not establish more lodges? This they did.

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CONCLUSION

Freemasonry arrived in the Ottoman Empire at a time when familiar traditions and values were being severely tested. Identities seemed shaken and individual lives were interrupted by unforeseeable sociopolitical changes. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, Ottomans were looking for a new perspective in order to consolidate their existence; a new way to strengthen social cohesion. This was a period when ideologies were invented, redefined and refined; a time when new ideas found fertile ground to flourish. The Sublime Porte feared potential autonomy and separatism; it had lost territory in Europe and in North Africa to Western powers and its military and political weakness did not go unnoticed by the subjects of the Empire. To compound matters, they were confronted with the power of the other global players on a daily basis. Even the reactions of the different Ottoman governments to challenges from the outside made the people feel the substantial changes that were taking place to their lives and the loss of secure values. Ottoman bureaucracy was constantly in a state of flux, as was the educational system. Global trade and corporations produced new winners, while others were forced to look for different places of employment. Due to technological innovations their skills were becoming redundant. Even dress codes had to be adapted. When the inhabitants of Ottoman Syria were introduced to masonic rituals and tenets, they realised that this concept of brotherhood could relieve their distress. The craft seemed perfectly suited to their own needs and purposes: to strengthen the individual by means of a newly defined unity. They were thereby introduced to a new form

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of inter-sectarian sociability, which enabled them to create networks in the form of lodges that were spread all over the region. However, the benefits of this idea were not only restricted to the Ottoman Empire: when freemasons left the area they were able to identify with foreigners on account of their masonic membership. Moreover, when Ottomans were initiated in regular lodges outside the Empire, they were also able to enter lodges at home. Participation formed a common bond and thereby facilitated mobility. It helped to ease socio-political tensions by establishing a space where common values were more significant than the varying political outlooks and religious affiliations. Rather, Ottoman freemasons attempted to achieve what politics and religion were not able to manage: by establishing a masonic brotherhood, they united otherwise disparate minds. Unity meant strength. Chapters 1 and 2 demonstrated the situation of the Ottoman Empire and its dominant weakness. These chapters also examined the various characteristics and inherent peculiarities that made the brotherhood prosper even outside its traditional European playground. Chapter 3 discussed how it was predominantly lodges in Egypt and those geographically closer to the Sublime Porte that were especially prone to mixing their masonic activities with political concerns. On the one hand, Syrian freemasons who migrated to Egypt, such as Jurji Zaidan, did not always find a masonic equivalent to the first lodges they joined, and as a result they left the brotherhood. On the other hand, Egyptian freemasons attending masonic meetings in Greater Syria soon became disappointed by the lack of a political atmosphere. The most outspoken of these Egyptian freemasons in Greater Syria was al-Afghani, who was himself Persian but had joined freemasonry in Egypt. He explicitly considered the fraternity to be a tool for changing political conditions. He became so disillusioned with the existing forms of freemasonry that he even founded his own lodge in Egypt in order to enforce his political aims.1 In Beirut, freemasons shared an academic or cultural background and Chapter 4 indicates the overlapping activities of this new middle class in diverse organisations and societies. The first lodges were established on fertile ground and quickly started to inspire the foundation of new lodges. There was seemingly no intention to establish another

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society focussed solely on cultural issues; rather the idea was to include everyone who was willing to contribute to a better society in general. This was also the reason for the occasional collision of various lodges with masonic grand bodies. An overzealous attitude when expanding their masonic circles did not always conform to the official rules of freemasonry. However, with the inclusion of prestigious families, such as the Sursocks, Trads and the Yannis, the brotherhood held great appeal from its early years. With over 1,500 members by the time of the Young Turk Revolution in 1908, freemasonry outnumbered any other social or political institution besides religious communities. Hence, it is not surprising that the lodges soon began exerting a strong influence on areas outside Beirut. Chapter 5 shows how men from the cultural sector were mainly active in lodges on the mountains. Additionally, an emphasis is placed on the difficulty of pinpointing only one form of freemasonry in the region, as various forms of the brotherhood existed. Though they all sought to strive towards unity, intellectual emancipation and tolerance, the conflicting interpretations of freemasonry’s aims and purposes did result in clashes. The detailed description of lodges on Mount Lebanon shows that freemasons did not always manage to exclude political and religious disputes. Sunneen Lodge was eventually prohibited from continuing its activities in 1927 after the Grand Lodge of Scotland examined the controversial nature of the lodge’s meetings. It is doubtful whether Sunneen Lodge was ever in a position to exert political influence beyond the local sphere, but it is likely that the Grand Lodge of Scotland withdrew its official support and recognition as a result of the fact that politics was a dominant issue during its existence. Chapter 6 examines lodge members in Tripoli, who had a similar socio-economic position. They were neither inclined to establish literary societies, nor did they threaten the current government through the publication or performance of subversive works. In Beirut, Western influence helped to create an atmosphere filled with innovative ideas in an attempt to unite traditional values and teachings with modern academic curricula. However, Tripoli was more conservative and also less involved in criticism of political conditions. The inhabitants of the city had other problems related to their daily lives. Interruptions

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caused by internal hostilities could cost them dearly, as they were mostly dependent on trade and therefore had to rely on networking. Freemasonry served as a tool to help bridge socio-cultural gaps, and even more significantly, could aid in bringing together men of different religious denominations for the very first time in Tripoli and El Mina. Masonic lodges were the first places in Greater Syria in which men gathered without a single focus, such as business, religion or politics. It was demonstrated how lodges in Tripoli and El Mina cooperated, which is indicated by the lodges’ close relationships and overlapping membership. This research has established many hitherto unknown links between men whose single common denominator was their interest in freemasonry and the ideas it epitomised. I believe it is pertinent to utilise Stefan Weber’s description of cities as ‘heterogeneous structures of social organisation’, when analysing freemasonry. He defines the compositions of cities as ‘shaped by shifts in individual and collective identities’, a characteristic which can be applied for freemasonry as well.2 Even more than urban spaces, masonic lodges are subject to cultural dynamics and evolution. Masonic rituals, rules and traditions serve as props, but the realisation of the contents mainly depends on the individuals belonging to the lodge. As shown in the last chapter, socially active groups and charitable groups existed in Tripoli and El Mina, but they complied with religious demarcations. At the end of the nineteenth century freemasonry was a novelty in the region and was able to overcome these limitations. Tripoli’s freemasons crossed the borders and formed lodge communities; an extremely unusual phenomenon at the time in the region. The establishment of El Mizhab Lodge, Kadisha Lodge and all the subsequent lodges was seen as a first step in order to make further changes possible. Butrus al-Bustani, though not a mason, perfectly embodied the overall motto of Syrian freemasonry in one of his articles on society and the state of the Ottoman Empire, when he asked the people to put welfare and the interests of their Syrian fatherland above sectarianism and factionalism.3 The lodges examined in this thesis are proof of this attempt. It is no coincidence that most of the masons belonging to Syrian lodges during its first years were either the founders or members of social

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and charitable institutions. Yet, in many ways freemasonry acted as the missing cohesive link. As this thesis has shown, the fraternity provided this connection. It bridged the gap between religious congregations by spreading the ideas of fraternity and equality. While not complying with a specific political agenda, the lodges in Greater Syria were political insofar as they influenced relationships between men who were politically and/or socio-culturally active. Religious communities may have been in competition, but their adherents nevertheless came together in the lodges using freemasonry as a basis for mutual understanding. It was the framework offered by masonry that offered the greatest benefits: overriding political or religious cleavages in order to establish a common denominator, whereby it was possible to find a shared level for communication and cooperation. They interpreted freemasonry as a way to promote social and moral emancipation, the welfare of the people and religious tolerance. Without doubt, it was also useful in terms of business and trade, as the masonic networks brought together influential men of various occupations. Their regular meetings were shaped by masonic traditions and rules, thereby enabling them to cooperate and produce results. Consequently, this also affected the non-masonic surroundings, with charitable deeds being the most visible confirmation of this success. At least for a limited period, following the 1860s massacres and until the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, freemasonry certainly functioned as a forum that sought to foster a peaceful alliance in parts of Greater Syria. The increased cooperation among different religious communities can be considered as an indicator of the fraternity’s success. Its steadily increasing popularity among Ottomans certainly suggests freemasonry’s ability to work on problems overshadowed by religious or ideological conflicts. On the other hand, especially if one takes into account Lebanon’s recent history, there is an inherent vice in a movement whose rules and standards persist in non-interference in political and religious matters as from the outset it is restricted in its impact. As demonstrated in regard to European freemasonry, conflicts can reach a point where the fraternity becomes helpless and has to yield to more powerful forces that dare to meddle in politics.

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Much more research has to be done to deepen our knowledge about the way lodge meetings were used as vehicles to spread ideas, and how lodges developed and operated after the reign of Abdulhamid II. While the history of European and American lodges has been extensively studied, no such analysis of contemporary Syria and Lebanon has been made. Especially with regard to the period starting with the Young Turk Revolution, it is unclear how the various national lodges came into existence, or if networking was still one of the characteristic features in their mutual relationships, and how far nationalisation of lodges inside Ottoman Syria indeed succeeded. The further development of relations between Syria or Lebanon and other international masonic bodies also remains unstudied. Was there a new wave of activity by a new generation of masons in order to establish a form of Ottoman freemasonry? Without future research, the field is left open for fundamentalist movements, which will seek to claim sovereignty over interpretation in order to create their own truths and blur our general perception of the dynamics of freemasonry in the Middle East. And though this thesis may only be a small contribution to the subject, I hope it can serve at least as a comprehensive first step for future academic research towards clarification rather than obfuscation.

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APPENDIX I

Chronology of the Ottoman Empire with a Focus on the Late Period1 1288/89–1481 1481–1600 1600–1774 1774–1922

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Ascent and expansion of the Empire Between East and West Successes and defeats The longest century of the Empire and its final dissolution The peace between the Ottoman Empire and Russia leads to the final loss for the Ottomans of large areas in Europe. The peace contract in general is seen as the start of the ‘Ottoman Question’: the question of how the Empire should be divided best. Due to diverse capitulations all European powers had rights to intervene and meddle with the Ottoman’s political force. Abdulhamid II, who is in power then, insists on his status as religious leader. The Ottoman regime increasingly introduces reforms following growing pressure on the side of the European powers. Financial, military and administrative structures are remodelled according to European examples. Newly introduced reforms are supposed to equalise the status of Muslims and non-Muslims, to secure private ownerships and to enable all Ottomans to take part in the election system

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222

1829/30 1831–40 1834 1834 1835 1839/40

1858 1860 1861 1861 1861 1864 1865 1868 1869 1869

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Independence of Greece Syria under Egyptian rule; a number of reforms introduced Damascus revolt against Egyptian rule British Consulate in Damascus opened The arrival of steamships in the Eastern Mediterranean results in an increase in trade Edict of Gülhane; period of reforms and start of the Tanzimat period. (The Tanzimat period (1839–76) saw reforms centre around a new concept of justice (adalet): equality before the law for all Ottoman subjects, Muslim and non-Muslim alike. In the 1850s–60s, intellectuals known as the ‘New Ottomans’ engaged in a liberal critique of Tanzimat policies with emphasis on fatherland (vatan), freedom (hurriet), and constitutionalism. The Tanzimat reforms culminated in the constitution and parliament of 1876, but the 1877–78 war with Russia and the Treaty of Berlin allowed Sultan Abdulhamid II to bring an end to ‘liberalism’ and proceed with reforms under an autocratic regime) Ottoman Land Code; land property has to be registered Maronite-Druze rebellion in Mount Lebanon region; Anti-Christian riots in Damascus Mount Lebanon detached from Syria, becomes a separate administrative unit Damascus connected with Istanbul by Telegraph Foundation of Palestine Lodge, No. 415, in Beirut Government printing press established in Damascus First newspaper printed in Syria Syrian Protestant College (later American University) established in Beirut Foundation of Le Liban Lodge in Beirut Foundation of La Chaine d’Orient Lodge in Beirut

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CHRONOLOGY

1876

1876 1877 1877/78

1878 1880 1881

1882 1882 1883 1886 1887 1887 1888 1888 1889 1890 1894 1895 1900 1900 1904 1906 1906

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223

Abdulhamid II proclaims a new constitution (constitutional monarchy with a two-chamber parliament and a large part of non-Muslim representatives) Foundation of Speranza Lodge in Alexandretta Elections of the first Ottoman parliament Complete independence for Serbia, Montenegro and Romania after the Congress of Berlin; partial independence for Bulgaria; Bosnia and Herzegovina under Austrian administration; Cyprus under English administration; Russian-Ottoman War causes increased taxation in Greater Syria Revocation of the constitution; Dissolution of Parliament Foundation of Siria Lodge in Damascus After annexing Algeria between 1830 and 1870, France occupies Tunisia. European powers administrate Ottoman finances Great Britain occupies Egypt Foundation of L’Unione Lodge in Homs Foundation of Bajazet Lodge in Haifa Foundation of Surea Lodge in Antiochia Foundation of Luce Lodge in Adana Foundation of Henderson Lodge in Aintab Establishment of vilayet of Beirut Beirut supplied with gas Foundation of La Syrie Lodge in Beirut Foundation of La Syrie Lodge in Aleppo Modern harbour construction in Beirut Construction of railway line Beirut–Damascus and Damascus–Rayek Foundation of Peace Lodge, No. 908, in Beirut Construction of railway line Damascus–Medina Foundation of Sunneen Lodge, No. 969, in Shweir Construction of railway line Rayek–Aleppo Foundation of Kadisha Lodge, No. 1002, in Tripoli

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224

1908 1908 1908

1909 1910 1910 1911 1911 1911 1911 1911/12

1912/13 1913 1914 1914–18

1915 1916

1917

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Foundation of Zahle Lodge, No. 1047, in Zahle Foundation of La Turquie Lodge, No. 1049, in Constantinople Renewed Constitution as a result of the pressure of the Young Turks who take over control; Independence of Bulgaria Foundation of Noor al-Dimashq Lodge, No. 1058, in Damascus Foundation of Salah ed-Din Lodge, No. 1071, in Acre Foundation of St John Lodge, No. 1080, in Cairo Foundation of Logos Lodge, No. 1083, in Constantinople Foundation of Carmel Lodge, No. 1085, in Haifa Foundation of El Hakikat Lodge, No. 1088, in Lattakia Foundation of L’Unione Lodge in Tripoli Loss of Tripoli (Tripolitania), Cyrenaika and the Dodecanese during Italo-Ottoman War; Albania and Yemen leave the formation of states belonging to the Ottoman Empire Almost complete loss of remaining occupied European areas during Balkan Wars Foundation of Emessa Lodge, No. 1125, in Homs Foundation of El Mizhab Lodge, No. 1130, in Tripoli World War One (the Empire not only continues to massacre remaining Armenians, it also loses Iraq, Palestine, Saudi Arabia and Syria and sides with the Central Powers) Beginning of the Armenians’ deportation Sykes-Picot Agreement: Partition of Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire between Britain and France; Syria to be allocated to France Foundation of St Andrew Lodge, No. 1161, in Aboukir

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225

Foundation of Mina al Amin Lodge, No. 245, in Tripoli 1918 ‘Arab Revolt’ liberates Damascus 1919 Foundation of Highasdan Lodge, No. 1185, in Constantinople 1920 Foundation of Taurus Lodge, No. 1249, in Alexandretta 1920 With the Treaty of Sèvres, Turkey agrees to limit its territorial claim of Anatolia and East Thrakia and functions under control of the Allies. The rest of Ottoman lands are to be divided between Great Britain, Russia, France, Italy, Greece, the Armenians and the Kurds 1919/22 Greece invades West Anatolia and occupies Izmir 1918/23 Istanbul and the Straits are under allied administration 1919/22 Greek-Turkish War: The Turkish army under General Mustafa Kemal Pasha drives the Greeks out of the occupied west-Anatolian zones 1923 Foundation of Mount Lebanon Lodge, No. 1312, in Shweifat 1923 Revision of the Treaty of Sèvres, Peace Treaty of Lausanne: Turkey regains East-Thrakia and all rights over Anatolia, including the Eastern Provinces 29 October 1923 Proclamation of the Republic of Turkey 1918

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El Mizhab Lodge, Tripoli, estd 1914

Kadisha Lodge, Tripoli, estd 1906

Zahle Lodge, Zahle, estd. 1908

Sunneen Lodge, Shweir, estd 1904

Peace Lodge, Beirut, estd 1901

Palestine Lodge, Beirut, estd 1865

Grand Lodge of Scotland (GLoS)

Mina al Amin Lodge, Cairo, estd 1918

Hermon Lodge, Beirut, estd before 1913

Unknown, estd between 1891-93

Grand National Lodge of Egypt (GNLoE)

La Syrie Lodge, Beirut, estd 1890

La Chaine d’Orient Lodge, Beirut, estd 1869

Other lodges in Homs, Zahleh, etc.

Le Liban Lodge, Beirut, estd 1868

Grand Orient de France (GOdF)

Hilal Lodge, Beirut, estd before 1913

Ittihad Lodge, Beirut, estd before 1913

Ottoman Grand Orient (OGO)

Bajazet, Haifa, estd 1883

Henderson, Aintab, estd 1887

Luce, Adana, estd 1887

Helbon Lodge, Aleppo, estd 1886

Siria Lodge, Damascus, estd 1880

Surea, Antiochia, estd 1886

Speranza, Alexandretta, estd 1876

Grand Orient d’Italy* (GOdI)

Lodges established in Ottoman Syria with a Focus on today’s Lebanon between 1860 and 1911 (further lodges established by the Ottoman Grand Orient and the Grand National Lodge of Egypt were not taken into account)

APPENDIX II

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Bey Aghy, Joseph

Tabet, Hattai; Akauri/Ackaou, Joseph; Gelegh, Joseph; Gelegh, Habib; Achou, Selim; Esseily, Fadlallah; Fayad/Haiad, Assad; Fayad/Haiad, Joseph; Haggi, Nicolas; Kaseiri, Antun; Sursock, Dimitri; Kulph, Jules; Beyhum, Hassan

Palestine (GLoS): El-Rayess, Salim Khalil

Massif, Mikhail Abdallah; El-Dagher, Mikhail Kanaan; Kahil, Joseph; Monkara, Mahmoud; Abdulwahab, Khaireddeen, Klat, Zaki; Bey Kamal; Nader, Jacob

Sunneen (GLoS): Lair, Edouard; Munzer, Abraham

Peace (GLoS): Attiyeh, Najib; Bashour, Nauffal Ibrahim

Hilal (OGO)

Helbon (GOdI): Luethi, Jaques; Zollinger, Emile; Altaras, Jaques; Khayat, Antonio

Homsy, Constantin

El-Rayess, Salim Khalil

Sursock, Dimitri; Dobrowolsky, Constantin; Monasterski, Louis; Debbas, Fadlallah Khalil

Yanni, George; Levaffi Dimitri, Arnaout, Abdul-Kader; Bisbany, Nassib; Khoury, George

Zouan, Georges; Hobaika, Nimr S.; Samaha, Elias Y.; Salhab George

Barroudi, Alexander; Esseily, Fadlallah; Salhab George; Sharrif, Hikmet; Hilmi, Ahmed; Mohbat, Fadlallah S.;

Sabbagh S.

Namy, Ahmed;

Le Liban (GOdF): Reiss, K.

La Syrie (GOdF)

La Chaine d’Orient (GOdF): Husni, Joseph

Antakly, Salim; Antakly, George; Bassily, Antonius; Bort, Assad; Fakhouri, Shukri Abdulwahab, Khairedeen

Ghoraib, Alexandre; Attiyeh, Najib

Kadisha (GLoS): Bashir, Da’ud

Ittihad (OGO)

Hermon (GNLoE)

L’Unione (GOdI)

Mina al Amin (GNLoE)

El Mizhab (GLoS): Antakly, Salim; Ayoub, Hannah; Azar Azar; Yaziji, Na’ame Nicolas; Fakhouri, Shukri; Tajer, Elias Michael;

Siria (GOdI)

Exemplary Movements of individual Masons to different Lodges during the first 50 Years of Masonry in Ottoman Syria (1860–1908)

APPENDIX III

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1872–? 1858 – after 1913

An-Našra al-Usbuˉ’ıˉ ya, Beirut, N

H ba¯r, Beirut, N . adıˉqa¯t al-Ah ˘

H ba¯r, Beirut, N 1870–1879 . adıˉqa¯t al-Ah ˘ ˇ anna, Beirut, Al G N ˇ inan (The Gardens), Beirut, an Al G 1870–1886 encyclopaedic periodical including politics, distant to government, no partisanship for any religion, patriotic (from 1870 onwards on the cover: ‘Love of my Fatherland is Part of the Faith’)

Ibrahim al-Hourani

Khalil al-Khouri

Salim al-Bustani

Freemasons involved in the Press and/or societies in Ottoman Syria and Egypt1

IN THE

Nassib al-Bustani member (Le Liban, Kadisha, Iskandar Faduil (Sunneen), Joseph Khalil (Sunneen), Barid (Peace)

Charter Member of Zahle lodge

Le Liban

Period Published or Lodge Affiliation Established

APPENDIX IV

Name of the Journal (J), Newspaper (N) or Periodical (P)3

FREEMASONRY

Name2

228 OTTOMAN EMPIRE

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At.-T.abib (under the name of Medical News), Beirut, monthly, J

Sommer_Appendices.indd 229

Le Liban Le Liban; Sarruf was married to Yacut Barakat (3 of the Barakat family were members of Sunneen); when he died, different lodges sent speakers and writers for his obituaries, among others:

At.-T.abib

Tamara¯t al-Funuˉn, Beirut, N ˉ Al-Muqtat.af, Beirut, later Cairo Al-Muqat..tam, Beirut, later Cairo, N

Bishara Zalzal

Yacub Sarruf

INVOLVED IN THE

PRESS AND

(Continued)

Le Liban

Lata’if, Le Liban

Le Liban, Peace

Change of At.-T.abib from medical professional journal into encyclopaedic educational journal At.-T.aqaddum, N

1876–1952

1874

Ibrahim Yaziji

Shahin Macarius (from 1876 At.-T.abib, Al-Muqtat.af, J onwards also responsible for Muqtat.af at the American press in Beirut)

Alexander Barroudi, also active for Al-Muqtat.af

FREEMASONS SOCIETIES 229

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Sommer_Appendices.indd 230

Le Liban Palestine

1874–1889 1923 1923 1908

Al-Muqt.ataf, Beirut, later Cairo Al-Muqat..tam, Beirut, later Cairo

At.-T.aqaddum, N

Al-Minbar, Beirut, J

Al-Ahra¯r, Beirut, N

Faris Nimr

Yusuf as-Shalfun

Ali Nasr ad-Din

Gibran Tueni

Bishara Abdallah al-Khouri At-Barq, Beirut, N

1908 1908 1867–1874 1875–1878

Al-Mura¯qib, Beirut, N

At.-T.aba¯t, Beirut, J

Wa¯dıˉ an-Nıˉl, Cairo, N Raud.at al-Ahba¯r, Cairo, N ˘

Iskandar Khouri

Unsi Abu as-Suud

Star of the East

Sunneen

Sunneen

Sunneen

Le Liban

IN THE

Le Liban

Sunneen

FREEMASONRY

Jurji Abdallah Attiyeh

1916

Aš-Šharq, Damascus, N

Jurdak Mansur (Sunneen), Isa Iskandar al-Maalouf (Zahle), Muhammad Kurd Ali (Le Liban)

Khalil al-Ayyubi

Period Published or Lodge Affiliation Established

Name of the Journal (J), Newspaper (N) or Periodical (P)3

Name2

230 OTTOMAN EMPIRE

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1892

1876 – until now 1918 1911

? 1906 1909

Al-Hilal, Cairo, N

Al-Ahra¯m, Alexandria, N

Al-Maba¯hit, Tripoli, J

Al-Hawadit, Tripoli, J

Dalil Hims, Homs, N

Al-Muqtabas, Damascus, J Al-Umma, Damascus, N

Jurji Zaidan

Bishara Taqla

Sommer_Appendices.indd 231

Jurji Yanni

Lutfallah Klat

Constantin Yanni

Muhammad Kurd Ali

PRESS

Le Liban

INVOLVED IN THE

Emessa

Most of the Klat-family members belonged to Kadisha in Tripoli or/and Le Liban in Beirut

Le Liban, Kadisha

Star of the East

Mason but no lodge name mentioned (Thomas Philipp, Gurgi Zaidan, His Life and Thought (Beirut: In Kommission bei Franz Steiner Verlag/Wiesbaden: 1979)

FREEMASONS AND

SOCIETIES 231

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Sommer_Appendices.indd 232

ˇ am˓iyat Bairuˉt al-Ingˇˉılıˉ ya G (1860–?)

Chair: Butrus al-Bustani; only Christians on the board of management

Chair: al-Amir Muhammad Amin Arslan, Husain Bayhum, Hussain Khoury, Salim al-Bustani, Abd ar-Rahim Badran, Salim Shihada, Salim Ramadan, Musa Yuhanna Farij, Habib al-Galh, Rizqullah Hadra

Beirut’s first bible society; women permitted to join; among the members American missionaries with their wives

116 members, Christians and Muslims from Syria and Egypt; representatives of the Ottoman government like Franco Pasha, governor of Mount Lebanon, foreign diplomats like the Ambassador of Belgium and Iran. The society’s aims are the support of science, economy development, Arab language and literature and the analysis of society

Society supporting education and science

42 members, mainly American missionaries, Arab mission-employees and business men. No Muslims. Nine of the members not of Beirut; among them Mikhail Mishaqa and Antonius Yanni Aim of the society is the support of education and science, irrespective of religion

IN THE

ˇ am˓iya al-˓Ilmıˉ ya Al-G as-Suˉrıˉ ya (1868–1870)

Beirut’s Jesuits

Eli Smith, Butrus al-Bustani, Cornelius van Dyck

Members, Art Of Society FREEMASONRY

ˇ am˓iya al-Mašriqıˉ ya Al-G (1850–?)

ˇ am˓iya as-Suˉrıˉ ya Al-G li-l-˓uluˉm wa-l-Funuˉn (1847–1852)

Founders

Societies founded around the same years targeting education, science and/or charity4

232 OTTOMAN EMPIRE

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Sommer_Appendices.indd 233

Founders: Shahin Macarius, Faris Nimr

AND

Founder: Shahin Macarius

Founders: Yacub Sarruf, Faris Nimr, Shahin Macarius

Al-Magˇma˓ al-˓Ilmıˉ aš-Šarqıˉ (1882–1886)

First Arabic society for female education; meetings every two weeks at Macarius’s home; activities among other lectures on literary topics, questions of education and family problems

PRESS

ˇ am˓iyat as.-S.ina¯˓a fıˉ Bairuˉt G (1882–?)

Founders: Yacut Barakat Sarruf, Maryam Nimr Macarius

Sunni – islamic Society; aims: support of education, public charity, schools

Members among others: Sulaiman al-Bustani, Adib Ishaq, Ibrahim al-Yaziji, Yurji Yanni, Faris Nimr, Yacub Sarruf

Literary Society

Charity of the Greek-Orthodox Church

80 members, Catholic charity, support of schools and needy children

INVOLVED IN THE

ˇ am˓iyat Ba¯ kuˉrat Suˉriya¯ G (1881–1888?)

ˇ am˓iyat al-Maqa¯.sid al Hairıˉ ya Founder: Abd al-Kadr al-Qabbani G ˘ al-Isla¯mıˉ ya (1878–?)

ˇ am˓iyat Zuhrat al-Àda¯ b G (1873–1876)

ˇ am˓iyat ar-Ruˉm al-Urtuˉduks G ˉ ˉ al-Hairıˉ ya (?–?) ˘ ˇ am˓iyat Šams al-Birr (?–?) G

ˇ am˓iyat Ma¯r Mans.uˉr dıˉ Paul G (1860–?)

FREEMASONS SOCIETIES 233

11/15/2014 6:23:33 PM

234

FREEMASONRY

IN THE

OTTOMAN EMPIRE

Religions Affiliations in Tripoli and ElMina Tripoli

el-Mina

Year

1812

1905

1914

1812

1905

1914

Muslim

10 200

19 767

19 954

1 000

4 176

4 156

GO

700

2 332

2 643

2 000

4 153

4 148

Maronite

200

1 121

1 242

–

217

234

Catholic

–

64

66

–

6

–

Protestant

–

66

51

–

3

–

Jewish

–

61

72

–

–

–

In 1914: Tripoli

el-Mina Male

Female

Male

Female

Muslim

10 250

9 704

2 136

2 020

GO

1 500

1 143

2 389

1 759

Maronite

628

614

124

110

Catholic

33

33

?

?

Protestant

27

24

?

?

Jewish

35

37

?

?

(According to Ibrahim Darbily, Al urtudux fi tarablus khalal al-ghran al-tissa-ahsra, [The Orthodox in Tripoli during the nineteenth century], (Balamand University, Tripoli: 2006), pp 243)

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FREEMASONS

INVOLVED IN THE

PRESS

AND

SOCIETIES 235

Growth rates of the religions between 1905 and 1914 Muslims: 0.95 per cent GO: 13.34 per cent Maronites: 10.8 per cent

Represented Families in Orthodox Associations in Tripoli and El-Mina between 12.12.1881 and 11.05.18975 Family

Surname

Times of Tenure

Bashbash

?

1

Boulos

Hannah

1

Habib

Salim

3

Haddad

Elias

2

Hamawi

Na’aman

1

Klat

Zaki

2

Klat

Constantin

2

Klat

Najib

1

Klat

Ya’cub

2

Dib

Georgous

1

Sariq

Ghizr

2

Sariq

Mikhail

1

Sariq

Nastas

2

Sioufi

Dimitri

2

Sioufi

Ayas

1

Trad

Assad

1

Ghoraib

Assad

3 (Continued)

Sommer_Appendices.indd 235

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236

FREEMASONRY

IN THE

OTTOMAN EMPIRE

Family

Surname

Times of Tenure

Fakhr

Yussef

1

Qamr

Mikhail

1

Matook

Ibrahim

1

Matook

Nicula

1

Najjar

Mikhail

2

Najjar

Yussef

3

Nahhas

Elias

1

Nahhas

Jurjis

2

Nahhas

Sami

5

Nahhas

Salama

1

Sadaqa

Ishak

2

Sadaqa

Selim

2

Sarraf

Sami

2

Sowaya

Assad

2

Takhan

Jibrail

4

Khos

Jisr

2

Nasur

Dib

3

Naufal

Habib

2

Yussuf

Hannah

1

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FREEMASONS

INVOLVED IN THE

PRESS

AND

SOCIETIES 237

Members of the City Council (millet) in Tripoli (baladiyyeh) in 1900 Ghisr Naufal, Jurji Naccache, Edouard Catzeflis, Abdallah Ghos, Constantin Klat, Assad Sowaya, Assad Arghya, Hannah Ghoraib, Sami Saraf, Sami Ghos, Anastas Sariq, Ibrahim Sadaqa replacing Jurji Yanni

Consul offices including Posts as Translators held by Orthodox Scholars from Tripoli in the nineteenth century Family

Consulate

Catseflis

Consul of England Consul of Austria and Norway Consul of Russia and Germany Consul of Austria and Hungary Consul of Sweden and Norway Consul of Greece Consul of the Netherlands

Yanni

Consul of the USA and Belgium

Mansour

Translator for the Spanish Consulate

Naufal

Translator for the German Consulate Translator of Russian Advisor for Russia Translator for the Russian Consulate Representative of the Greek Consulate

Klat

Sommer_Appendices.indd 237

Translator for the Consulate of the USA

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238

FREEMASONRY

IN THE

OTTOMAN EMPIRE

Trading and other professions of some Tripolitan Diplomats during the nineteenth Century Name

Employer

Job description

George Catseflis

English Consul

Head of the Centre for Translation in Tripoli

Christoph Catseflis

Consul for Austria, Sweden, Norway and Denmark

Head of the Centre for Translation in Tripoli

Selim Naufal

Translations in Russian, Consultant for Russia

Agent for the Russian steamship

Yacub Naufal

Consulate Russian translator in Egypt

Merchant in Tripoli and Alexandria

Nassim Klat

Translator for the American Consul in Tripoli

Merchant in Tripoli and Alexandria

Nicula Mansour

Translator for the Spanish Consulate

Merchant in Tripoli

Habib Naufal

Agent for the Greek Consulate

Merchant, Agent for an English company

Iskandar Catseflis Vice Consul for Russia and Germany

Agent for a Russian Company

Tiyudur Catseflis Consul for Spain and Austria-Hungary

Agent for an Austrian Company

Johnny Catseflis

Merchant in Tripoli

Sommer_Appendices.indd 238

Consul for Sweden and Norway

11/15/2014 6:23:34 PM

NOTES

Introduction 1. Letter from Le Liban Lodge to the GOdF, (13 June 1876), carton no. 1, Archive of the GOdF. 2. Jacob M. Landau, ‘Prolegomena to a study of Secret Societies in Modern Egypt’, Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 1/2 (January 1965). 3. Daniel Ligou, Dictionnaire de la franc-maçonnerie, (Presses Universitaires de France, Paris: 1987), pp. 629–30. 4. More information on Alexander Howard in Chapter 4; links between lodges in Greater Syria and Carmel Lodge, established in Haifa in 1911 will be taken into account. 5. The participation of Armenians in masonic lodges was not restricted to Armenian-only lodges. 6. [Les idées de tolerance, de solidarité et de fraternité], Letter from Le Liban to the GOdF, (12 May 1912), carton no. 1, Archive of the GOdF. 7. [L’amour de l’humanité [ . . .] l’union fait la force], Letter from Le Liban Lodge to the GOdF, (13 June 1876), carton no. 1, Archive of the GOdF. 8. Another example is Esther Möller’s thesis on the Mission Civilisatriçe in Lebanon, still waiting for publication, University of Mainz 2011. 9. Ryan Gingeras, Sorrowful Shores: Violence, Ethnicity, and the End of the Ottoman Empire, 1912–1923, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), pp. 2, 5. 10. Cem Emrence, Remapping the Ottoman Middle East, (I.B.Tauris, London: 2012), p. 4, 11. 11. Quoted here is Thomas Philipp in his review of Ilham Khuri-Makdisi’s The Eastern Mediterranean and the Making of Global Radicalism, 1860–1914, (University of California Press, Berkeley: 2010) in which he criticises the author’s lack of elaboration regarding the fraternity’s importance during and for the nahda; http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/rezensionen/2010–4084, (03 November 2010).

Sommer_Notes.indd 239

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240

NOTES

TO

PAGES 5–10

12. Jessica Harland-Jacobs, Builders of Empire: Freemasonry and British Imperialism, 1717–1927, (University of North Carolina Press: 2007). 13. James W. Daniel, Masonic Networks and Connections, (Library and Museum of Freemasonry, London: 2007), p. 180. 14. Philipp: p. 9. 15. Also see, Kristiane Hasselmann, Die Rituale der Freimaurer, (Transcript, Bielefeld: 2009). 16. More details on capitulations and how they worked in the specific context will follow further below. 17. Benjamin Fortna, ‘Education and Autobiography at the End of the Ottoman Empire’, Die Welt des Islams, vol. 41/1, (March 2001), p. 3. 18. [L’évolution morale et sociale], Letter from Sunneen Lodge to Le Liban Lodge, (02 January 1906), Le Liban, carton no. 2, Archive of the GOdF. 19. Miroslav Hroch, Das Europa der Nationen. Die moderne Nationsbildung im europäischen Vergleich, (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen: 2005), p. 46. 20. Emrence, Remapping, p. 42. 21. Ibid.: p. 8. 22. John George Gibson, ‘The Policy of Colonial Freemasonry’, The Freemason, (London: 25 July 1908), p. 56. 23. Philip Nord, ‘Republicanism and Utopian Vision: French Freemasonry in the 1860s and 1870s’, Journal of Modern History, vol. 63, (June 1991), p. 213. 24. Mathew Burrows, ‘“Mission Civilisatrice”: French Cultural Policy in the Middle East, 1860–1914’, The Historical Journal, vol. 29/1, (March 1986), pp. 112–114. 25. Paul Dumont, ‘Freemasonry in Turkey: a by-product of Western penetration’, http://turcologie.u-strasbg.fr/dets/images/travaux/freemasonry%20 in%20turkey.pdf, (17 November 2010), p. 2. 26. Further explanations regarding the history of the Ottoman Empire will be given in the following chapters. 27. [La paix, le progress et le bonheur], Letter from Sunneen Lodge to Le Liban, (02.01.1906), Le Liban, carton no. 2, Archive of the GOdF. 28. Thierry Zarcone, Mystiques, Philosophes et Francs-maçons en Islam (Jean Maisonneuve, Paris: 1993). The United Grand Lodge of England was active in these cities from the 1850s onwards, (Registration books UGLoE, 1850). 29. References: Rosario F. Esposito, ‘I primi massoni in medio Oriente’, Rivista Massonica LXX-XIV (July 1979), pp. 231–6; Robert Freke Gould, The History of Freemasonry throughout the World, vol. 4, (Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York: 1936), p. 311; Pierre-Yves Beaurepaire, Franc-Maçonnerie et Cosmopolitanisme au Siècle des Lumières, (Editions Maçonniques de France, Paris: 1998),

Sommer_Notes.indd 240

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NOTES

30. 31.

32. 33.

34.

35.

36. 37. 38.

39.

40.

TO

PAGES 10–14

241

pp. 72–73. Beaurepaire relies, among others, on Daniel Ligou’s Dictionnaire de la franc-maçonnerie in its edition from 1974. I checked the 1987 edition (Presses Universitaires de France, Paris: 1987) and indeed Ligou mentions early lodges (keywords Syrie and Turquie) but a closer look at the different dates of lodge foundations reveals that he is sometimes mistaken. Hence caution is advised when using his information. Jurji Zaidan, Taʾ rıˉ kh al-maˉ su¯niyya al-˓aˉ mm [General History of Freemasonry], (Cairo: 1889), p. 120. A petition sent by Le Liban to the GOdF in 1876 suggests a connection to the grand lodges in the United States and England, although no sources have been found to confirm this. ‘En case de difficultés pour envoyer les métaux directement les R. L. pourront expédier métaux ou billets de banque par l’entremise de la Grand Loge d’Angleterre à Londres, par la G. Loge de France à Paris, et par la G. Loge d’Amérique à Newyork’, (1876), carton no. 1, Archive of the GOdF. Appendix IV. The author refers here to the perception of intellectuals developed by Karl Mannheim, elucidated further below. See also, Charles Gattone, ‘The Role of the Intellectual in Public Affairs: Changing Perspectives in the Modern Era’, Theory and Science, vol. 1/1, (Fall 2000). A general overview regarding intellectuals: Liberal Thought in the Eastern Mediterranean, edited by Christoph Schumann, (Brill, Leiden: 2008). For example, in Samih al-Zeine’s book, History of Tripoli: then and now, (Dar al-Andalus, Beirut: 1969) it seems that there existed only intellectuals in Tripoli. However, using the term without differentiations renders it useless. Further explanations regarding the exact location of Kadisha will be delivered in Chapter 6. As a valuable source underlining this statement served the directory of the American University in Beirut (AUB). Henry Jessup in his Station Report, 1861, in, The Missionary Herald: Reports from Ottoman Syria, 1819–1870, edited by Kamal S. Salibi and Yusuf K. Khoury (Royal Institute for Inter-faith Studies, Amman: 1995), p. 20. Map of Syria by Henry H. Jessup made for the American Presbyterian Mission by (1873), C.M.S. Archives, C.M.S. Gr. 3, vol. 6, CM/012/29D, the University of Birmingham, Birmingham. [Nous devons agir pour unifier les maçons des différents rites réguliers ou irréguliers], Letter from Le Liban sent to the GOdF, (17 October 1893), carton no. 1, Archive of the GOdF.

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242

NOTES

TO

PAGES 14–16

41. Beshara Doumani, ‘Endowing Family: Waqf, Property Devolution, and Gender in Greater Syria, 1800–1860’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, vol. 40, (Cambridge: 1998), p. 11. 42. James Anderson, The constitution of the free-masons. Containing the history, charges, regulations &c. of that most ancient and right worshipful fraternity, (William Hunter, London: 1723), p. 54. 43. Further information on this subject with regard to European and American lodges: Freemasonry on both sides of the Atlantic, ed. William Weisberger, Wallace McLeod and S. Brent Morris, (Columbia University Press, New York: 2002). 44. Eric Anduze’s PhD is entitled La Franc-maçonnerie coloniale au Maghreb et au Moyen Orient (1876–1924) un partenaire colonial et un facteur d’éducation politique dans la genèse des mouvements nationalistes et révolutionnaires, (Université des Sciences Humaines de Strasbourg: 1996). It was published in two parts, the first being La Franc-maçonnerie au Moyen–Orient et au Maghreb, fin XIXe–début XXe siècle, (L’Harmattan, Paris: 2005). 45. Paul Dumont, ‘Freemasonry in Turkey: a by-product of Western penetration’, http://turcologie.u-strasbg.fr/dets/images/travaux/freemasonry%20in% 20turkey.pdf, (10 October 2009), p. 5. 46. Hyde Clarke, Sovereign and Quasi-Sovereign States: Their Debts to Foreign Countries, 2nd edition, (E. Wilson, London: 1879). Clarke lists the various debts of foreign countries or British colonies while at the same time complaining about French corruption and English indifference. 47. Registration books, St. John & St. Paul, 1869, Archive of the UGLoE. He was not the only mason to change lodges. Muhammad Abduh, for example, changed lodges as well as the Italian Verde brothers; while in 1865 the banker Gustave Oppenheim joined two lodges at once: Bulwer Lodge in Cairo and St. John’s Lodge in Alexandria. 48. I use the term ‘lodge-hopping’ in order to describe the practices of many European and Arab masons in the Ottoman Empire: they moved constantly from one lodge to another or were members of different lodges at the same time. They formed varying groups to found new lodges and thereby helped the fraternity to spread while also strengthening the early lodges. 49. Research on this has been carried out by Thierry Zarcone, Secret et Sociétés secrètes en islam. Turquie, Iran et Asie Centrale, XIXe-XXe siècles, (Archè, Milan-Paris: 2002); La Turquie moderne et l’islam, (Flammarion, Paris: 2004); La Turquie. De l’Empire ottoman à la République d’Atatürk, (Gallimard, Paris: 2005); Prières des musulmans chinois, (Koutoubia, Paris: 2009); Le soufisme, (Gallimard, Paris: 2009). As Almut Höfert has stated, Eurocentric concepts of individuality, which perceive modernity as a way into freedom for a subject, followed

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NOTES

50. 51. 52. 53. 54.

55. 56. 57.

58.

TO

PAGES 16–23

243

by Western economic developments, create more harm more than good. [‘Anmerkungen zum Konzept einer “transkulturellen” Geschichte in der deutschsprachigen Forschung’, Comparativ. Zeitschrift für Globalgeschichte und vergleichende Gesellschaftsforschung, Bd. 18, ‘Transkulturelle Komparatistik. Beiträge zu einer Globalgeschichte der Vormoderne’, edited by Wolfgang Drews; Jenny Oesterle, (2008), pp. 14–25.] Just by taking religion as an example, using definitions and meanings dominant in the Western world shows to what degree the so-called civilisation paradigm obscures possible insights. Ussama Makdisi calls this a ‘crisis’, which resulted in different forms of orientalism, and ‘both Western and non-Western Orientalisms presuppose a static and essential opposition between East and West: yet both are produced by – and are an attempt to overcome – a crisis in this static opposition created by the same dynamic colonial encounter’, [Ussama Makdisi, ‘Ottoman Orientalism’, The American Historical Review, vol. 107/3, (June 2002), pp. 795–96. Timothy Baycroft, ‘Nationalism, National Identity and Freemasonry’, Journal for Research into Freemasonry and Fraternalism, vol. I, (2009), p. 15. Ibid.: p. 17. Alexander Piatigorsky, Freemasonry, (Harvill Press Editions, London: 1997), p. 361. Ibid.: p. 13. Ibid.: p. 21, freemasons generally meet once a week or every two weeks in order to celebrate their rituals, consider previous minutes of former meetings, initiate new members, review general and charitable funds and propose new members. For example El Mizhab lodge, founded 1914 in Tripoli, registered meetings once a week according to its book of attendance. www.history.ac.uk/makinghistory/resources/articles/oral_history_2.html, (17 December 2009). All of the following interviews, meetings and photographs were carried out between 8 and 24 July 2008. See also: José A. Ferrer Benimeli, La masonería españiola, (Istmo, Madrid: 1995); La Masonería españiola en el siglo XVIII, (Siglo Xxi De España Editores, Madrid: 1986); Freimaurerei und Faschismus, (Studienverlag GmbH, Innsbruck: 2009). Jacob Landau, ‘Muslim Opposition to Freemasonry’, Die Welt des Islams, New Series, vol. 36/2, (July 1996), p. 187. Reference should also be made to the work of Jens Hanssen and Leila Fawaz. See, Jens Hanssen: Fin de siècle Beirut: the making of an Ottoman Capital, (Clarendon Press, Oxford: 2005); ‘From Social Status to Intellectual Activity: Some prosopographical observations on the municipal council in Beirut, (1868–1908)’, in: From the Syrian Land

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244

59.

60. 61.

62.

63.

64.

NOTES

TO

PAGES 23–25

to the States of Syria and Lebanon, edited by Thomas Philipp and Christoph Schumann (Orient Institut, Beirut: 2004). Also see Leila Fawaz, Merchants and Migrants in Nineteenth Century Beirut, (Harvard University Press: 1983). Fawaz, ‘Foreign Presence and Perception of Ottoman Rule in Beirut’, in: Arab Provincial Capitals in the Late Ottoman Empire, edited by Jens Hanssen, Thomas Philipp and Stefan Weber, (Ergon, Würzburg in commission, Beirut: 2002), pp. 97–142; ‘The City and the Mountain: Beirut’s Political Radius in the Nineteenth Century as revealed in the Crisis of 1860’, IJMES, vol. 16/4, (November 1984), pp. 489–95. Part of Article 17 of the Hamas Charter, translated and annotated by Raphael Israeli from the Harry Truman Institute, Hebrew University Jerusalem and available online: www.fas.org/irp/world/para/docs/880818. htm, (23 January 2009). Part of Article 22 of the Hamas Charter/Covenant. Significant research into the history of the Protocols and its processing has been done during recent years. Ao.: Hagemeister, Michael. ‘The “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” and the Myth of a Jewish Conspiracy in Post Soviet Russia’, in: Nationalist Myths and Modern Media. Contested Identities in the Age of Globalization, ed. by Jan Herman Brinks, Stella Rock and Edward Timms, (I.B.Tauris, London: 2006), pp. 243–55; Hermann Goedsche, ‘“The Rabbi’s Speech: the Promise of World Domination” (1872) / “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” (c. 1902)’, in: The Jew in the Modern World: a Documentary History, ed. by Paul R. Mendes-Flohr and Jehuda Reinharz, (Oxford University Press: 1995), pp. 360–67; Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann, ‘ “Brothers or Strangers”: Jews and Freemasons in Nineteenth-Century Germany’, German History 18, (2000), pp. 143–61. Monica Corrado, ‘An Annotated Translation of Luwis Shaykhu’s Article on Freemasonry’, AHL – Archaeology & History in the Lebanon, No. 25 (Lebanese British Friends of the National Museum in London, LBFNM: Winter 2007); Louis Shaykhu, al-Sirr al-maÒun fi hayʾ at al-farmaˉ su¯n (The well-kept secret in the Freemason organisation), (Beirut: 1909–1911). For more sources see also: Jacob M. Landau, ‘Prolegomena to a study of Secret Societies in Modern Egypt’, Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 1/2 (January 1965), pp. 135–86; Shimon Shamir, ‘Midhat Pasha and the Anti-Turkish Agitation in Syria’, Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 10/2 (May 1973), pp. 115–41. Eva H. Balaˉzs, ‘Freimaurer, Reformpolitiker, Girondisten’, in: Beförderer der Aufklärung in Mittel- und Osteuropa, (Ulrich Camen, Berlin: 1979), pp. 129–233. Elie Kedourie, ‘Young Turks, Freemasons and Jews’, Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 7/1, (January 1971), pp. 89–104.

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65. Nadjat Fathi Safwat, Freemasonry in the Arab World (Arab Research Centre Publications, London: 1980). 66. ‘This period featured the beginning of a centralized system of education, the creation of new criminal and commercial courts, and an ever-deepening commitment to the establishment of an effective and robust military. By 1876, the appartus of the state took on the veneer of a more regularized, Western-style bureaucracy. The Ottoman constitution of 1876 was the invention of this new bureaucracy, which increasingly saw itself as the sole arbiter of modernism and reform of the empire’, [Ryan Gingeras, Sorrowful Shores: p. 14]. 67. Paul Dumont, ‘Les Loges Maçonniques Françaises à Istanbul’, in: Économie et sociétés dans l’empire ottoman (Editions du CNRS, Paris: 1983); ‘La FrancMaçonnerie d’obédience Française a Salonique au début du XXe siècle’, Turcica XVI, (1984). 68. Karim Wissa, ‘Freemasonry in Egypt 1798–1921: A Study in Cultural and Political Encounters’, British Society for Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 16/2, (1989). 69. Ibid.: pp. 157–158. 70. See also: Margaret C. Jacob, Living the Enlightenment. Freemasonry and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Europe (Oxford University Press, New York: 1991); Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann: Die Politik der Geselligkeit, Freimaurerlogen in der deutschen Bürgergesellschaft 1840–1918 (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen: 2000). 71. Eric Anduze, La Franc-Maçonnerie coloniale au Maghreb et au Moyen Orient (1876–1924), (available at the library of the GOdF, Paris: 1996). 72. ‘Les Premières Loges Ecossaises en Grande Syrie’, Cahiers de la Méditerrané (Centre de la Méditerranée Moderne et Contemporaine de l’Université de Nice-Sophia-Antipolis, CMMC), Nr. 72, (Juni 2006), pp. 321–330; ‘Revolutionary Thoughts – Lebanese Freemasonry before the Young Turk Revolution’, AHL – Archaeology & History in the Lebanon, no. 25, (Winter 2007), pp. 66–81; ‘Early Freemasonry in Late Ottoman Syria from the Nineteenth Century onwards – The First Lodges in the Beirut Area’, Freemasonry and Fraternalism in the Middle East, edited by Andreas Önnerfors and Dorothe Sommer, Sheffield Lectures on the History of Freemasonry and Fraternalism, (CRFF, Sheffield: 2008); pp. 53–84. Publication of my MA thesis ‘Revolutionary Thoughts’, Zeitschrift für Internationale Freimaurerforschung IF (Peter Lang; Prof. Helmut Reinalter, Universität Innsbruck: 2007/08). 73. Jacob M. Landau, ‘Farmasuniyya’, Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition, vol. 2, (Brill, Leiden: 1965), pp. 296–297. Exploring Ottoman and Turkish History, (Hurst & Company, London: 2004); The Politics of Pan-Islam, (Clarendon

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Press, Oxford: 1990); ‘Prolegomena to a study of secret societies in Modern Egypt’, Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 1/2, (January 1965), pp. 135–86; ‘Muslim Opposition to Freemasonry’, Die Welt des Islams, New Series, vol. 36/2 (July 1996), pp. 186–203. Also: Shimon Shamir analysed anti-Turkish agitation and secret groups: Shimon Shamir, ‘Midhat Pasha and the Anti-Turkish Agitation in Syria’, Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 10/2, (May 1974), pp. 115–41.

Chapter 1 The Ottoman Empire in Late 1. Vivid examples of these encounters varying in perspective were not written but edited by Bernard Lewis, A Middle East Mosaic: Fragments of Life, Letters, and History, (Random House, New York: 2001). 2. Dagmar Glaß, Der Muqtataf und seine Öffentlichkeit, (1. Band, Streitgespräche), (Ergon, Würzburg: 2004), pp. 2–3. 3. Nahda, pl. at, getting up, rising; awakening (esp. national), rise, growth, boom, upswing, advancement, progress; resurgence, revival, rebirth, renaissance; (spiritual) movement; ability, capability, power [Hans Wehr, A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, Arabic-English, New Edition 2000, edited by J. Milton Cowan, (Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden: 1st edition 1961), reprinted by Librairie du Liban, Beirut: 1980, p. 1004]. 4. Norman Hampson, ‘Enlightenment’, in: The Blackwell Dictionary of TwentiethCentury Social Thought, edited by William Outhwaite and Tom Bottomore, (Blackwell Publishers, Oxford: 1993), p. 195. 5. Fatma Müge Göçek, ‘Introduction’, in: Social Constructions of Nationalism in the Middle East, edited by Fatma Müge Göçek, (State University of New York Press, Albany: 2002), p. 1. 6. Also: Stephen Sheehi, Foundations of Modern Arab Identity, (University of Florida, Gainesville: 2004); Elias Khoury, ‘The Unfolding of Modern Fiction and Arab Memory’, The Journal of Midwest Modern Language Association, vol. 23/1, (Spring 1990); Regina Karachouli, ‘Abu¯ Íalıˉ l al-Qabbaˉnıˉ (1883– 1902) – Damaszener Theatergründe und Prinzipal, Die Welt des Islams, New Series, vol. 32/1, (1992). 7. Glaß therefore identifies the Arab press as the most visible output of the nahda and as textual manifestation of modernisation and westernisation (Glaß, 1. Band, p. 5). 8. Karpat, ‘The Ottoman Emigration to America, 1860–1914’, IJMES, vol. 17/2, (May 1985), p. 193. 9. Karpat: p. 177. 10. Catherine Mayeur-Jaouen, ‘The Renaissance of Churches at the End of the Ottoman Era’, in Christianity. A History in the Middle East, edited by Habib Badr, (Middle Eastern Council of Churches, Beirut: 2005), pp. 759–60.

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11. 12.

13.

14. 15. 16. 17.

18.

19.

20. 21.

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See also: Youssef Courbage, ‘Situation Démographique comparée du Bilad El-Cham aux XVIIe et XIXe siècles’, in: Les Relations entre Musulmans et Chrétiens dans le Bilad al-Cham, (Actes du Colloque, Balamand University, Tripoli: 2004); Bernard Heyberger, ‘The Development of Catholicism in the Middle East (16th-19th Century)’, in Christianity. A History in the Middle East, pp. 631–53. Karpat: pp. 177–8. The interdependence of Ottoman workers and Westerners but also the competition among Ottomans themselves during the nineteenth century is described by Sherry Vater in her article ‘Militant Textile Weavers in Damascus: Waged Artisans and the Ottoman Labor Movement 1850–1914’, in Workers and the Working Class in the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic 1839–1950, edited by Donald Quataert, Eric J. Zurcher, (I.B.Tauris, London: 1995). After 1908 the emphasis on the Turkish language became even more pronounced as the ‘diversity of language, in the words of Namık Kemal, was a “barrier” to state centralization and national unity’, Ryan Gingeras, Sorrowful Shores: p. 16. M. S¸ükrü Haniog˘lu, A Brief History of the Late Ottoman Empire, (Princeton University Press, Oxford: 2008), pp. 143–4. Youssef M. Choueiri, A companion to the History of the Middle East, (John Wiley & Sons: 2008), p. 300. Göçek, Introduction: p. 9. [Nombreux étaient ceux qui croyaient encore que l’Empire, face à l’inexorable montée des nationalismes, pouvait être sauvé par l’instauration d’une société nouvelle, placée sous la bannière de l’Union et de l’égalité des peuples], Paul Dumont, ‘La francmaçonnerie ottoman et les “idées françaises” à l’époque des Tanzimat’, Revue du monde musulman et de la Méditerranée, vol. 52–3, (1989), p. 155. Also: Tareq Y. Ismael, Middle East Politics Today, (University Press of Florida, Gainesville: 2001), pp. 22–4; Haniog˘lu, A Brief History of the Late Ottoman Empire, p. 166, 183; Donald Quataert, The Ottoman Empire. 1700– 1922, (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2nd edition: 2000/2005), pp. 188–92; Youssef M. Choueiri, Arab Nationalism: A History, (Blackwell Publishers, Oxford: 2000), pp. 1–55. Ernest Gellner, ‘Nationalism’, in The Blackwell Dictionary of Modern Social Thought, edited by William Outhwaite et al., (Blackwell Publishers, Oxford: 1993), p. 410.. Göçek, Introduction: p. 5. Hatt-i Serif of Gülhane: the ‘Noble Edict of the Rose Chamber’, 3 November, 1839, expressed principles of individual liberty, freedom from oppression, and equality before the law and security of life, property, and honour to all subjects of the empire regardless of their religion or race.

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248 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27.

28. 29. 30. 31.

32. 33. 34. 35. 36.

37. 38.

39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45.

NOTES

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PAGES 32–35

Haniog˘lu: p. 72. Ibid.: p. 73. Ibid. Ibid.: pp. 74–5. Ibid.: p. 75. Ibid.: p. 108. On the Empire’s following defensive political character: Selim Deringil, ‘Legitimacy Structures in the Ottoman State: The Reign of Abdulhamid II (1876–1909)’, IJMES, vol. 23/3, (Aug. 1991), pp. 345–359. Ibid., p. 71. Jacob Landau, Exploring Ottoman and Turkish History, (Hurst & Company, London: 2004), p. 355. Fruma Zachs, The Making of a Syrian Identity, Intellectuals and Merchants in Nineteenth Century Beirut, (Brill, Leiden/Boston: 2005), p. 92. Kemal Karpat, An Inquiry into the Social Foundations of Nationalism in the Ottoman State, (Center of International Studies, Princeton University Press: 1973), p. 87. Michael Provence, The Great Syrian Revolt and The Rise of Arab Nationalism, (University of Texas Press, Austin: 2005), p. 5. Emrence: p. 51. Zachs: p. 94. Haniog˘lu, A Brief History, pp. 109–11. Ibid.: 120. Though the first Ottoman constitutional period lasted only about a year, it was nevertheless the fundament on which the Young Turks continued to build upon when coming to power in 1908. On the genesis of the constitution, individuals involved and obstacles to render it compatible with Muslim law: Robert Devereux, The First Ottoman Constitutional Period. A Study of the Midhat Constitution and Parliament, (Johns Hopkins University Press, Whitefish Mt: 1963). Choueiri, Arab Nationalism: p. 45. Haniog˘lu, A Brief History: pp. 121–3. Further reading on the constitutionalist movement: Serif Mardin, The Genesis of Young Ottoman Thought. A study in the Modernization of Turkish Political Ideas, (Syracuse University Press, New York: Edition 2000, originally published in 1962), p. 70. Landau, History: p. 22. Jacob Landau, The Politics of Pan-Islam, (Clarendon Press, Oxford: 1990), p. 6. Landau, History: pp. 21–2. Landau, Politics: p. 37. Haniog˘lu, A Brief History: p. 125. Erik J. Zürcher, Turkey. A Modern History, (I.B.Tauris, London: 1993, reprint: 2009), p. 77. Haniog˘lu, A Brief History: p. 125.

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46. Ibid. 47. Donald J. Cioeta, ‘Ottoman Censorship in Lebanon and Syria, 1876–1908’, IJMES, vol. 10/2, (May 1979), p. 181. 48. Ibid.: pp. 128–9. 49. Zürcher: pp. 80–1. 50. Landau, History: p. 23. 51. D.A. Rustow, ‘Western Nationalism and the Ottoman Empire’, in: The Mutual Effects of the Islamic and Judeo-Christian Worlds: The East European Pattern, edited by Abraham Ascher, et al., (Brooklyn College Press, Brooklyn: 1979), p. 67. 52. Karpat: p. 110. 53. Fatma Müge Göçek, ‘The Decline of the Ottoman Empire and the Emergence of Greek, Armenian, Turkish, and Arab Nationalisms’, in: Social Constructions of Nationalism in the Middle East, edited by Fatma Müge Göçek, (State University of New York Press, New York: 2002), p. 55, 56. 54. Rustow: p. 71. 55. Landau, History: p. 23. 56. Gingeras, Sorrowful Shores: p. 5. 57. [De prôner la destruction des barriers ethniques et religieuses existant entre les différente composantes de la population ottoman], Dumont: p. 154. 58. Even the term ‘decline’ when linked to the Ottoman Empire should be used with caution: decline describes the dislocation of the traditional order compared with earlier ‘golden’ times and it took place only in comparison to the rise of European states and their progress in all areas. Moreover, it appears at times to have been less a decline than a lack of different processes that were contemporaneously evident in the Western world. In this regard I am thinking of the Enlightenment and the evolution of a prosperous bourgeoisie. For different regions, ‘decline’ does not seem to apply, as Stefan Weber has emphasised in one of his articles on the material culture of Damascus at the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. [Stefan Weber, ‘Reshaping Damascus: social change and patterns of architecture in late Ottoman times’, in: From the Syrian Land to the States of Syria and Lebanon, edited by Thomas Philipp and Christoph Schumann, (Orient Institute, Beirut: 2004), also: The Empire in the City. Urbanism: Imported or exported? Native Aspirations and Foreign Plans, edited by Joe Nasr and Mercedes Volait, (Wiley Academy, West Sussex: 2003)]. Haniog˘lu convincingly comments on the Sublime Porte’s dilemma when forced by Western powers to push through reforms on the one hand, but on the other hand at the same time the process was thwarted by exactly the same powers for fear of the creation of a homo ottomanicus, (A Brief History, p. 206). 59. Jürgen Habermas, The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity, (MIT Press, Cambridge: 1987), pp. 1–2.

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60. Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, (Polity Press, Cambridge: 1990), pp. 55–63. 61. Hroch: p. 75. 62. Itzchak Weismann, Task of Modernity. Sufism, Salafiyya, and Arabism in Late Ottoman Damascus, (Brill, Leiden: 2001), p. 4. 63. Haniog˘lu, A Brief History: p. 205; also: Gad G. Gilbar, ‘The Muslim Big Merchant-Entrepreneur of the Middle East, 1860–1914’, Die Welt des Islams, New Series, vol. 43/1, (2003), pp. 1–36. 64. Haniog˘lu: p. 203. 65. Selçuk Ak¢in Somel, The Modernisation of Public Education in the Ottoman Empire. 1839–1908, (Brill, Leiden: 2001), pp. 2–3. 66. Somel: p. 3. 67. One has to be careful with the term globalisation. As Jon Garvie in the Times Literary Supplement stated: ‘Discussions of globalization share one similarity – an inability to decide what the terms mean’. Globalisation, according to Garvie, was a ‘messy idea for an anxious world.’ As with Cosmopolitanism, advocates of globalisation split the term’s meaning into different sectors, including the economy and culture, in order to give it a less ambiguous meaning. Arising during the European Enlightenment, it marked a period when ‘sociability triumphed over sovereignty’, (http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/ tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article5759419.ece, 18 February 2009). 68. With the conclusion of the Austro-Ottoman War, the Ottoman Empire had to sign this treaty, ceding territory and strengthening thereby the Habsburg Monarchy. 69. Roderic H. Davison, Essays in Ottoman and Turkish History, 1774–1923. The Impact of the West, (University of Texas Press, Austin: 1990), p. 75. 70. Davison: p. 79. 71. Donald Bloxham, The Great Game of Genocide. Imperialism, Nationalism, and the Destruction of the Ottoman Armenians, (Oxford University Press, New York: 2005), p. 31. 72. Fatma Müge Göçek, ‘The Decline of the Ottoman Empire and the Emergence of Greek, Armenian, Turkish and Arab Nationalisms’, in: Social Constructions in the Middle East, edited by Fatma Müge Göçek, (State University of New York Press: 2002), p. 21. 73. For example separatist movements in the Balkans: M. S¸hükrü Haniog˘lu, A Brief History, p 110. 74. Roger Owen, The Midde East in the World Economy: 1800–1914, (Methuen & Co Ltd, London: 1981), pp. 100–2. 75. Erik J. Zürcher, Turkey: p. 84. 76. Owen: pp. 102–8. 77. Zürcher: p. 84.

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Owen: p. 153. Ibid.: p. 159. Zürcher, Turkey: p. 55. Ibid.: p. 163.

Chapter 2 Masonic Principles Challenged 1. Already more than 100 years earlier, opponents of freemasonry raised their voices against lodges established in Smyrna and Constantinople. Being alerted by the Roman Church, Greek, Armenian and Catholic Churches were united against the Masonic thread; consequently, the lodge of Smyrna disappeared. Also the lodge in Constantinople had to be closed when accused of converting Ottomans to Catholic Christianity. 2. Thierry Zarcone, ‘Anti-Masonry among the Ottomans and in contemporary Turkey’, a paper delivered at the Canonbury Conference on Anti-Masonry, (London: 30 October 2010). 3. Landau, History [citing Cevat Rifat Atilhan, Masonluk Nedir (Akin Basimevi, Istanbul: 1937) p. 35]: p. 10. 4. Landau: p. 5. 5. Letter to the American Presbyterians from Asaad Jacob, member of the Greek Church who obviously converted to Protestantism, 1827, in: The Missionary Herald, Reports from Ottoman Syria, 1819–1870, p. 448. 6. Landau, History: p. 7; Zarcone, ‘Anti-Masonry’. 7. Landau, History: p. 19. 8. Ibid.: p. 20. 9. Ibid.: p. 20. 10. However, defining freemasonry as an originally European concept does not entail that no prior para-masonic orders developed in the Middle East. In his thorough studies on the parallels between freemasonry and Sufi brotherhoods, Thierry Zarcone convincingly shows the similarities between the two concepts. Both Sufis and freemasons borrowed ideas and rituals from each other. See: ‘The Transformation of the Sufi Orders in the Turkish Republic and the Question of Crypto-Sufism’, in: Cultural Horizons: a Festschrift in Honor of Talat S. Halman, edited by J. L. Warner, (Syracuse University/Yapi Kredi Yayinlari, New York/Istanbul: 2001); Mystiques, Philosophes et Francs-maçons en Islam: Riza Tevkik, penseur ottoman (1868–1949), du soufisme à la confrérie, (Bibliothèque de l’institut français d’études anatoliennes d’Istanbul, Paris: 1993); ‘Rudolf von Sebottendorf und der Mythos der “Alten Tuerkischen Freimaurerei’’’, Gnostika, vol. 33, (AAGW, Sinzheim: July 2006), pp. 37–54; ‘Seyh Mehmed Ataullah Dede (1842–1910) and The Mevlevihane of Galata:

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11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17.

18. 19.

20.

NOTES

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An Intellectual and Spiritual Bridge between the East and the West’, in: The Dervishes of Sovereignty, The Sovereignty of the Dervishes, The Mevlevi Order in Istanbul, edited by Ekrem Isin, (Pera Museum, Istanbul: 2007), pp. 58–74. R. William Weisberger, Speculative Freemasonry and the Enlightenment, (Columbia University Press, New York: 1993), pp. 2, 158. James Anderson: p. 2. August Wolfstieg, Christenthum, Humanität und Freimaurerei, (Georg Stilke, Berlin: 1900), pp. 5, 6. Wolfstieg: p. 11. James Anderson: p. 2. Beaurepaire: p. 21. [L’Ordre n’admet que des Chretiens; a Hors de l’Eglise Chretienne il ne peut, ni ne doit être recu aucun Franc-Macon. Voila pourquoi les juifs, les Mahometans, et le Paiens, en sont ordinairement exclus comme infideles.], Ibid.: pp. 64–5. Wolfstieg: p. 13. [Die Wissenschaft, soweit sie sich ihr nicht unbedingt beugt, muss als atheistisch gebrandmarkt werden, damit die katholischen Schäflein sich von ihr fern halten und nicht über die innere Hohlheit des römischen Systems aufgeklärt warden.], Otto Henne, Aus Loge und Welt, Freimaurerische und kulturgeschichtliche Aufsätze, (Franz Wunder, Berlin/Leipzig: 1905), p. 65. Jewish Masonic candidates, for example, faced problems in nineteenthcentury Germany. The more they ‘adopted universalist values, the more these could be re-inscribed with particularist notions and turned against them in the claim that the Jews had no culture of their own’ and could never be ‘loyal citizens’. But the more Jews emphasised their religious particularity, for example in explicitly ‘Jewish’ lodges, the more they were accused of lacking any feeling for universal human values, in short of not belonging to the Weltbürgertum, Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann, ‘Brothers or Strangers’, Jews and Freemasons in Nineteenth-Century Germany’, German History, vol. 18/2, (2000), p. 160. In Italy freemasons before the Renaissance and the Risorgimento were strongly influenced by radical anti-clericalism and ‘the desire to reduce the influence of the Catholic Church and to laicize Italian life as quickly as possible’. See: S. William Halperin, ‘Italian Anticlericalism’, 1871–1914’, The Journal of Modern History, vol. 19/1, (March 1947), p. 18. It is a remarkable fact that the fight against the Catholic Church lodges busied most of the masons in theoretical terms and also affected most of their actions, so that questioning the membership of men belonging to other creeds assumed a less important role. ‘[F]reethinkers, Protestants, and Jews met and exchanged ideas in an unorthodox way, and this caused more revolutionaries and radicals to join the Freemasons.’ Although the lodges did not

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22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33.

34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39.

40.

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serve as agitating groups, they functioned ‘as a type of front organisation’., Albert Boime, The Art of the Maccia and the Risorgimento: Representing Culture and Nationalism in Nineteenth-Century Italy, (University of Chicago Press, Chicago/London: 1993), p. 25. Pierre-Yves Beaurepaire, ‘Sociabilité des Lumières et exclusion dans les ports méditerranéens au XVIIIe siècle: l’exemple de la Franc-maconnerie’, Cahiers de la Méditerranée, vol. 69, (2004), p. 5. Ibid.: p. 71. Beaurepaire, Franc-maçonnerie et Cosmopolitanisme au Siècle des Lumières, pp. 61–89. Margaret C. Jacob, The Origins of Freemasonry: Facts and Fictions, (University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia: 2006), p. 48. Ibid.: p. 52. Höfert, ‘Europa und der Nahe Osten’, p. 568. Jacob, Living the Enlightenment: p. 34. Ibid.: p. 50. Ibid.: p. 68. Weisberger: p. 59. Jacob, Living the Enlightenment: p. 71, 46, 158. Emrence: p. 52. Johannes Ebert, Religion und Reform in der arabischen Provinz, Husayn al-Gisr at-Tarabulusi (1845–1909). Ein islamischer Gelehrter zwischen Tradition und Reform, (Heidelberger Orientalische Studien Band 18, Peter Lang GmbH, Frankfurt a. M.: 1991), pp. 167–8. Ibid.: p. 131. Ar-Risala al-Hamidiyya, 1888 (Ebert). Ebert: pp. 141–8. The Confirmation of the Immortality of Matter by means of Darwin’s Theory. Ibid.: p. 131. Ibid.: pp. 135–7. On 2 July 1866, Alfred Russel Wallace, the joint proponent of natural selection, wrote to Charles Darwin to lament how he had been ‘so repeatedly struck by the utter inability of numbers of intelligent persons to see clearly or at all, the self acting & necessary effects of Nat Selection, that I am led to conclude that the term itself & your mode of illustrating it, however clear & beautiful to many of us are yet not the best adapted to impress it on the general naturalist public’, Michael Shermer, ‘A Skeptic’s Take on the Public Misunderstanding of Darwin’, Scientific American, February 2009, online version www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=darwin-misunderstood, (10 October 2009). Dagmar Glaß, Der Muqtataf und seine Öffentlichkeit, (2. Band, Streitgespräche), (Ergon, Würzburg: 2004), p. 428.

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41. When checking the names of the writers in Masonic registers in Glaß’s two volumes, it was possible to discern the high number of masons contributing to the paper. 42. Aziz al-Azmeh, ‘Islamist Revivalism and Western Ideologies’, History Workshop, No. 32/1, (Oxford University Press: Autumn 1991), p. 48; Donald M. Reid, ‘Syrian Christians, the Rags-to-Riches Story, and Free Enterprise’, IJMES, No. 1, (1970), p. 362. 43. Reid: p. 359. 44. Samuel Smiles, Self-Help, (Oxford University Press: 2002), Introduction by Peter W. Sinnema, p. VII; original version published by Smiles himself in 1859. 45. Reid: p. 360. 46. Donald J. Cioeta, ‘Ottoman Censorship in Lebanon and Syria, 1876–1908’, IJMES, vol. 10/2, (May 1979), p. 179. According to Cioeta in most of the cases when journalists left Beirut there were other reasons as well besides the censorship under Abdulhamid. 47. Ibid.: p. 361. 48. Ibid.: pp. 364, 365. 49. Jurji Zaidan, Taʾ rıˉ kh al-maˉ su¯niyya al-˓aˉ mm (General History of Freemasonry), (Cairo: 1889), Preface. 50. For further information on Young Turks and reformers in Egypt, see: Albert Hourani, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1798–1939, (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: 1983). Names can then be compared to the lodge listings kept at the archives of the grand lodges in London, Edinburgh and Paris. Sarruf’s father-in-law, Shahin Makarius, was responsible for a printing press, and also wrote different books on freemasonry, such as The Virtues of Freemasonry, as well as translating the masonic constitutions for a publication entitled The General Masonic Constitution, Rite of Jerusalem. For Makarius, educational and charitable efforts were the main characteristics of the brotherhood, as can be observed in his article on the pedagogical situation in Greater Syria. In this article, he not only mentions schools and similar institutions, but also the state of freemasonry and the number of lodges established in the region, Henry Diab and Lars Wahlin, ‘The Geography of Education in Syria in 1882 with a Translation of “Education in Syria” by Shahin Makarius, 1883’, Geografiska Annaler, 65B, (1983). 51. Ra’if Khuri, Modern Arab Thought: Channels of the French Revolution to the Arab East, (Kingston Press, Inc., Princeton/New Jersey: 1983), p. 38. 52. Glaß: p. 561. 53. Smiles: p. 94. 54. Ibid.: p. 197. 55. Ibid.: p. 17.

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56. Ibid.: p. 18. 57. Ibid.: p. 38. 58. Ussama Makdisi, ‘Ottoman Orientalism’, The American Historical Review, vol. 107/3, (June 2002), pp. 768–96. 59. Ibid.: p. 769. 60. Ibid.: p. 770. 61. Ibid.: p. 781. Allegedly Fuad Pasha himself was a freemason, initiated in an Italian lodge in Constantinople; also: Letter from Le Liban to the GOdF, (21 July 1903), carton no. 1, Archive of the GOdF. 62. Ibid.: p. 787. 63. Ussama Makdisi, ‘After 1860: Debating Religion, Reform, and Nationalism in the Ottoman Empire’, IJMES, vol. 34/4, (2002), pp. 601–17. 64. Ibid.: p. 606. 65. Butrus Abu-Manneh, ‘The Christians between Ottomanism and Syrian Nationalism: The Ideas of Butrus al-Bustani’, IJMES, vol. 11/3, (1980), p. 299. 66. Makdisi, ‘After 1860’: pp. 608–9. 67. Butrus Abu-Manneh: p. 290. 68. Anderson: p. 3. 69. Jacob, Living the Enlightenment: p. 47. 70. Jacob, Origins: p. 55. 71. Philip Nord, ‘Republicanism and Utopian Vision: French Freemasonry in the 1860s and 1870s’, Journal of Modern History, vol. 63, (June 1991), p. 221. 72. Pierre-Yves Beaurepaire, ‘Sociabilité des Lumières et exclusion dans les ports méditerranéens au XVIIIe siècle: l’exemple de la Franc-maconnerie’, Cahiers de la Méditerranée, vol. 69, (2004), p. 2. 73. Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann, ‘Democracy and Associations in the Long Nineteenth Century: Toward a Transnational Perspective’, The Journal of Modern History, vol. 75/2, (June 2003), p. 294. 74. Anderson: p. 5. 75. Pierre-Yves Beaurepaire, ‘Sociabilité des Lumières et exclusion dans les ports méditerranéens au XVIIIe siècle: l’exemple de la Franc-maconnerie’, Cahiers de la Méditerranée, vol. 69, (2004), p. 2. 76. George Simmel, ‘The Sociology of Secrecy and Secret Societies’, The American Journal of Sociology, vol. 11/4, (University of Chicago Press: January 1906), p. 464, 465. 77. Ibid.: p. 477. 78. Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann, ‘Civility, Male Friendship, and Masonic Sociability in Nineteenth-Century Germany’, Gender & History, vol. 13/2, (August 2001), p. 225. 79. Noel P. Gist, ‘Culture Patterning in Secret Society Ceremonials’, Social Forces, vol. 14/4, (May 1936), p. 499.

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80. Ibid.: p. 503. Women were part of the profane world and although some lodges did introduce them, they never were fully accepted. Indeed, mixed lodges until today are not recognised as regular masonic lodges by most grand bodies, hence, their members of both sexes cannot profit from their status as masons when travelling. 81. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Ernst und Falk, Gespräche für Freymäurer, written between 1776 and 1778 (online source: pdf created by pdfbooks.co.za, (13 January 2008). 82. [FALK. Wir nehmen also die beste Staatsverfassung für erfunden an; wir nehmen an, daß alle Menschen in der Welt in dieser besten Staatsverfassung leben: würden deswegen alle Menschen in der Welt, nur einen Staat ausmachen? ERNST. Wohl schwerlich. Ein so ungeheurer Staat würde keiner Verwaltung fähig sein. Er müßte sich also in mehrere kleine Staaten verteilen, die alle nach den nämlichen Gesetzen verwaltet würden. FALK. Das ist: die Menschen würden auch dann noch Deutsche und Franzosen, Holländer und Spanier, Russen und Schweden sein; oder wie sie sonst heißen würden. ERNST. Ganz gewiß! FALK. Nun da haben wir ja schon Eines. Denn nicht wahr, jeder dieser kleinern Staaten hätte sein eignes Interesse? und jedes Glied derselben hätte das Interesse seines Staats.], Lessing: zweites Gespräch. 83. Lessing, Ernst und Falk. 84. Anthony J. La Vopa, ‘Conceiving a Public: Ideas and Society in EighteenthCentury Europe’, Journal of Modern History, vol. 64, (March 1992), p. 79. 85. Johannes Rogalla von Bieberstein, ‘Geheime Gesellschaften als Vorläufer politischer Parteien’, in: Geheime Gesellschaften, Wolfenbütteler Studien zur Aufklärung, Band V/1, edited by Peter Christian Ludz, (Lambert Schneider, Heidelberg: 1979), p. 430. 86. Sami Zubaida, ‘Cosmopolitanism and the Middle East’, in: Cosmopolitanism, Identity and Authenticity in the Middle East, edited by Roel Meijer, (Curzon Press, Surrey: 1999), p. 15. 87. Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann, ‘Nationalism and the Quest for Moral Universalism’, in: The Mechanics of Internationalism – Culture, Society, and Politics from the 1840s to the First World War, edited by Martin H. Geyer and Johannes Paulmann, (Oxford University Press, Oxford: 2001), p. 259. 88. Ibid.: p. 260. 89. Zubaida: p. 19. 90. Stéphane Yerasimos, ‘Cosmopolitanism: Assumed Alienation’, in: Cosmopolitanism, Identity and Authenticity in the Middle East, edited by Roel Meijer, (Curzon Press, Surrey: 1999), p. 38. 91. Rebecka Lettevall, ‘The Idea of Kosmopolis: Two Kinds of Cosmopolitanism’, in: The Idea of Kosmopolis, edited by Rebecka Lettevall, My Klockar Linder, (Södertrörns Högskola, Huddinge: 2008), p. 14.

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92. Pauline Kleingeld, ‘Six Varieties of Cosmopolitanism in Late EighteenthCentury Germany’, Journal of the History of Ideas, vol. 60/3, (July 1999), pp. 505–24. 93. Ibid.: pp. 517–8. 94. Almut Höfert, ‘Europa und der Nahe Osten: Der transkulturelle Vergleich in der Vormoderne und die Meistererzählungen über den Islam’, Historische Zeitschrift, vol. 287/3, (December 2008), p. 567. 95. Andreas Önnerfors, ‘Cosmopolitanism and what is “Secret”: Two Sides of Enlightened Ideas concerning World Citizenship’, in: The Idea of Kosmopolis, edited by Rebecka Lettevall, My Klockar Linder, (Södertörns Högskola, Huddinge: 2008), pp. 65, 66. 96. [Il (le Cosmopolitanisme maçonnique) permet aux frères de s’épanouir et de se découvrir dans deux univers emboîtés, celui qui les a vu naître, et dont ils s’affirment sujets modèles, et celui qu’ils ont choisi, construit, dont ils se veulent des citoyens exemplaires–bien que « sans souveraineté » pour reprendre l’expression de Daniel Gordon], Pierre-Yves Beaurepaire, Franc-maçonnerie et Cosmopolitanisme au Siècle des Lumières: p. 12. 97. Ibid.: p. 13. 98. Önnerfors: p. 69. 99. Beaurepaire: p. 16. 100. Ibid.: p. 24. 101. Ibid.: pp. 30–2. 102. Hoffmann, ‘Nationalism’: p. 261. 103. Ibid.: p. 263. 104. Ibid.: p. 273. 105. Zubaida: p. 18. 106. Hoffmann, ‘Nationalism’: pp. 275, 276. 107. Zubaida: p. 16. 108. [Comme une obédience ‘nationale’ et refuse toute intrusion étrangère–notamment britannique–dans l’espace français, prétend au monopole de la correspondance étrangère [ ] l’émergence du nationalisme devait encoure radicaliser les positions au tournant du siècle.], Beaurepaire: pp. 37, 38. 109. Jessica Harland-Jacobs, ‘“Hands across the sea”: The masonic Network, British Imperialism, and the North Atlantic World’, The Geographical Review, vol. 89/2, (April 1999), p. 239. Though, as will be argued further onwards, British lodges did not succeed everywhere in respect of power consolidation and continuing perpetuation. 110. Jacob, ‘Origins’, p. 66. 111. Harland-Jacobs: p. 251. 112. Ibid.: p. 250. 113. In 1738 Anderson published the second edition of his Charges and made some debatable changes, which will be discussed in the next chapter.

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114. James Anderson, The Old Charges of Free and Accepted Masons, first published in London 1723, www.freimaurerloge-erlangen.de/download/old%20 charges.pdf, (14 October 2006), p. 1. 115. [Lieu de rencontre et de sociabilité, et donc différentes formes d’aide et de protection [. . .]a pour conserver un lien ideal avec la mère patrie et pour cultiver un sentiment d’appartenance à la lointaine communauté nationale.], Fulvio Conti, ‘Entre Orient et Occident, Les loges maçonniques du Grand Orient d’Italie en Méditerranée entre le XIXème et le XXème siècles’, A lecture given in Nice at an international conference entitled La franc-maçonnerie en Méditerranée (XVIIIe-XXe siècles): modèles, circulations, transferts, (October 2005). 116. Ibid. 117. Ibid. 118. August Horneffer, Die Bedeutung deutscher Auslandslogen, (Verein deutscher Freimaurer, Leipzig: 1920), p. 3. 119. Ibid.: p. 7. 120. Hoffmann, ‘Nationalism’: p. 278. 121. [On est loin de la fraternité universelle fondée sur la vertu, les sciences, l’humanité. Une communauté se soude autant négativement, en s’opposant à l’autre, en le rejetant, que positivement par le fait de cultivar des valeurs communes.], Beaurepaire: p. 63. 122. A common feature for the lodge members studied in this thesis was that they displayed a tendency to ‘lodge-hopping’, which in its character proves that lodges in Cairo, Alexandria and Constantinople were less attractive for Syrian masons who rarely joined them. The Registration books for English lodges clearly show that this kind of shifting behaviour happened almost completely within Egypt or between Egypt and lodges in Constantinople. For example, the Bulwer Lodge had two incarnations within the space of four years: in Constantinople in 1861 and in Cairo in 1865. In the late 1860s and early 1870s, many masons moved from the Cairo lodge to the one in Constantinople. Among these masons was Prince Halim Pasha who at one point worked heavily against the Ottoman Regime. (Registration books, 1861, 1865, Bulwer Lodge, Archive of the GLoE); Muhammad ‘Abduh moved from the Star in the East Lodge, where he had been initiated, to La Concordia Lodge; both were located in Cairo. 123. Anonymous, ‘A Letter from Syria’, The Freemason, (London: 15 August 1908), p. 101. 124. Ibid. 125. Al-Azmeh: p. 48 126. Ibid.: p. 50, 51. 127. Ibid.: p. 49. 128. Ebert: p. 117.

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129. Dagmar Glaß, Der Muqtataf und seine Öffentlichkeit, 2nd vol., (Ergon, Würzburg: 2004), p. 631. 130. Ibid.: p. 635. 131. Ibid.: p. 497. 132. Ibid.: p. 453. 133. Ibid.: p. 473. 134. Ibid.: p. 485. 135. On different ideologies, their translations and interpretations in the Ottoman Empire: Ra’if Khuri, Modern Arab Thought: Channels of the French Revolution to the Arab East, (Kingston Press, Inc., Princeton/New Jersey: 1983). 136. Khuri: pp. 29, 30. 137. Yasir Suleiman, The Arabic Language and National Identity, (Georgetown University Press, Washington D.C.: 2003), p. 25. 138. Ibid.: p. 26. 139. According to Fruma Zachs, a translated version of the original Jawab ‘ala Iqtirah al- Ahbab is: Mikha’il Mishaqa, Murder, Mayhem, Pillage, and Plunder – The History of the Lebanon in the 18th and 19th Centuries, translated by W.M. Thackston Jr, (State University of New York Press, Albany: 1988), in: Fruma Zachs, ‘Mikha’il Mishaqa – The First Historian of Modern Syria’, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 28/1, (May 2001). 140. Zachs: p. 77. 141. He also belonged to the small circle of men involved in scientific discussions in the form of letters to Al Muqtataf (Glaß: p. 390). 142. A Compendium on the History of Syrian Territories, (Beirut: 1874). 143. Youssef M. Choueiri, ‘Two Histories of Syria and the Demise of Syrian Patriotism’, Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 23/4, (Oct. 1987), p. 499. 144. Ibid.: p. 500. 145. The History of Syria. 146. Hroch: p. 46. 147. Hroch: p. 107. 148. Hroch: p. 239. 149. Letter from La Chaine d’Union to the GOdF, (22 December 1869), Le Liban, carton no. 1, Archive of the GOdF.

Chapter 3 Masonic Grand Bodies 1. For further information on Italy and Italian freemasonry, see Derek Beales, ‘Garibaldi in England: the Politics of Italian Enthusiasm’, in: Society and Politics in the Age of the Risorgimento, edited by John A. Davis and Paul Ginsborg, (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge/New York: 1991); Marco Novarino, Grande

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2.

3.

4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16.

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PAGES 73–76

Oriente d’Italia, (Erasmo Edizione, Rome: 2006); Paul Naudon, Histoire Generale de la Franç-Maçonnerie, (Office du Livre, S.A., Fribourg/Suisse: 1981); R.J.B. Bosworth, Italy and the Wider World, (Routledge, London/New York: 1996); Lucy Riall, The Italian Risorgimento. State, Society & National Unification, (Routledge, London/New York: 1994); John Dickie, ‘The Notion of Italy’, in: Modern Italian Culture, edited by Zygmunt G. Baran`ski and Rebecca J. West, (Cambridge University Press, New York: 2001); Brian Richardson, ‘Questions of Language’, in: Modern Italian Culture; Anna Cento Bull, ‘Social and Political Cultures from 1860 to the Present’, in: Modern Italian Culture; William Halperin, Italian Anticlericalism, 1871–1914, The Journal of Modern History, vol. 19/1, (March 1947). A short overview of Italian freemasons is given by Anna Maria Isastia, ‘La Franc-Maçonnerie et la construction du citoyen en Italie’, Journal for Research into Freemasonry and Fraternalism, vol. 1/1, (Equinox: 2010), pp. 36–48. Karim Wissa, ‘Freemasonry in Egypt 1798–1921: A Study in Cultural and Political Encounters’, British Society for Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 16/2, (1989); Albert Kudsi-Zadeh, ‘Afghani and Freemasonry in Egypt’, Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 92/1, (January – March 1972); Elie Kedourie, ‘Young Turks, Freemasons and Jews’, Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 7/1, (January 1971). Lisa Kahler, ‘The Grand Lodge of Scotland and the Establishment of the masonic Community’, www.srmason-sj.org/web/heredom-files/volume7/ grand-lodge-of-scotland.htm, (13 March 2007). Interview with Robert Cooper, curator of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, (Winter 2008). Jacob, Enlightenment: p. 179. Ibid.: p. 184. Ibid.: p. 186. Philip Nord, ‘Republicanism and Utopian Vision: French Freemasonry in the 1860s and 1870s’, Journal of Modern History, vol. 63, (June 1991), pp. 213–14. Ibid.: p. 215. Ibid.: pp. 216–17. Ibid.: p. 219. Ibid.: p. 221. Ibid.: pp. 226–28. Albert G. Mackey and H.L. Haywood, Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry, vol. I, (Kessinger Publishing, Whitefish/Mt: 2003), p. 316. Harland-Jacobs, Builders of Empire, p. 38. Daniel Ligou, Dictionnaire de la franc-maçonnerie, (Presses Universitaires de France, Paris : 1987), p. 1223.

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17. Cecil Layiktez, ‘The History of Freemasonry in Turkey’, www.themasonictrowel.com/Articles/History/other_files/the_hystory_of_freemasonry_in_ turkey.htm, (17 November 2010). 18. Paul Dumont, ‘Freemasonry in Turkey: a by-product of Western penetration’, http://turcologie.u-strasbg.fr/dets/images/travaux/freemasonry%20in% 20turkey.pdf, (17 November 2010), pp. 1–2. 19. Ligou, pp. 1223–4. 20. Dumont, p. 3. 21. Ibid. 22. Ibid.: pp. 6–8. For early lodges affiliated with the Grand Lodge of England: Lane’s Masonic Records, 1717–1894, online: www.freemasonry.dept.shef. ac.uk/lane/, (23 November 2010). 23. M. S¸ükrü Haniog˘lu, ‘Notes on the Young Turks and the Freemasons, 1875– 1908’, Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 25/2, (April 1989), pp. 186–7. 24. Dumont: p. 10. 25. Haniog˘lu: p. 193. 26. Ibid.: p. 194. 27. Ibid.: pp. 11–12. 28. The Provincial Grand Lodge became extinct already in 1884 ; also: Eric Anduze, La Franc-Maçonnerie au Moyen-Orient et au Maghreb fin XIXe–début XXe siècle, (L’Harmattan, Paris: 2005), pp. 17–18. 29. Cecil Layiktez, ‘The History of Freemasonry in Turkey’, www.themasonictrowel.com/Articles/History/other_files/the_hystory_of_freemasonry_in_ turkey.htm, (17 November 2010). 30. Albert Kudsi-Zadeh, ‘Afghani and Freemasonry in Egypt’, Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 92/1, (January – March 1972), p. 26. 31. Ibid.: p. 28. 32. Encyclopaedia: p. 316. 33. Kudsi-Zadeh: p. 32. 34. Ibid.: p. 34. 35. Robert Gould, Gould’s History of Freemasonry throughout the World, vol.4, (Charles Scribner’s sons, New York: 1936), p. 233. 36. Dumont: p. 14. 37. Similarly, Jacob Landau was not able to uncover additional connections: Jacob Landau, Middle Eastern Themes: Papers in History and Politics, (Routledge, London: 1973), p. 45. 38. Registration Books of the UGLoE, 1868, La Concordia. 39. Member lists of English lodges in Constantinople, Cairo and Alexandria suggest that they were frequented by a large number of non-Arabs, who probably changed lodges according to their travel route or work location. Lists indicate lodges in Constantinople (Oriental Lodge in 1856, Deutscher

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40.

41. 42. 43.

44.

45. 46. 47. 48.

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PAGES 81–84

Bund Lodge in 1860, Bulwer Lodge in 1861, Areta Lodge in 1864); in Cairo (St. John’s Lodge in 1862, Bulwer Lodge in 1865, Grecia Lodge in 1866, La Concordia Lodge in 1868, Star in the East Lodge in 1871); and in Alexandria (Hyde Clarke Lodge in 1865, Zetland Lodge in 1867, St. John and St. Paul Lodge in the 1870s). Most striking were the two Englishmen Hyde Clarke and Henry Bulwer, who not only joined various lodges but who also had lodges named after them. Eliezer Tauber, ‘Egyptian Secret Societies, 1911’, Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 42/4, (July 2006), pp. 610–618. Correspondence between Le Liban and the GOdF, carton no. 1, Archive of the GOdF. Leon Zeldis, a scholar deeply involved in research into the history of Israeli lodges, is currently working on a publication about the Barkai Lodge, founded in Jaffa in 1906 under the Grand Orient de France. According to Zeldis, the building later served as meeting place for Jewish immigrants at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century. Afterwards it became the headquarters of the central committee of a pioneer Zionist movement of Russian Jews. Zeldis researched the history of freemasonry in Israel in general: Leon Zeldis, Bnei-Or Be-Eretz Hakodesh (Sons of Light in the Holy Land), (E.Narkis Publishing House, Herzlia: 2009). Robert Morris, Freemasonry in the Holy Land, (Masonic Pub. C., New York: 1872), p. 219, 259. Supreme Council USA, The New Age, vol. 29, (1921), p. 479. http://lebanonmasonry.info/, (19 November 2010). Ligou: p. 708. Ligou also mentions a Grand Lodge named Hounayn Kattini though it is not impossible that this is a confusion with a mason’s name; a member of the Grand Lodge of Lebanon called Hounayn Kattini served as a masonic authority for the Memphis Rite in Arab countries; http://grandorientarabe.blogspot.com/2010/03/lu-sur-le-blog-maconnique-de-jiri.html; www.grandorientarabe.org/index.php?p=1_8_Liban-Syrie-Palestine, (03 January 2011).

Chapter 4 Freemasonry in Beirut 1. Emrence, Remapping the Ottoman Middle East, p. 44. 2. [Les consuls possèdent en Orient les privilèges d’exterritorialité dont jouissent chez nous les ambassadeurs.], Karl Baedeker, Palestine et Syrie, (Leipzig: 1912), p. XXIII.

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3. Leila Fawaz, ‘Foreign Presence and Perception of Ottoman Rule in Beirut’, in: The Empire in the City. Arab Provincial Capitals in the Late Ottoman Empire, pp. 71–4. 4. Donald Quataert, The Ottoman Empire. 1700–1922, (Cambridge University Press, 2nd edition: 2000/2005), pp. 78–9. 5. Ralph Bodenstein, ‘Housing the Foreign. A European’s Exotic Home in late Nineteenth-Century Beirut’, in: The Empire in the City. Arab Provincial Capitals in the Late Ottoman Empire, p. 106. 6. Fruma Zachs, ‘Toward a Proto-Nationalist Concept of Syria? Revisiting the American Presbyterian Missionaries in the Nineteenth-Century Levant’, Die Welt des Islams, New Series, vol. 41/2, (Brill: July 2001), pp. 149–150. 7. Jens Hanssen, Fin de Siècle Beirut. The Making of an Ottoman Provincial Capital, (Clarendon Press, Oxford: 2005), p. 56. 8. Bodenstein: pp. 106–9. 9. Hanssen: p. 58. 10. Ibid.: p. 60. 11. Ibid.: p. 86. 12. Leila Fawaz, ‘Foreign Presence and Perception of Ottoman Rule in Beirut’, in: The Empire in the City. Arab Provincial Capitals in the Late Ottoman Empire, p. 93. 13. Hanssen: p. 84. 14. Ibid.: pp. 141–2. 15. Fawaz, ‘The City and the Mountain: Beirut’s Political Radius in the Nineteenth Century as revealed in the Crisis of 1860’, IJMES, vol. 16/4, (November 1984), pp. 493–4. 16. Originally meaning ‘mister’, a title then used for officials and religious scholars. 17. Hanssen: p. 62. 18. Ibid.: p. 86. 19. Fawaz, ‘Foreign Presence’: p. 93. 20. Hanssen: pp. 66–7. 21. Ibid.: p. 85. 22. Fawaz, ‘Foreign Presence’: p. 102. 23. Walter P. Zenner, ‘Middleman Minorities in the Syrian Mosaic: Trade, Conflict and Image Management’, Sociological Perspectives, vol. 30/4, (October 1987); Nejdet Gök, ‘Introduction of the Berat in the Ottoman Diplomatics’, Bulgarian Historical Review, vol. 3, (2001), pp. 141–50. 24. Fawaz, ‘Merchants and Migrants’: pp. 71–4. 25. S¸evket Pamuk and Jeffrey G. Williamson, ‘Ottoman De-Industrialization 1800–1913: Assessing the Shock, Its Impact and the Response’, JEL, No. F1, N7, O2, (February 2009 draft), p. 5, 24.

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264 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39.

40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46.

47.

48.

NOTES

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PAGES 89–95

Ibid.: p. 78. Ibid.: pp. 82–5. Ibid.: p. 95. Ibid.: p. 96. Fawaz, ‘Merchants and Migrants’: p. 124. Hanssen: pp. 71–3. Ibid.: pp. 109–11. Emrence: pp. 52–3. Hanssen: pp. 139–41. Ibid.: pp. 116–27, 141–4. Ibid.: p. 181. Ibid.: p. 163. Ibid.: p. 185. Rev. R. Elliott in his annual letter from Gaza, 29 December 1891, in: Extracts from Annual Letters of the Church Missionary Society (Gilbert & Rivington, London), pp. 411–12. Ibid.: pp. 149–71. Ibid.: p. 150. Ibid.: p. 164. Ibid.: pp. 193–4. Emrence, Remapping: p. 41. David Stevenson, The Origins of Freemasonry. Scotland’s Century 1590–1710, (Cambridge University Press: 1988), pp. 6–7. I found a significant overlap in memberships of the municipal council and masonic lodges by comparing masonic lists with those of Beirut’s municipal members’ lists. Also, see: Jens Hanssen, ‘From Social Status to Intellectual Activity: some prosopographical observations on the municipal council in Beirut, 1868–1908’, in: From the Syrian Land to the States of Syria and Lebanon, edited by Thomas Philipp and Christoph Schumann, (Orient Institute, Beirut: 2004), p. 27. Or, further, taking also into consideration socially and politically active Greek-Orthodox Beirutis who simultaneously were also members of various lodges: May Davie, La Millat Grecque-Orthodoxe de Beyrouth, 1800–1949, (University de Paris-Sorbonne: 1993). For example, Kadisha Lodge was reactivated and re-consecrated in Beirut in August 2010 under the Grand Lodge of Scotland and again, it decided to work in French. Religious affiliations of the lodge’s founders are equally split, (Letters between Kadisha’s secretary and the GLoS, October/November 2010, received from the secretary W. Tatar). David Stevenson, The Origins of Freemasonry. Scotland’s Century 1590–1710, (Cambridge University Press: 1988), pp. 6–7.

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PAGES 96–99

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49. Proceedings, GLoS, 1859–1861. 50. In 1906 the Kadisha Lodge adopted sky blue as its official colour, as did the Taurus Lodge in Alexandretta in 1920. The King Hiram Lodge in Haifa took royal blue as its official colour when it was established in 1926. 51. The Constitution and Laws of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, (Geo. Steward and Co. Ltd., Edinburgh: 1923). 52. Archive of the Grand Lodge of Scotland: Registration books, 1914, El Mizhab; Petition for Carmel. 53. Also, unlike in Istanbul, Alexandria, or Jerusalem, the municipality of Damascus was not controlled directly or indirectly by foreign interests or non-Ottomans. Apparently no foreigner sat on the city’s council between the years 1871 and 1900, Weber: p. 15. 54. Anonymous, ‘Turkey’, Freemasons’ Magazine and Masonic Mirror, (06 January 1866), p. 16. Though the article’s author is unknown, as mentioned before regarding the Provincial Grand Lodge of Turkey it probably was Lord Bulwer who claimed a similarity between Islam and Freemasonry. 55. M. James Quilty, Bridging the dichotomy: Economic Change and Class Consolidation in Ottoman Beirut and Damascus, (National Library of Canada, Microfilm: 1992), p. 78. 56. Sari Nusseibeh, Once upon a country – a Palestinian Life, (Picador, New York: 2007), p. 24. 57. Quilty: pp. 78–9. 58. Ibid.: pp. 94–6. 59. Registration Books of the GLoS in Edinburgh, 1912, Light of Damascus. 60. Eliezer Tauber, ‘Secrecy in Early Arab Nationalist Organisations’, Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 33/1, (January 1997), pp. 120–2. 61. For further information on secret societies, see Albert Hourani, Arabic Thought in The Liberal Age, 1798–1939; George Antonius, ‘The Arab Awakening’, (Hamish Hamilton, London: 1938); Zeine N. Zeine, The Emergence of Arab Nationalism, with a Background Study of Arab-Turkish Relations in the Near East, (Delmar, New York: 3rd edition, 1973); Fritz Steppat, Eine Bewegung unter den Notablen Syriens, 1877–78, (XVII. Deutscher Orientalistentag, Vorträge 2, edited by Wolfgang Voigt, Wiesbaden: 1969). There were some Bustanis, Shidyaqs, al-Yazijis and Arslans among the members, as well as participating in lodges. The same holds true for Faris Nimr and Yacub Sarruf. However, after more comprehensive studies on the lodge compositions, I am convinced that it would be wrong to simplify the character of Syrian freemasonry by categorising it as another secret society. While these societies were all established with the aim of achieving purely political ideals, this was not the case for freemasonry.

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PAGES 99–103

62. All information on masonic memberships derives from the Registration books of the Grand Lodge of Scotland in Edinburgh. 63. Freemasons’ Magazine and Masonic Mirror, (London: 05 August 1865), p. 102. 64. Ussama Makdisi, ‘Ottoman Orientalism’, The American Historical Review, vol. 107/3, (June 2002), pp. 768–96. 65. Fruma Zachs, The Making of a Syrian Identity, Intellectuals and Merchants in Nineteenth Century Beirut, (Brill, Leiden/Boston: 2005), p. 230; Mikha’il Mishaqa, Murder, Mayhem, Pillage and Plunder: the History of Lebanon in the 18th and 19th Century, translated from the Arabic by Wheeler McIntosh Thackston, (Suny Press, New York: 1988), p. 9. Also: Thomas Philipp, ‘Class, Community and Arab Historiography in the Early Nineteenth Century – The Dawn of a New Era’, IJMES, vol. 16/2, (May, 1984), pp. 161–75. 66. See also Chapter 3. 67. Ibid.: p. 232. 68. Ibid.: pp. 238–9. 69. It is not entirely clear if it was Cesar or a relative, Joseph, who joined this society, as both worked for Western representatives and the forename is not mentioned in the list; Edward E. Salisbury, ‘The Syrian Society of Arts and Sciences’, Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 3, (American Oriental Society: 1853), p. 478. 70. Jens Hanssen, ‘From Social Status to Intellectual Activity: Some prosopographical observations on the municipal council in Beirut, (1868–1908)’, p. 65. 71. Salisbury: p. 478. 72. Youssef M. Choueiri, ‘Two Histories of Syria and the Demise of Syrian Patriotism’, Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 23/4, (October 1987), p. 496. 73. Choueiri: p. 502. 74. Zachs: p. 221. 75. Zachs: p. 226. 76. For more on this, see Thomas Philipp, G˘urgi Zaidan, His Life and Thought, (Beirut, Franz Steiner in commission, Wiesbaden: 1979); Shafik Jeha, Darwin and the Crisis 1882 in the Medical Department, (AUB Press, Beirut: 2004). 77. Karl Baedeker, Palästina und Syrien, (Leipzig: 1904), 6th Edition, p. 242, 276. 78. GLoS, Registration books, 1866–1867, Palestine. 79. I received this information thanks to the contact with Otto Christian Schepelern, the Chefkonsulent in Denmark in 2008. He additionally mentioned that Løjtved had been employed as agent dealing with the acquisition of Greek-Roman antiquities in the Roman Empire. (E-Mail, 26 July 2008.)

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80. Freemasons’ Magazine and Masonic Mirror, (London: 05 August 1865), p. 102. [W.M. = worshipful master; S.W. = senior warden; J.W. = junior warden]. 81. Hanssen: p. 65. 82. Emrence, Remapping: p. 43. 83. While Christian societies in Greater Syria took the lead, often attracting Europeans, it also resulted in the foundation of the Muslim Benevolent Society. Most of the early societies especially outside Beirut worked along sectarian lines. The Jerusalem Literary Society, the Syrian Society for the Acquisition of Arts and Sciences, the Oriental Society and the Muslim Benevolent Society all served philanthropic and educational purposes, connecting the intelligentsia with the wealthy. It is no coincidence that their numbers grew at the end of the nineteenth century. At the same time, rumours about secret societies were spreading, which stimulated prejudices against freemasonry. For further reading on members of the municipality and their socio-cultural engagements, as well as on different societies founded at the end of the nineteenth century, see: Jens Hanssen, ‘From Social Status to Intellectual Activity: Some proposographical observations on the municipal council in Beirut, (1868–1908)’; A.L. Tibawi, A Modern History of Syria including Lebanon and Palestine, (MacMillan St. Martin’s Press, London: 1969); Albert Hourani, Arabic Thought in The Liberal Age, 1798–1939; Robert Morris, Freemasonry in the Holy Land or Remarks of Hiram’s Builders, (12th edn, Chicago: 1877); Philipp S. Khoury, Urban Notables and Arab Nationalism, (Cambridge University Press: 1983); Fruma Zachs, The Making of a Syrian Identity, Intellectuals and Merchants in Nineteenth-Century Beirut, (Brill, Leiden: 2005); Shimon Shamir, ‘Midhat Pasha and the Anti-Turkish Agitation in Syria’, in Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 10/2, (May 1974), pp. 115–41. 84. Emrence, Remapping: p. 43. 85. Ibid.: p. 42. 86. Nadir Özbek, ‘Philanthropic Activity, Ottoman Patriotism, and the Hamidian Regime, 1876–1909’, IJMES, vol. 37/1, (February, 2005), p. 63. 87. Joe Achcar, ‘Khalil Sarkis and The Hamidie Society’, http://daughterofthewind.org/khalil-sarkis-and-the-hamidie-society/, (11 February 2009). 88. GLoS Archive, Petition of La Turquie Lodge, Registration books 1908, La Turquie. 89. For other examples of efforts by different Ottoman rulers directed at domestic and foreign policies: Selim Deringil, ‘The Invention of Tradition as a Public Image in the Late Ottoman Empire, 1808–1908’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, vol. 35, no. 1, (January, 1993), pp. 3–29. 90. Joe Achcar, ‘Khalil Sarkis and The Hamidie Society’; GLoS Archive, Registration books, 1905, Sunneen Lodge.

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PAGES 105–109

91. www.ambararabians.com/articles/WhiteCityl.shtml, (01 October 2008). 92. Gen. John C. Smith, Around the World, (Knight, Leonard & Co., Chicago: 1895), p. 27. 93. As explained earlier, the decision of the GOdF to omit an oath to the Supreme Being, which was taken in 1877, was the reason why many Grand Lodges came to regard this grand body and its daughter lodges as irregular. 94. Information on Smith’s masonic career: William R. Denslow and Harry S. Truman, 10,000 Famous Freemasons from K to Z, vol. 3, (Kessinger Publishing, Whitefish/Mt: 1959, Reprint: 2004), p. 155. 95. Smith: p. 27. 96. Marwa Elshakry, ‘The Gospel of Science and American Evangelism in Late Ottoman Beirut’, Past & Present, no. 196, (August 2007), p. 212. 97. Ibid.: p. 32. 98. Ibid.: p. 35. 99. Ibid.:p. 37. 100. Proceedings, GLoS, (1881–1883). 101. M. S¸ükrü Haniog˘lu, ‘Notes on the Young Turks and the Freemasons, 1875–1908’, Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 25/2, (April 1989), p. 188. 102. Ibid. 103. Proceedings, GLoS; 1889–91, Palestine Lodge was supported by Taurus Lodge No. 765 from Mersina (not to be confused with Taurus Lodge, No. 1249, from Alexandretta, which was only built in 1920). I could not find the petition of the older Taurus Lodge. However, between 1886 and 1889 it only initiated nine new members, four of whom worked for the railway, three of whom were merchants, one was a doctor and the last was Vice Consul of Italy, Avidio Rossi. Together with the Palestine Lodge and the Ehden Lodge, it was the only lodge under the Grand Lodge of Scotland that was in existence in 1889. 104. Haniog˘lu: p. 188. 105. Nadir Özbek, ‘Philanthropic Activity, Ottoman Patriotism, and the Hamidian Regime, 1876–1909’, IJMES, vol. 37/1, (February, 2005), p. 63. 106. Özbek: p. 71. 107. During World War One, no lodges could be established in the Greater Syrian region. El Mizhab Lodge only continued working – like most of the other lodges – in 1919. In Egypt some new lodges came into existence, such as St Andre Lodge, No. 1161, in Aboukir. 108. Letter from Le Liban Lodge to the GOdF, (28 April 1876), Le Liban, carton no. 1, Archive of the GOdF. 109. Letter from G.D. Sursock to the GOdF to mark the 45th birthday of the lodge in March 1913, the Centre de Recherche et de Documentation

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NOTES

110 111. 112.

113. 114.

115. 116. 117. 118.

119.

120.

121. 122. 123.

TO

PAGES 109–112

269

Maçonnique, Charles Kesrouani, Ghazir/Lebanon; correspondence between Le Liban Lodge and the GOdF, Le Liban, carton no. 2, Archive of the GOdF. Letter from Monasterski to the GOdF, (22 December 1869), Le Liban, carton no. 1, Archive of the GOdF. Correspondence between Le Liban and the GOdF, (1875–77), Le Liban, carton no. 1, Archive of the GOdF. Thierry Zarcone, ‘Anti-Masonry among the Ottomans and in contemporary Turkey’, a paper delivered at the Canonbury Conference on Anti-Masonry, (London: 30 October 2010). Letter from G.D. Sursock, (1913). Salim Mujais, Antoun Saadeh. A Biography. Volume 1. The Youth Years, (Kutub, Lebanon: 2004), p. 69. When Post died, The New York Times ran an obituary notice, emphasising the tribute paid to his work in form of ‘decoration Othmanieyh of Turkey, of the Ducal House of Saxony, and of the Red Eagle and Knights of Jerusalem of Germany’; NYT, (01 October 1909), http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=FA0E11F73455 12738DDDA80894D8415B898CF1D3, (01 December 2010). Anonymous, ‘Masonry in Egypt’, The Freemason, (London: 27 June 1914), p. 852. Cited by Anonymous, ‘Freemasonry in Syria’, The Freemason, (London: 16 October 1920), p. 198. Shahin Makarius, Kitab al-aˉ daˉ b al-maˉ su¯niyya, (Cairo: 1895); Kitab al-asraˉ r al-khafiyya fil-jam˓iyya al-maˉ su¯niyya, (Cairo: 1900). Letter from Emin Arslan to the Committee dated 02 June 1896; Centre de Recherche et de Documentation Maconnique, Charles Kesrouani, Ghazir/ Lebanon. More information on the Committee: M. S¸ükru Haniog˘lu, ‘Notes on the Young Turks and the Freemasons, 1875–1908’, Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 25/2, (April 1989). Hasan Kayali, Arabs and Young Turks: Ottomanism, Arabism, and Islamism in the Ottoman Empire, 1908–1919, (University of California Press: 1998); (http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft7n39p1dn, 29 November 2010). Henry Diab and Lars Wahlin, ‘The Geography of Education in Syria in 1882 with a translation of “Education in Syria” by Shahin Makarius, 1883’, Geografiska Annaler, vol. 65b, (Sweden: 1983), pp. 118–19. Letter from Le Liban Lodge to the Grand Orient, (13 June 1876), Le Liban, carton no. 1, Archive of the GOdF. Letter from Le Liban Lodge to the Grand Orient, (20 April 1881), Le Liban, carton no. 1, Archive of the GOdF. Appendix IV; as the exchange of ideas is not the subject of this thesis, this claim may be substantiated with the forthcoming thesis written by Stephan

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270

124.

125.

126.

127.

128. 129. 130.

131.

NOTES

TO

PAGES 112–113

Schmid (AUB) who deals extensively with the connection of Beirut’s intellectuals and their masonic backgrounds. The article was written by Salim Khoury, the secretary of Lata’if Lodge, and describes the civil reception afforded to Smith by Egyptian masons in Makarius’s house. The meeting was attended by Idris Bey Ragheb, the Grand Master of the National Grand Egyptian Lodge, and many other masons from different lodges. With a lot of ceremony, Smith was given the jewel of the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Egypt and the title Honorary Grand Master of Egyptian Lodges. Smith then delivered an oration, which Faris Nimr translated simultaneously into Arabic. Sarruf gave a speech about masonic charitable deeds and Idris Bey Ragheb closed the meeting by reiterating expressions of thanks for Smith’s generous behaviour during the World Fair in Chicago. Khoury goes on to describe the meeting of Lata’if Lodge, where Smith and Sir H.H. Kitchener had been present. Again, speeches were given, honouring and thanking everyone. (Smith: pp. 26–8). For more reading see: Intellectual Life in the Arab East, 1890–1939, edited by Marwan Buheiry, (Syracuse University Press: 1982); Eliezer Tauber, ‘The Press and the Journalist as a Vehicle in Spreading National Ideas in Syria in the Late Ottoman Period’, Die Welt des Islams, New Series, Bd. 30, no. 1/4, (1990), pp. 163–77; Ami Ayalon, The Press in the Arab Middle East: A History, (Oxford University Press: 1995). For further analysis regarding potential authors behind anti-Ottoman and anti-Turkish agitation: Shimon Shamir, ‘Midhat Pasha and the AntiTurkish Agitation in Syria’, Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 10/2, (May 1974), pp. 115–141. More information on the Lewis/Darwin Affair and the involvement of SPC students: Nadia Farag, ‘The Lewis Affair and the Fortunes of al-Muqtataf’, Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 8/1 (January 1972). See also: Donald Leavitt, ‘Darwinism in the Arab World and the Lewis Affair at the Syrian Protestant College’, Muslim World, vol. 71, (1981); Shafiq Juha, Darwin wa azmat, 1882, (Beirut: 1991). The AUB – Directory of Alumni 1870–1952, Alumni Association Beirut, (Catholic Press, Beirut: 1953), p. 5, 70. Ibid.: p. 2, 6, 18. Ami Ayalon, Language and Change in the Arab Middle East: the Evolution of Modern Political Discourse, (Oxford University Press, US: 1987); correspondence between Le Liban Lodge and the GOdF, (1869–1880), Le Liban, carton no. 1, Archive of the GOdF, National Library, Paris. The AUB – Directory: p. 2.

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NOTES 132. 133. 134. 135. 136. 137. 138.

139. 140.

141.

142. 143. 144.

145. 146. 147.

148. 149.

TO

PAGES 113–116

271

Ibid: p. 11. Ibid.: p. 13, 4. All information on the Shibli family: The Daily Star, (02 August 1997). The Daily Star. Le Liban, carton no. 2, Archive of the GOdF, Le Liban. [Toutes les femmes d’Istanbul sortirent pour le pleurer], Chronique. [Un grand intellectual et home de letters, qui a publié plusieurs ouvrages litteraires et juridiques], Carla Yardemian, ‘Enquete: Les Trad, famille Beyrouthine’, Masculin Magazine, Lebanon, (July 1998), p. 10. Fruma Zachs; Making of a Syrian Identity, p. 240. [En 1907, Farès Meshreq et Négib Trad critiquent la politique de la France au Liban’; and the general consul of France, Fouqes Duparc, even wrote, that ‘l’influence française, ont-ils déclaré en premier lieu, décroît ici de jour en jour; le mouvement de désaffection de la population à notre égard s’accentue de manière inquiétante et le consulat général de France a lié partie avec le clergé maronite contre le people et les francs-maçons qui, devant cette hostilité, ont dû recourir aux loges écossaises], Dr. Jean Charaf, ‘Les familles présidentielles – La famille Trad’, Masculin Magazine, pp. 106–7. [Quant à Farès Meshreq, de culture fort restreinte, ancient émigré en Amérique, il jouit, dans son district, d’une très petite influence personnelle, et dont le nom n’est connu que grâce à la fondation à Shoueir, village en majorité orthodoxe, du’une loge maçonnique à laquelle il a contribué], Charaf: p. 107. GLoS, Registration books, 1910; Petition of Carmel and Salah-ed-din. Chronique: p. 3. For a qualified overview of the relationship between France and Greater Syria, see: France–Levant, de la Fin du XVIIe Siècle à la Première Guerre Mondiale, Actes du colloque de Lyon, (Geuthner, Paris: 2005). Correspondence between Le Liban Lodge and the GOdF, Le Liban, carton no. 1, Archive of the GOdF, National Library, Paris. [Décadence physique et morale], Letter from Le Liban to the GOdF, (10 May 1878), Le Liban, carton no. 1, Archive of the GOdF. [La communauté musulmane qui a été toujours hostile à nos principes philantrophiques], Letter from Le Liban to the GOdF, (December 1880), Le Liban, carton no. 1, Archive of the GOdF. A Letter from Le Liban to the GOdF, (March 1905), carton no. 1, Le Liban, Archive of the GOdF. This information was supplied by Robert Cooper, Curator of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, (13 August 2008), although the enrolment fee of 6 pounds for each new mason, which was payable to the Grand Lodge, was certainly a large amount for daughter lodges [Dues payable to the Grand Lodge,

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150. 151. 152. 153. 154. 155.

156.

157. 158.

159. 160. 161. 162.

163. 164. 165. 166.

NOTES

TO

PAGES 116–121

in: Constitution and Laws of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, (Miller and Co/ Edinburgh: 1881), p. 78]. One reason, according to Cooper, for the Scottish lodges being so much cheaper, is the fact that the Scottish themselves did not have the same welfare or enjoyed the same degree of prosperity as, for example, the English lodges. Additionally, initiation into a lodge affiliated with the Grand Lodge of Scotland was five times cheaper than becoming a member of a lodge belonging to the French Grand Orient, [comparison between the fees mentioned in the correspondence between the Grand Orient and its daughter lodges with the fees noted in the Constitution and Laws of the Grand Lodge of Scotland]. GLoS, Registration books, 1908, Le Liban. The AUB – Directory. Information on the Abcarius family: courtesy of Ruth Abcarius and Gerda Topakian, Beirut 2007; AUB – Directory: p. 29. AUB – Directory, p. 29. Ibid.: p. 34. UGLoE, Registration books, 1864, Grecia Lodge; www.getty.edu/vow/ ULANFullDisplay?find=beato%2C+antonio&role=&nation=&prev_ page=1&subjectid=500033257, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Beato, (25 March 2009). [Devenus de grand éditeurs de cartes postales, les frères Sarrafian ouvrent un deuxième studio à Jerusalem spécialisé dans la vente de cartes postales coloriées des lieux saints], Institut du Monde Arabe, ‘L’Orient des photographes arméniens’, Exposition, (21 February 01 April 2007), Paris, p. 12. www.libanpostcard.com/postcard_history.html, (27 October 07), p. 6. Sisag Hagop Varjabedian, Armenians from prehistoric times to the present – a digest of the history, religion, language, literature, arts and culture in general, (Imprint, Chicago: 1977). Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Registration books of the GLoS, 1904–08, Peace Lodge; Correspondence between Le Liban and the GOdF, Le Liban, carton no. 2, Archive of the GOdF. Ibid. Comparison of all names collected from Edinburgh and Paris. Jeri Freedman, The Armenian Genocide, (The Rosen Publishing Group, New York: 2008), p. 12. Letters from Le Liban to the GOdF, (1881), carton no. 1, Le Liban, Archive of the GOdF. Italian lodges were among the first that were closed by

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273

the Ottoman government when rumours about an imminent revolution spread, parallel to anti-Turkish posters that were put up in Beirut and Damascus. No supporters of Italian lodges were members of Le Liban and they denied any connection and instead accused the Jesuits of being behind a conspiracy. 167. [Das Italienische, das früher neben dem Arabischen die Hauptsprache war, ist durch das Französische verdrängt worden, da viele katholische Christen ihre Söhne in den trefflichen Anstalten der Lazaristen und Jesuiten erziehen lassen], Karl Baedeker, Palästina und Syrien, (Leipzig: 1904), 6th Edition, p. 244. 168. The first Treaty of Lausanne was signed in Ouchy, south of Lausanne. 169. ‘Peace between Italy and Turkey’, The American Journal of International Law, vol. 7/1, (American Society of International Law: January 1913), p. 156, 158. 170. David G. Herrmann, ‘The Paralysis of Italian Strategy in the ItalianTurkish War, 1911–1912’, The English Historical Review, vol. 104/411, (Oxford University Press: April 1989), pp. 343–5. 171. Proceedings, GLoS, (1896–97). 172 AUB Directory, p. 46. 173. Ibid.: p. 69. 174. Grand Lodge of Scotland, Registration books, 1904–06, Peace Lodge. 175. Mikha’il Mishaqa, Murder, Mayhem, Pillage and Plunder: the History of Lebanon in the 18th and 19th Century, translated from the Arabic by Wheeler McIntosh Thackston, (Suny Press, New York: 1988), p. 1; carton no. 1, Archive of the GOdF, National Library in Paris, Egyptian lodges. 176. [L’idée de créer en Syrie d’autres loges sous d’autres obédiences l’union et un vrai gouvernement libéral], Sursock’s Letter, 1913. 177. Grand Lodge of Scotland, Constitution and Laws, (copy of 1923), law 157, p. 63. 178. Proceedings, GLoS, (1906–07); Letter from Le Liban to GOdF, (04 March 1892), Le Liban, carton no. 1, Archive of the GOdF. 179. Proceedings, GLoS, (1908–09). 180. Attendance book El Mizhab Lodge, (1914). 181. Registration Book, Grand Lodge of Scotland, 1906, Peace Lodge. 182. John George Gibson, ‘The Policy of Colonial Freemasonry’, The Freemason. A weekly Record of Progress in Freemasonry, (John Denyer Hand/London: 25 July 1908), p. 56. 183. Letters from Le Liban to the GOdF (12 March 1867), Le Liban, carton no.1; (30 August 1867), carton no. 2, Archive of the GOdF. 184. GLoS, Registration Book, 1904–05, Sunneen.

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PAGES 126–135

185. [À Grâce la France, s’est trouvée illumine par ce Soleil de Vérité], Letter from Sunneen to Le Liban, (02 January 1906), Le Liban, carton no. 2, Archive of the GOdF. 186. Archive of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, Petitions, (09 June 1910). 187. Letter from Sunneen to Le Liban, (02 January 1906), Le Liban, carton no. 2, Archive of the GOdF. 188. All information on Ahmed Ashi and his photograph are used by kind courtesy of his granddaughter, Nassiba Saati, El Mina, (23 July 2008). Saati is also in possession of all the letters sent to Ashi and photographed by the author. 189. Letter dates from 17 February 1923. 190. Letter dates from 1929. 191. Attendance book El Mizhab Lodge, (1919). 192. [l’amour patriotique], Letter from Le Liban to the GOdF, (10 May 1878), Le Liban, carton no. 1, Archive of the GOdF. 193. www.nechurchbeirut.org/cms/?q=node/21, (07 September 08). 194. Courtesy of Pastor Dr Habib Badr. 195. The names of converts on the list that were also connected to masonry include almost the entire male side of the Abcarius family, the Abbouds, the Trabulsis, the Aramans and most of the Bustani family. The list also includes Ibrahim Hourani, Paulus or Boulus Khouly, Ibrahim Kafrouni, Iskandar Ma’aluf, Khalil Mattar, Faris Nimr and Samuel George Sarrafian, the father of Jurji Yanni, Antonius Yanni. 196. Selim Deringil, ‘On Conversion and Apostasy in the Late Ottoman Empire’, in: Collection of papers submitted to the Workshop of New Approaches to the study of Ottoman and Arab Societies (18th to 20th centuries), vol. III, (Boagazici University, Istanbul: May 1999), pp. 15–16. One should not omit the missionaries with their own thoughts as they were not unaware of the ‘real’ reasons behind conversions. 197. In Egypt (Cairo and Alexandria): Ramleh Lodge, St. John’s Lodge, Star in the East, La Concordia, Grecia Lodge, Bulwer Lodge, Zetland Lodge, St John and St Paul Lodge, Hyde Clarke Lodge; in Constantinople: Deutscher Bund, Areta, Oriental Lodge (Archive of the United Grand Lodge, London). 198. Noted in the Registration books at the Archive of the UGLoE. 199. Elie Kedourie, ‘Young Turks, Freemasons and Jews’, Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 7/1, (January 1971). 200. I.E. Ul-Khouri, ‘Freemasonry in Turkey’, The Freemason, (London: 17 December 1910), p. 398. 201. Lowther Papers, F.O. 800/193a, Sir G. Lowther to Sir C. Hardinge, Constantinople, (29 May 1910), Appendix of Kedourie’s article.

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202. Ibid. 203. The Supreme Council, composed of 33 honorary Masonic members, is a masonic body of the Antient and Accepted Scottish Rite. It serves as an advisory board for all its daughter lodges. 204. Joseph Sakakini Bey, ‘Freemasonry in Turkey’, The Freemason. A Weekly Record of Progress in Freemasonry, (John Denyer Hand, London: 22 October 1910), p. 264. 205. After a period of shifting borders and the establishment of new national states, freemasonry has also evolved and developed as an institutional structure, which closely parallels the contemporary world map of nation-states; also: Timothy Baycroft, ‘Nationalism, National Identity and Freemasonry’, Journal for Research into Freemasonry and Fraternalism, vol. 1, (Equinox: 2010), p. 19. 206. Archive of the GOdF, carton no. 1. 207. Sursock’s Letter, (1913). The names are almost illegible. 208 Interestingly, except for Shweir, Marjayoun and Muhgara, all the locations had either national or international telegraphs. 209. GLoS, Petitions, Peace Lodge, (1900). 210. Ibid. 211. GLoS, Petition, Peace Lodge, (1900). 212. Proceedings, GLoS, (1882–83). 213. More information on the fate of Christian Armenians and Greeks, Muslim Albanians and North Caucasians: Ryan Gingeras, Sorrowful Shores. However, Gingeras makes a point when emphasising that ‘mass disenfranchisement and liquidation of home populations is a phenomenon that can be found the world over. State terror of this sort is a modern phenomenon, and is part and parcel of the logic of modern state building’, [p. viii]. This is not to relativise violence during the last Ottoman period, rather, Gingeras wants to contextualise organised violence – also paramilitary – in order to get a better understanding of the Young Turks’ mind-sets.

Chapter 5

Freemasonry on Mount Lebanon

1. Kais Firro, ‘Silk and Agrarian Changes in Lebanon, 1860–1914’, IJMES, vol. 22/2, (Cambridge University Press: May 1990), pp. 151–3. 2. Gingeras, Sorrowful Shores: p. 6. 3. Emrence, Remapping: p. 46. 4. Engin Deniz Akarli, The Long Peace. Ottoman Lebanon, 1861–1920, (Center for Lebanese Studies and I.B.Tauris, London: 1993), p. 7.

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5. Ibid.: p. 7. 6. Thomas Philipp, ‘Class, Community, and Arab Historiography in the Early Nineteenth Century – the Dawn of a New Era’, IJMES, vol. 16/2, (May 1984), pp. 164–5. 7. Akarli: p. 12. 8. Philipp K. Hitti, Lebanon in History, (St Martin’s Press, London/New York: 1957), p. 442. 9. Ibid. 10. Firro: p. 157. 11. Akarli: p. 27. 12. Akarli: pp. 27–31. 13. Leila Fawaz, ‘The City and the Mountain: Beirut’s Political Radius in the Nineteenth Century as revealed in the Crisis of 1860’, IJMES, vol. 16/4, (Cambridge University Press: Nov. 1984), p. 489. 14. Emrence: p. 50. 15. Fawaz: p. 489. 16. Ibid.: p. 490. 17. Firro: p. 160, 166. 18. Fawaz: p. 491. 19. Hitti: p. 443. 20. Fawaz: p. 491. 21. Salim Mujais, Antoun Saadeh. A Biography. Volume 1. The Youth Years, (Kutub, Lebanon: 2004), pp. 18–19. 22. Quoted in Mujais: p. 20. 23. Archive of the GLoS, Registration books, 1910, Sunneen. 24. Mujais: pp. 35–6 25. Archive of the GLoS, Registration Books, 1904, Sunneen. 26. Shakir Baddour of Palestine Lodge, later Peace Lodge; Michel Bitar of Peace Lodge; Nahman Kaykati of Le Liban Lodge; Georg Hammam of Le Liban Lodge; Elias Samaha of Palestine Lodge; G. Judei of Le Liban Lodge; Ibrahim Shakra of Peace Lodge and Georg Dimitri Mounasser of Peace Lodge. Source: Petition at GLoS, Sunneen. 27. Mujais: p. 41. 28. Registration Books, Sunneen Lodge, 1908. Bashir was allotted to Kadisha Lodge. I was not able to find his name among those initiated into Kadisha Lodge until 1908. 29. A leaflet at family member Samira Bashir’s office in Balamand University, Tripoli, (15 July 2008). 30. Registration books of the Grand Lodge of Italy; [the relations between French or Scottish lodges and Helbon Lodge though were not the best and

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31.

32.

33. 34.

35. 36.

37. 38. 39.

40. 41. 42. 43.

TO

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a representative of La Syrie Lodge speaks about some unnamed actions of Helbon which apparently had degraded the name of freemasonry, (Letter from La Syrie to the GOdF, La Syrie, carton no. 1, Archive of the GOdF)]. [Notre existence au Liban va en dépendre. Il nous importe donc de prouver aux sectaires du fanatisme et de l’égotisme que la Franc-Maconnerie triomphera, parce qu’elle a pour elle le droit et l’humanité, et qu’elle est forte de cette solidarité admirable qui lui a assuré le triomphe en France et en Europe en général], Letter from Sunneen to Le Liban, (02 January 1906), Le Liban, carton no. 2, Archive of the GOdF. [Faris Mishriq eminent franc-maçon menace du retrait des members grecs orthodoxes des lodges d’obédience française et leur engagement dans des loges écossaises si la France décidait de poursuivre son appui à la communauté maronite], Souad Abouelrousse Slim, ‘Le rôle de la Franc-Maçonnerie dans le développement des nouvelles idées au Levant’, in: France–Levant. De la fin du XVIIè siècle a la première guerre mondiale, edited by Bernard Delpal, Bernard Hours, Claude Prudhomme, (Collectif/Geuthner, Paris: 2005), p. 220. As explained in the introduction, lodge-hopping is my own term which seems to be the most suitable term to grasp the inner dynamics of lodges. Letter from Le Liban to the GOdF, (March 1905), Le Liban, carton no. 2, Archive of the GOdF; Registration books of the GLoS, Sunneen, 1905, Kadisha, 1906. Registration books of the GLoS, 1908, Sunneen. Only in a later letter Le Liban informs the GOdF that it was M. Armez, Vice-Consul in Tripoli, mason and secretary of M. Combe, (27 May 1906), Le Liban, carton no. 2, Archive of the GOdF. Le Liban, (02 January 1906), carton no. 2, Archive of the GOdF. [qui est plus important que celui de Batrun], Le Liban, (27 May 1906), carton no. 2, Archive of the GOdF. [Quant aux attaques contre le dit F., elles ont cessé d’une part mais continuent ave persistance et ignominies de la part du clergé maronite, maintenant sans conséquences, car nous sommes assez forts, par nos principes, pour le confondre et les quelques imprimés que nous avons publiés en langue du pays nous a attirés les sympathies de beaucoup de monde, même partisans de la prêtraille en déconfiture], Le Liban, (27 May 1906), carton no. 2, Archive of the GOdF. Engin Deniz Akarli, The Long Peace: Ottoman Lebanon, 1861–1920, (University of California Press: 1993), pp. 64–71. Ibid.: p. 68. Ibid.: p. 55. Akarli: p. 64.

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PAGES 151–156

44. Eric J. Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism since 1780, (Cambridge University Press: 1990, 17th edition 2010), p. 85, 88. 45. Archive of the GLoS, Registration book, 1904–08, Sunneen. 46. Kais Firro: p. 158, 160. 47. Firro: p. 163. 48. Akarli: p. 17. 49. Ibid.: p. 70. 50. Ibid.: p. 68, Archive of the GLoS, Registration books, 1904–08, Sunneen. 51. Mujais: p. 42. 52. Akarli: p. 68. 53. Ibid.: pp. 70–1. 54. Ibid.: p. 78. 55. Mujais: p. 25. Here he also mentions the first marriage between a Mujais and a Sawaya that took place in 1929. 56. Landowners like Mikhail Dagher, Moussa Bakhus Ghanem and Hannah Ibrahim Milki together with the former mentioned ‘liberals’, some literati from Shweir, as well as those from villages close by, this alludes to a peculiar position of a lodge, supposed to shun any political or religious matters, Archive of the GLoS, Registration books, 1904–08, Sunneen. 57. Proceedings, GLoS, (1904–05). 58. Proceedings, GLoS, (1908–09). 59. Ibid. 60. Proceedings, GLoS, (1909–10). 61. Ibid. 62. Correspondence between Le Liban, and the GOdF; carton no. 2, Archive of the GOdF. 63. Archive of the GLoS, Registration books, 1906–08, Peace. 64. AUB – Directory, p. 13. 65. GOdF, Le Liban, carton no. 2. 66. Proceedings, GLoS, (1911–12). 67. Mujais, p. 40. 68. Proceedings, GLoS, (1922–25). 69. Proceedings, GLoS, (1925–26). 70. Proceedings, GLoS, (1927–28). 71. John George Gibson, ‘The Policy of Colonial Freemasonry’, The Freemason, (London: 25 July 1908), p. 56. 72. GLoS, Registration book, 1909, Zahle. 73. Axel Havemann, ‘Die Entwicklung regionaler Handelszentren und die Entstehung eines Händlertums im Libanongebirge des 19. Jahrhunderts’, Die Welt des Islams, New Series, XXII, no. 1/4, (1982), p. 53.

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74. Caesar E. Farah, The Politics of Interventionism in Ottoman Lebanon, 1830–1861, (Center for Lebanese Studies in association with I.B.Tauris, London: 2000), p. 710. 75. Kamal S. Salibi, ‘The 1860 Upheaval in Damascus as seen by al-Sayyid Muhammad Abu’l-Su‘ud al-Hasibi, Notable and Later Naqib al-Ashraf of the City’, in: Beginnings of Modernisation in the Middle East, edited by William R. Polk and Richard L. Chambers, (University of Chicago Press: 1968), p. 191. 76. Map of Syria by Henry H. Jessup made for the American Presbyterian Mission by (1873), C.M.S. Archives, C.M.S. Gr. 3, Vol. 6, CM/012/29D, The University of Birmingham, Birmingham. 77. GLoS, Registration books, 1908, Zahle. 78. [L‘église grecque catholique, qui recruts ses membres parmi les chrétiens les plus riches et les plus considérés, est sous la juridiction d’un patriarche résidant à Damas et portant le titre de patriarche d’Antioche], in Baedeker, (1912), p. LX, Havemann: p. 54. 79. For more information on freemasonry in Brazil: Internationales Freimaurer Lexikon, edited by Eugen Lennhoff, Oskar Posner and Dieter Binder, (Amalthea, Wien: 5th edition, 2006), pp. 150–1; Daniel Ligou, Dictionnaire de la franc-maçonnerie, (Presses Universitaires de France, Paris: 1987), p. 164. 80. AUB Directory, p. 25. 81. Registration books, 1906, Kadisha; 1908, Zahle. 82. Jeffrey Lesser: ‘(Re)creating Ethnicity: Middle Eastern Immigration to Brazil’, in: The Americas, vol. 53/1, (Academy of American Franciscan History: July 1996), p. 48. 83. Lesser: p. 54. 84. Petition of Zahle to the GLoS, (sent 08 October 1908). Next to his signature on the petition where a Provincial Grand Master was supposed to sign, no further proof regarding Mishriq’s position had been found to confirm his title. 85. Ilham Makdisi, Theater and Radical Politics in Beirut, Cairo, and Alexandria: 1860–1914, (Center of Contemporary Arab Studies, Georgetown University: 2006), p. 24. 86. I. E. Ul Khouri, ‘Freemasonry in Turkey’, The Freemason. A weekly Record of Progress in Freemasonry, (John Denyer Hand, London: 17 December 1910), p. 398. Unfortunately, up until 1910 there are more than ten Khoury’s listed as being members of Sunneen Lodge and at least two Khoury’s are listed as being initiated into Zahle Lodge. Hence, I was not able to identify the author of this report. Moreover, he possibly joined freemasonry in Boston and was not necessarily a member of a lodge in Ottoman Syria. Consequently, his name would not appear among the French and Scottish registration lists.

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PAGES 160–164

87. Ibid.: p. 396. 88. Ibid.: p. 396; no information has been found to confirm the statement about the lodge’s existence 30 years earlier. 89. Registration books, 1910, Zahle. 90. Mujais: p. 59. 91. www.shweir.com/did_you_know.htm, (24 August 2008). 92. Registration books, 1906, Sunneen; 1910, Zahle. 93. Makdisi: p. 23. 94. Makdisi: p. 26. 95. Letter from Sunneen to Le Liban, (02 January 1906), carton no. 2, Le Liban, Archive of the GOdF. 96. [Nous remarquons pourtant que ce moyen d’accomplir nos devoir envers nos citoyens et de nous défendre contre l’agresseur, laisse à désirer sous plusieurs rapports et n’étant pas à la portée de donner plus d’impulsion aux lumières, seul moyen efficace pour dévoiler nos ennemis; nous avons cru bien de traduire ‘Le Juif Errant’], Le Liban to the GOdF, (20.04.1881), Archive of the GOdF, carton no. 1. 97. Makdisi: p. 27. 98. Makdisi: p. 7. 99. Ibid.: pp. 9–29. For masonic affiliations, see appendices III–V. 100. [ À l’émancipation des esprits des Syriens de cet état d’atrophie morale ou¯ les avait jetés un passé séculaire de fanatisme et d’erreur [. . .] la loi primordiale de cette honourable association était la tolerance en matière de religion], Letter from Sunneen to Le Liban, (02 January 1906), Le Liban, carton no. 2, Archive of the GOdF. 101. See also Appendices III and IV. These overlaps were not restricted to Greater Syria but also existed in Egypt and Constantinople. They become even more striking with regard to artists or creative jobs in general. Antonio Beato, the brother of Felix Beato, both photographers in Constantinople, had joined Bulwer Lodge in Cairo in 1865 and served as Petitioner for Grecia Lodge in 1864. (Registration books, 1865, Petitions, 1864, UGLoE.)

Chapter 6 Freemasonry in Tripoli and El Mina 1. Doubts already surfaced some fifty years ago regarding this theory, as it seems unlikely that a Phoenician city built around 900 bc would have been known by a Greek name. An alternative explanatory theory was advanced by Kurt Galling, [Kurt Galling, ‘Zur Deutungs des Ortsnamens ‫ = לפרט‬Tripolis in Syrien’, in: Vetus Testamentum, vol. 4, Fasc. 4, (Brill: October 1954), pp. 418–22]. 2. Interview with Abdulsalam Tadmori, Tripoli, (13 July 2008). 3. John Gulick, Tripoli, A Modern Arab City, (Harvard University Press, Cambridge/Massachusetts: 1967), p. 10.

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4. Gulick: p. 18. 5. Diab and Wahlin: p. 121. Shahin Makarius, however, as mentioned in Chapter IV, remains an ambiguous individual with his own agenda. Charles Kesrouani, a specialist and the founder of the Centre de Recherche et de Documentation Maçonnique, CRDM, Ghazir/Beirut, suspects that Makarius used his masonic membership to move from one lodge to another in order to gain more knowledge about lodges working under different systems. As he was once also grandmaster he profited from insider views and the connections that this post brought with it. In general, his thoughts, especially regarding religion, are almost contradictory to those expressed by the GOdF, which was probably the reason for his re-alignment to the GLoS; Interview with Kesrouani, (19 July 2008). Hence, it may well be that he partly was biased towards people affiliated to differing grand bodies. 6. Haniog˘lu, A Brief History, pp. 73–4. 7. Johannes Ebert, Religion und Reform in der arabischen Provinz – Husayn al-Gisr at-Tarabulusi (1845–1909) – Ein islamischer Gelehrter zwischen Tradition und Reform, (Peter Lang, Frankfurt: 1991), pp. 23–5. 8. Ibid.: p. 25. 9. Butrus Abu-Manneh, ‘The Genesis of Midhat Pasha’s Governorship in Syria, 1878–1880’, in: The Syrian Land, Processes of Integration an Fragmentation, Bilaˉd Al-Shaˉm from the 18th to the 20th Century, vol. 6, Berliner Islamstudien, (Beirut, in commission Franz Steiner, Wiesbaden: 1998), p. 262. 10. The newspaper was first published in 1893 and ran until 1920. No numbers of its circulation are known and the literacy rate among Muslim men in 1912 was only at about 25 per cent, but the only newspaper published in Tripoli certainly had some influence on the intellectual stratum (Ebert). 11. Ebert: pp. 114–115. 12. Ibid.: p. 128, 150. 13. Baedeker, 1912: p. 332. 14. Gulick: p. 27. 15. Diab and Wahlin: p. 121. 16. Ibid.: p. 121. 17. Gulick: p. 23. 18. Ibid.: p. 121. 19. Diab and Wahlin: p. 121. 20. Ebert: pp. 67–8. 21. Ibid.: p. 71. 22. Gulick: pp. 25–6. 23. Henry Harris Jessup, Fifty-Three Years in Syria, (Fleming H. Revell Company, New York: 1910), pp. 128–9.

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282 24. 25. 26. 27. 28.

29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36.

37.

38.

39. 40. 41. 42.

43.

NOTES

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PAGES 170–173

Ebert: p. 41. Ibid.: p. 44. Ibid.: pp. 58–9. Baedeker, (1910): p. 19. [Tripoli ist als ungesund in Verruf; indes zeigen sich Fieber erst gegen den Herbst und sind selten gefährlich], in: Karl Baedeker, Palästina und Syrien, (Leipzig: 1904), 6th Edition, p. 293. Gulick: p. 27. Ibid.: p. 293. Baedeker, Palästina und Syrien, (Leipzig: 1910), pp. 309–10. Ebert: p. 40. Archive of the Greek-Orthodox in Beirut, St George’s school; Gulick: p. 66. Ebert: p. 47. Ibid.: p. 57. Ahmed Mumtaz Kabbara, al-Mıˉ naˉ ʾ –Taʾ rıˉ kh wa-turaˉ th (El Mina: History and Culture), (Dar El- Chamal Press, Beirut: 2006). Kabbara had been head of Tripoli in the 1960s. [La bonne entente est visible dans les relations entre le qadi et les chefs religieux chrétiens, qui se traduisaient par des rencontres et des contacts directs ou indirects], Baria Daher Kheir, ‘Constances et Diversités dans les relations entre Musulmans et Chrétiens Ottomans de Tripoli entre le XVIIIe et le XIXe siècle’, in: Les Relations entre Musulmans et Chrétiens dans le Bilad al-Cham, (Actes du Colloque, Balamand University, Tripoli: 2004), p. 60. Christians and Jews were defined as ‘The People of the Book’ – dhimmi. They ‘received God’s revelation before Muhammad and therefore obtained only an incomplete message. Thus, dhimmi have religion, civilization, and God’s words. But since they received only part of the message, they are inherently different from and inferior to Muslims’, Quataert, The Ottoman Empire, p. 177. After different new reform laws, the Ottoman Law of Nationality of 1869 showed the overall idea behind the changes: Dhimmi was replaced by ‘non-Muslim Ottoman’ – and though this step was contested until the end of the Ottoman era, it did show ‘a general inclination toward a more secular conception of the state’, Haniog˘lu, A Brief History, p. 74. Henry Harris Jessup, Fifty-Three Years in Syria, p. 112. Ebert: p. 70. Ibid.: p. 93. Ebert, p. 38. The corruption of the police in Tripoli cannot be proven, but Rida’s statement casts the thank-you letters received by Ahmed Ashi from his masonic brothers (Chapter IV) in a dubious light. In: Karl Baedeker, Palästina und Syrien, (Leipzig: 1904), 6th Edition, p. 293.

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PAGES 173–178

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44. Ebert: p. 48. This statement seems to be exaggerated as the author found at least one more Muslim belonging to the Abdulwahab family who attended an American school. 45. Unlike in Ottoman times, El Mizhab is now recognised by the government and holds legal status as a non-governmental organisation. 46. See also Appendix I for further foundation dates. 47. This piece of information and the photographs are mainly courtesy of the members of El Mizhab Lodge, particularly the current assistant secretary and librarian, a past lodge master and the present worshipful master. The information also derives from the archive of the Grand Lodge of Scotland where the petitions of Kadisha and El Mizhab lodges are preserved. 48. I cannot give any evidence regarding the fate of Mina al-Amin Lodge. But my conclusion drawn from the analysis of the attendance notes of El Mizhab Lodge is that although men were originally initiated in Mina al-Amin Lodge, they actually went on to join either El Mizhab Lodge or Kadisha Lodge. 49. While the fez originally came from Fez in Morocco, it was Sultan Mahmud II who introduced a law specifying the fez as headgear to be worn by the varying ranks of civil and religious officials. Replacing the traditional turban, the fez helped to eliminate clothing distinctions, which made all officials equal before the Sultan but also equal among themselves. The fez soon became popular among all Ottomans regardless of their religious affiliations or positions and continued to be a symbol for loyalty to the Ottoman government. Mahmud II with this homogenizing status maker had managed to place ‘the state at the center of Ottoman life as the sole remaining arbiter of identity’, Donald Quataert, ‘Clothing Laws, State and Society in the Ottoman Empire, 1720–1829’, IJMES, vol. 29/3, (August 1997), p. 403. 50. Archive of GLoS, Kadisha’s Petition. 51. It was only in the summer of 2009 that I found out more about the Zehiel family. This was thanks to Robert Alexandre Zehil, who was born in 1945 and lives in Monaco. The family originally came from Zouk Mikhail, a small village close to Jounieh. However, over the years some members moved from Beirut to Tripoli, or left the country entirely for Turkey or further afield. The fact that family members had joined different lodges was no secret to Robert Alexandre Zehil, but unfortunately he did not know any further biographical details. He confirmed that the family name continues to exist in various forms of spelling. 52. Registration books at the GLoS, 1913, Kadisha. 53. Registration books at the GLoS, 1913, Kadisha. 54. Petitions at the GLoS.

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PAGES 179–184

55. Ibid. 56. Information on El Mizhab Lodge comes by courtesy of a past worshipful master of the lodge and the present assistant secretary and lodge librarian; Interview, (16 July 08). El Mizhab Lodge only saved its records from the 1950s onwards, whereas the membership records of Kadisha Lodge date back to the 1930s. 57. At that time El Mizhab Lodge was still known as Fam el-Mizhab – named after a mountain in Lebanon. 58. Library in El Mina, Letter from Mina al-Amin Lodge to Ahmed Effendi al-Ashi, (1928). 59. Proceedings, GLoS, (1921–22). 60. In most of the cases when the Grand Lodge had to reprimand Syrian lodges it was done because of violations of Law 157 of the Constitutions of the Grand Lodge of Scotland. This law states that it is prohibited to recognise unauthorised bodies, such as irregular lodges. Some years later, in 1929, El Mizhab Lodge was reprimanded for the same reason and the Grand Lodge seriously considered taking away the lodge’s charter. 61. Meir Zamir, The Formation of Modern Lebanon, (Taylor & Francis: 1985), p. 151. 62. Proceedings, GLoS, (1926–27). 63. The Constitution and Laws of the Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of Scotland, published by authority of Grand Lodge, by Grand Secretary, (Edinburgh: 1923), p. 61, 72–8. 64. Proceedings, GLoS, (1930–31). 65. Letter found in the folder of the Mount Lebanon petition from 1923 at the archive of the GLoS. 66. A petition attached to the letter. Fakhouri was the son of Shukri Fakhouri, who was also responsible for having sent the translated rituals to the Grand Lodge, Proceedings, (1931–32). 67. Found in the file of petitions relating to Kadisha Lodge in the Archive of the GLoS. The author of this letter contributes to the discussion about the lodge’s location in Ottoman years as he states that back then Kadisha had been working in Tripoli. 68. Also found in the folder from Mount Lebanon Lodge; (forwarded letter dated 13 February 1967). 69. Petition of the Lodge, 1910, GLoS. 70. Petition of El Hakikat Lodge, 1911, GLoS. 71. Eliezer Tauber, ‘The Press and the Journalist as a Vehicle in Spreading National Ideas in Syria in the Late Ottoman Period’, Die Welt des Islams, New Series, Bd.30, no. 1/4, (Brill: 1990), p. 165, 167.

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PAGES 184–193

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72. Hussein Hamade, Al masuniyyeh wa al masuniyyin fi’l watan al arabiyyeh, (Dar Qatiba, Damascus: probably 1985); courtesy of Bassam Dagher. 73. Petition of Emessa Lodge, 1913, Archive of GLoS. 74. Appendix II. 75. Petition of Taurus Lodge, 1920, Archive of GLoS. 76. Alexander Baroody sometimes signs himself as Barroudi. I use the latter spelling. 77. A situation that changed in the 1920s when the lodge attracted Syrians from other areas and Europeans as well. 78. When visiting her twice in the winter of 2007 she ordered her maid to show me around and I was allowed to have a look at some old family portraits, but she chose not to divulge further information. 79. The non-masonic activities of the Sursock family are widely described in various sources on the history of Lebanon, such as May Davie, Atlas Historique des Orthodoxes de Beyrouth et du Mont Liban 1800–1940, (Balamand Universitym Tripoli: 1999); Fruma Zachs, The Making of a Syrian Identity, Intellectuals and Merchants in Nineteenth Century Beirut, (Brill, Leiden/Boston: 2005). 80. Zachs: pp. 238–40. 81. Gulick: pp. 178–9. 82. Information about the Abdulwahabs, if not stated otherwise, comes courtesy of a grandson of Khaireddeen Abdulwahab, (12 July 08). 83. A recent article on Abdulwahab has been added to wikipedia, briefly outlining his life and career, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kheireddine_Abdul_ Wahab, (14 January 2011). 84. It remains extremely difficult to move within Lebanon if one is interested in politics: Voting is – with very few exceptions – only allowed at a person’s birth place because of the prevalent system of confessional voting. 85. Habib Abdulwahab al-Hindi followed suit twelve years later. 86. Donald Quataert, ‘Clothing Laws, State and Society in the Ottoman Empire, 1720–1829’, IJMES, vol. 29/3, (August 1997). 87. This was at least the probably exaggerated and jocular explanation of the family member I interviewed. 88. Registration books of the GLoS, 1904, Sunneen; Khaireddeen was not the only one with a masonic background from Sunneen Lodge. Among others were Mahmud Monkara and Zaki Klat. 89. Together with Shukri Fakhouri, Antonius Bassily, Salim Antakly, Nicula Nini, Assad Bort, George Bandali, George Ma’arbes, George Batash; (foundation document of El Mizhab Lodge, 1914). 90. Khaireddeen shared the need to adapt and adjust when taking over Western ideas with reformers known for their affinity to the nahda movement.

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PAGES 194–203

91. The co-founders were Antonius Bassily, Shukri Fakhouri, Salim Antakly, Nicula Nini, As’ad Bort, George Bandali and George Batache. According to Maha Kayyal, in Tahawwulat al-zaman al-akhir (shifts/transformations of another time), (Mukhtarat, Beirut: 2001), Khaireddeen initiated the foundation of the lodge between 1900 and 1902. Having first thought that it was actually Mina al-Amin Lodge that was co-founded by Khaireddeen and that information had been mixed up, I examined the foundation document of Mina al-Amin but could not find his name mentioned. 92. Registration books, GLoS, Petition of El Mizhab Lodge, 1914, GLoS, Charter of Mina al-Amin Lodge, 1918. 93. Pastor Dr. Habib Badr confirmed my impression during one of our meetings, telling me about his own surprise when a Protestant priest’s funeral was more or less organised by the freemasons with many of the church members revealing their own masonic memberships; Interview with Habib Badr and Kamal Salibi, Beirut, (14 July 2008). 94. Interview with J. Bort, El Mina, (11 July 2008). 95. Registration books, Lodge Petitions; Archive of the GLoS. 96. While the family in general, unlike some more conservative Muslim families, has no problem with its involvement in freemasonry, grandson Ismat Kazem Ouaida seemed less pleased. One shelf in his flat in the centre of Tripoli is dedicated to anti-Jewish, anti-masonic, conspiratorial ‘literature’; Interview, El Mina, (24 July 2008). 97. Interview with A. Ghoraib, El Mina, (15 July 2008); Information on the Ghoraib family if not mentioned otherwise by courtesy of A. Ghoraib. 98. Tamaddun, (03 July 2008). 99. Interview with T., Beirut, (10 July 2008). In other sources Klat is also spelt Khlat; I decided to adopt T.’s choice. 100. www.euratlas.net/cartogra/ottoman_1845/ottoman_map_9_4.html, (01 October 2009). 101. Samih al-Zeine, Taʾ rikh Óaraˉ bulus, qadıˉ man wa-Îadıˉ than, (Dar al-Andalus, Beirut: 1969), p. 483. 102. Information about the Klats and the Ghoraibs if not stated otherwise is courtesy of T. 103. Information on the Doumanis is courtesy of the Doumani brothers. Interview, Tripoli, (13 July 2008). 104. Registration books, GLoS, Kadisha Lodge. 105. I was told that one member of the Mabro family, Hilda, was working for the consulate in Tripoli but have not been able to meet her. Hilda married into the Massad family, which had masonic connections. The word mabro comes from Greek and means black. Once a piece of land in El Mina was

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NOTES

106.

107. 108. 109. 110. 111.

112. 113.

114.

115. 116. 117. 118. 119.

TO

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called the Land of Mabro; it included parts of the ruined old city wall, in the Deir-Ghrab district. Masons still praise their fraternity for the two famous artefacts made around this date: the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty, both designed by Gustave Eiffel and financially supported by many American and French masons. See ‘Masonry and the Statue of Liberty’, Robert C. Singer, www. masonicworld.com/education/files, (21 August 2009). Letter from La Syrie to the GOdF, (25 January 1891), La Syrie, carton no. 1, Archive of the GOdF. Our interview took place over the course of two meetings, El Mina, (08 July 2008 and 11 July 2008). Registration books at the GLoS. Fruma Zachs, The Making of a Syrian Identity – Intellectuals and Merchants in Nineteenth Century Beirut, (Brill, Leiden/Boston: 2005), pp. 226–7. Assad originally worked as a journalist and wrote for Al Ahram, Al Muqtataf and Al Hilal and published a journal (Al Jam’iya al-Usmaniyya) together with his friend Anton Farrah in Alexandria. He changed his profession in order to earn more. Unlike his brother, Assad is not known to have been a freemason, (Samih al-Zeine: p. 490). Fruma Zachs, The Making of a Syrian Identity – Intellectuals and Merchants in Nineteenth Century Beirut, (Brill, Leiden/Boston: 2005), p. 242. If not mentioned otherwise, information about J. Yanni: Abdulsalam Tadmori, ‘Al-Muʾ arrikh Ju¯rjıˉ Yanni’, in: Muʾ arriku¯n al-˓aˉ mm min Lubnaˉ n (‘The historian Jurji Yanni’, in: General Historians from Lebanon), edited by Massoud Daher, (1988), pp. 109–38. Until our days, Abd al-Qadir al-Jazairi stands out as a hero especially among Arab freemasons as he saved many Christians in his own house during the unrests in Damascus in 1860. In the wake of his deeds and as a mark of gratitude he who had joined already a lodge in Alexandria in the 1840s or 1850s was admitted to different masonic lodges. See also: Jacob M. Landau, Prolegomena, p. 139. Whiting, Visit to Tripoli, 30 March 1849, in: The Missionary Herald: Reports from Ottoman Syria, 1819–1870, p. 85. Y. Choueiri, ‘Two Histories of Syria and the Demise of Syrian Patriotism’, Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 23/4, (October 1987), p. 503. Zachs: p. 242. Taʾ rıˉ kh Su¯riya. Fruma Zachs, ‘Towards a Proto-Nationalist Concept of Syria? Revisiting the American Presbyterian Missionaries in the Nineteenth-Century Levant’, Die Welt des Islams, New Series, vol. 41/2, (July 2001), p. 172.

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120. Tadmori, p. 111. 121. Zachs: p. 243. One of his articles, published in Muqtataf in 1883, was entitled ‘Al-Nahd.a al-adabiyya fıˉ Óaraˉbulus’ (The cultural awakening in Tripoli), (Choueiri: p. 503). 122. Al-Zeine: p. 565. 123. Ibid.: p. 484. 124. Ibid.: p. 486. 125. Gulick: p. 67. 126. Ibid.: p. 66. 127. Ibid.: p. 181.

Conclusion 1. Elie Kedourie, ‘Young Turks, Freemasons, and Jews’, Middle Eastern Studies, 7/1, (January 1971); Kedourie, Afghani and Abduh: An Essay on Religious Unbelief and Political Activism in Modern Islam, (Frank Cass, London: 1966). 2. Stefan Weber, ‘Reshaping Damascus: social change and patterns of architecture in late Ottoman times’, in: From the Syrian Land to the States of Syria and Lebanon, edited by Thomas Philipp and Christoph Schumann, (Orient Insitut, Beirut: 2004), p. 9. 3. See also: Stephen Paul Sheehi, ‘Inscribing the Arab Self: Butrus al-Bustani and Paradigms of Subjective Reform’, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 27/1, (May 2000), pp. 7–24; Butrus Abu-Manneh, ‘The Christians between Ottomanism and Syrian Nationalism: the Ideas of Butrus Al-Bustani’, IJMES, vol. 11/3, (May 1980), pp. 287–304.

Appendix I

Lodges established in Ottoman Syria

1. www.turizm.net/turkey/history/ottoman3.html; www.historyworld.net/timesearch/default.asp?keywords=Ottoman+Empire+timeline+309&sort2=&bot tomsort=&topsort=&direction=&timelineid=&getyear=&viewtext=extende d&conid=timeline&event_number=20&date=; www.theottomans.org/english/chronology/index.aspno, (12.01.2009).

Appendix IV

Freemasons involved in the Press

1. If not noted otherwise, names of journalists and their publications as well as information on scientific societies derive from: Dagmar Glaß, Der Muqtataf und seine Öffentlichkeit, two volumes, (Ergon Verlag, Würzburg: 2004);

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NOTES

2.

3.

4.

5.

TO

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289

Ami Ayalon, The Press in the Arab Middle East, (Oxford University Press, Oxford: 1995) and Eliezer Tauber, ‘The Press in the Late Ottoman Period’, in: Die Welt des Islams, New Series, Bd. 30. However, this list is far from being complete, especially with regard to the Syrian press in Egypt and there is still research to be done in order to understand the relationship between masonry and journalistic output there. See also: Ami Ayalon, ‘The Syrian Educated Elite and the Literary Nahda’, in: Ottoman Reform and Muslim Regeneration, edited by Itzchak Weismann and Fruma Zachs, (I.B.Tauris, London: 2005), p. 137. Ayalon listed not only newspaper agents from different Syrian cities but also noted subscribers to Bustani’s Encyclopaedia, 1874–1886. Among them again many individuals’ names familiar through freemasonry; Cannon, Byron D., ‘Nineteenth-Century Arabic Writings on Women and Society: The Interim Role of the Masonic Press in Cairo’, in: IJMES, no. 17, USA, 1985. Memberships of these men can be proven by means of the lists available at the different archives of the Grand Lodges in Scotland and England and the GOdF in Paris. Taken into consideration were only Syrians connected to Syrian lodges or Syrians immigrated to Egypt; hence, men like Muhammad Abduh (Star of the East and later onwards La Concordia) or Saad Zaghlul (Grand Lodge of Egypt), both active as journalists and writers of letters to the editor, were not mentioned. Many of the newspapers and journals had the same names as Masonic lodges – what was first is not always clear, though: we do find the name of the political and literary weeklies in Alexandria AlKawab al-Sharqi (the Star of the East), Al Hilal (the Crescent), by Zaydan in Cairo or Al Arz (the Cedar), already appearing in Junieh in 1895 [Ami Ayalon, The Press in the Arab Middle East, (Oxford University Press, Oxford: 1995). Further Information: Donald J. Cioeta, ‘Islamic Benevolent Societies and Public Education in Ottoman Syria, 1875–1882’, in: The Islamic Quarterly, vol. 26/1 (1982), pp. 40–55; May Davies, Atlas historique des Orthodox de Beyrouth et du Mont Liban, 1800–1940, (Balamand University, Tripoli: 1999), Jens Hanssen, ‘The Birth of an Education Quarter, Zokak el-Blat as a Cradle of Cultural Revival in the Arab World’, in: History, Space and Social Conflict in Beirut, (Ergon Verlag, Würzburg Beirut: 2005), pp. 143–74. Further evidence of charitable interest on the side of the masons can be delivered by the Account books of different Orthodox societies, kept in the Archive in Beirut: not the members but all the names of donors and the amount of the financial donations are listed here. All of them were founded between the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of

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the twentieth century. These organisations served different aims: general charity, charity towards the family of deceased people and towards children. One of them was even called Charity of the Orthodox Brotherhood and the majority of men mentioned there belonged to one or the other lodge in Tripoli/el-Mina.

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INDEX

Academic Circles, 49 Academic Elite, 11, 71 Academics, 11, 50, 212 Acre, 85, 115, 184, 186, 187, 224 Actors, 4, 7, 8, 25, 49, 141, 143, 159, 162, 163 Adana, 117, 121, 123, 223, 226 Administrative Council, 142, 150, 152 Admission Terms, 47 Al Afkar, 158 Al Ahram, 163, 287 Aintab, 122, 223, 226 Albania, 4, 40, 188, 224 Muslim Albanians, 4 Aleppo, 9, 10, 33, 76, 98, 122, 123, 137, 148, 161, 164, 171, 186, 223, 224, 226 Alexandretta, 10, 223, 225, 265, 268, 303 Alexandria, 9, 15, 77, 89, 109, 113, 118, 128, 133, 134, 135, 160, 162, 203, 206, 231, 238, 242, 258, 261, 262, 265, 274, 279, 289, 298 Algeria, 40, 208, 223 Ambassadors, 12, 84 American Missionary Hospital, 192, 195 American University of Beirut, AUB, 112, 190, 192, 194, 200, 201, 205, 209, 223

Sommer_Index.indd 304

Anglicans, 157 Anglo-Egyptian Protectorate, 80 Anglo-Turkish Commercial Convention, 88 Antagonism, 48, 63, 74, 90 Anticlerical, 161 Anti-Cosmopolitan, 64 Anti-Freemasonry, 184 Arab Christians, 142 Arab Intellectuals, 27 Ardahan, 40 Armenian Masons, 121, 123 Armenian Nationalism, 121 Armenian Orthodox Church, 44 Armenians, 2, 4, 40, 44, 77, 120, 121, 122, 123, 139, 201, 224, 225, 239 Army, 40, 44, 64, 89, 96, 98, 110, 117, 122, 139, 144, 165, 178, 197, 200, 225 (see also Military, Troops) Artists, 10, 70, 160 Askale, 12, 169 Austrian Protection, 133 Austro-Hungarian Empire, 89 Autonomy, 30, 40, 51, 70, 74, 77, 142, 215 Awqaf, 14 Al-Azhar University, 68 Balkans, 29, 33 Balta Liman, 88

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INDEX Batrun, 150, 152 Al Bayyan, 113 Benevolent Fund, 156, 181 Berats, 88 Berlin Congress, 34, 107, 223 Bessarabia, 40 Black balling, 58 Bosnia-Herzegovina, 40, 223 Brazil, 126, 136, 147, 158, 159, 178, 206 Britain, 9, 51, 53, 126, 136, 139, 154, 223, 225 British Colonies, 64, 65 British Colony of Beirut, 89 British Empire, 5, 6, 9, 65 British Freemasonry, 9, 64 British Government, 10, 78, 96, 135 British Secret Service Bureau, 81 Brotherhood, 3, 10, 16, 18, 52, 53, 59, 62, 69, 70, 76, 79, 94, 128, 150, 199, 211, 216, 217 Bulgaria, 40, 107, 223, 224 Byzantine State, 77 Cairo, 9, 15, 51, 52, 68, 76, 77, 81, 110, 113, 118, 128, 133, 134, 162, 184, 192, 224, 226, 229, 230, 231 Capitalism, 38, 53, 86, 87, 142, 153 Global Capitalism, 53, 153 Capitulations, 6, 41, 84, 85, 88, 121, 139, 143, 221 Catholic Theology, 57 Caucasus, 29 Censorship, 23, 35, 51, 57, 69, 70, 106, 167, 173, 249, 254, 292 Christianity, 12, 47, 55, 97 Civil Rights, 49 Civil Unrest, 71, 84, 143 Civilised Nations, 63, 71 Civility, 51 Clergy, 72, 108, 109, 114, 116, 117, 123, 142, 144, 148, 150, 151, 152, 156 Code of Ethics, 37

Sommer_Index.indd 305

305

Cohesion, 31, 121, 151, 213, 215 Commercial Interest, 42, 144 Commercial Relations, 141 Committee for Union and Progress, 111, 134, 135 Concessions, 6, 30, 40, 87, 88, 90, 143, 152 Confessional System, 144 Confessionalism, 43 Confrontation, 43 Congregational and Presbyterian Missionaries, 132 Conspiracy, 24, 25, 134 Constitution, 8, 30, 33, 34, 62, 75, 79, 107, 108, 124, 134, 139, 160, 167, 178, 179, 222, 223, 224 Converts, 132, 133, 274 Cosmopolitan, 8, 12, 18, 37, 45, 59, 61, 62, 64, 65, 66, 69, 71, 213 Crete, 40, 65, 135 Crimea, 9, 29, 39 Crimean War, 9, 39 Cultivation, 66 Cultures, 28, 48, 62, 64, 66 Cyprus, 40, 77, 189 Cyrenaica, 40 Dalil Hims, 184, 231 Darwinism, 50, 51, 102, 112 Debt, 41, 42, 87, 107, 121 Decentralisation Party, 184 Decision-Making, 33, 49, 66, 90 Democratisation, 65 Depression, 41 Dervishes, 170 District Grand Lodge of Syria, 83, 107 District Grand Master, 76, 77, 133 Disturbances, 1, 36, 42, 43, 84, 95 Dogmatism, 65 Domestication, 48 Donors, 22, 41, 197 Douma, 148 Druzes, 1, 42, 84, 140, 141, 143, 152 Dualism, 38, 39, 53

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306

FREEMASONRY

IN THE

Economic Activity, 42 Economic Penetration, 28, 41, 44, 77, 85 Edinburgh, 20, 73, 95, 107, 153, 155, 178, 179, 182, 199, 210 Education, Educational Institutions, 7, 12, 87, 116, 123, 167, 168, 188, 212 Educational System, 215 Educators, 70 Scientific Education, 75 Secular Education, 49 (see also Secular) Effendis, 87 Elite, 4, 7, 11, 26, 27, 37, 46, 55, 57, 62, 68, 70, 71, 75, 79, 87, 92, 93, 99, 124, 141, 190, 206 Elitist, 37, 48, 57, 58, 62, 162, 179 Emancipation, 71, 163, 194, 217, 219 Enemies, 23, 44, 161 Enlightened, 35, 39, 46, 48, 49, 55, 62, 71, 75, 159, 163, 208 Enlightenment, 5, 23, 26, 27, 28, 33, 37, 39, 44, 46, 48, 59, 60, 61, 67, 74, 75, 94, 161 European Enlightenment, 27, 28, 37, 44, 60 Equality, 15, 30, 39, 55, 56, 60, 61, 62, 67, 75, 94, 121, 147, 213, 219, 222 Ernst and Falk, 59 European Freemasonry, 66, 80, 95 European Freemasons, 99 European Powers, 9, 29, 32, 38, 39, 40, 42, 87, 88, 100, 125, 141, 143, 157, 221, 223 European States, 43 Europeanisation, 38 Exclusion, 55, 56, 59 Fanaticism, 55, 71, 106, 148, 161, 163 Fatherland, 67, 104, 218, 222, 228 (see also Imperial Fatherland) Financial Markets, 41 Foreign Mission, 12, 42, 89 Foreign Powers, 5, 14, 41, 136

Sommer_Index.indd 306

OTTOMAN EMPIRE Framework, 5, 6, 32, 44, 60, 61, 65, 67, 94, 95, 98, 142, 219 France, French Freemasons, 75 French Intervention, 43, 84, 140 French Mandate, 96, 181, 191, 193, 204 French Policy, 148 French Revolution, 24, 25, 39, 69, 74, 116, 134, 147, 161 Third Republic, 9 Fraternal Association, 124 Free Church of Scotland, 146, 157 Freedom of Conscience, 74, 75 Georgians, 133 Germany, 40, 66, 139, 190, 191, 237, 238 Global Business, 53 Global Connection, 49 Global Market, 8, 28, 33, 91 Global Status, 41 Global Trade, 215 Globalisation, 28, 39, 61 Governors, 85, 144, 150, 152 Grand Committee of the Grand Lodge in Edinburgh, 95, 155 Grand Lodge of England, 6, 15, 20, 26, 74, 77, 78, 81, 96, 115, 116, 133, 134, 135, 174 Grand Lodge of Italy, 2, 121 Grand Lodge of Lebanon, 83 Grand Lodge of New York, 83, 174 Grand Lodge of Poland, 76 Grand Lodge of Scotland, 10, 20, 73, 74, 76, 83, 95, 96, 105, 106, 115, 116, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 148, 153, 154, 155, 156, 158, 174, 176, 178, 179, 180, 181, 183, 185, 186, 188, 189, 195, 219, 217, 226 Grand National Lodge of Egypt, 26, 78, 79, 80, 81, 98, 125, 128, 131, 137, 174, 178, 179, 189, 226

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INDEX Grand Orient Lodge of Egypt, 26, 78, 81, 226 Grand Orient of France, 9, 14, 15, 20, 57, 64, 73, 74, 75, 82, 95, 96, 105, 108, 109, 110, 111, 115, 125, 126, 137, 138, 139, 154, 161, 175, 179, 226 Grand Orient of Geneva, 76 Grand Orient of Italy, 65, 73, 97, 122, 131, 200, 226 Grand Orient of Lebanon, 83 Grants, 43, 61, 122 Great Britain, see Britain Great Powers, 133 Great Provincial Lodge of Turkey, 15 Greek Catholic, 12, 29, 89, 100, 141, 142, 143, 158, 178 Greek Orthodox, 12, 14, 22, 89, 100, 114, 141, 142, 143, 145, 147, 148, 151, 160, 165, 168, 171, 172, 173, 174, 178, 188, 189, 193, 197, 201, 209, 233, 237 Guilds, 49 Haifa, 85, 86, 87, 96, 113, 115, 123, 137, 223, 224 Hama, 97, 154, 165 Hamas, 23 Hamidie Society, 104, 105 Hegemony, 6, 80, 86, 88, 143 Heimat, 66 Al Hilal, 52, 163 Hinterland, 33, 84, 85, 90, 145, 168, 170 Homs, 9, 96, 137, 154, 164, 175, 176, 184, 185, 223, 224, 226, 227, 231 Human Progress, 64 Humanitarianism, 76 Humanity, 46, 47, 62, 63, 64, 66, 148, 197, 213 Hungary, 25, 136, 237, 238 Hypocrisy, 68, 135 Idealistic, 45 Identity, 4, 5, 6, 16, 19, 27, 28, 29, 33, 36, 37, 65, 70, 74

Sommer_Index.indd 307

307

Ideology, 31, 34, 35, 45, 51, 64, 66, 163, 166, 188 Imbalance, 43 Imperial Fatherland, 104 (see also Fatherland) Imperialism, 65, 86, 88, 162 Inclusion, 3, 4, 55, 56, 154, 180, 217 Independence, 30, 40, 42, 48, 91, 222, 223, 224 India, 53 Individual Rights, 45 Individualisation, 59 Individuality, 51 Industrialisation, 37, 38, 39, 141, 144 Infrastructure, 63, 87, 88, 141, 156, 167, 173 Institutional Regulations, 43 Inter-Sectarian Sociability, 216 Interdependent, 43, 68 Intermediaries, 23, 41, 88, 144 International First Aid Society of Cairo, 110 International Masonry, 63 International Organisation, 6 Internationalism, 45 Interreligious, 7, 9, 208 Intervention, 32, 41, 43, 49, 84, 107, 140 Al Islah, 161 Islamic Law, 42, 46 Islamic Unity, 34 Italian Freemasonry, 65, 66, 73, 97 Italian-Turkish War, 121, 126 Jaffa, 2, 81, 82, 113, 125, 137, 226 al-Jam˓iyya al-Su¯riyya (the Syrian Society), 101, 208, 209 Jaridat Tarabulus al-Sham, 50, 167, 173 Jerusalem, 33, 81, 92, 117, 118 Jesuits, 110, 112, 121, 125, 147, 157, 162, 191, 232 Jewish, 25, 29, 48, 123, 134, 136, 162, 234

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308

FREEMASONRY

IN THE

Jews, 24, 44, 47, 65, 162, 166 Sephardic, 65 Al Jinan, 163, 208 Journalists, 11, 51, 69, 70, 75, 100, 112, 158, 208, 212 Journals, 68, 158, 163, 173, 202 Juif Errant, Le, 161, 162 Jurisdiction, 6, 85, 88, 95, 96, 97, 98, 115, 128, 131, 136, 137, 138, 148, 158, 174, 178, 179 Kars, 40 Kennedy Memorial Hospital, 168, 169, 192 Kosmopolis, 61 Laïcité, 65, 116 Land Law, 32, 33, 43 Landlords, 142, 144 Landowners, 42, 100, 102, 110, 142, 144, 145, 152, 178 Lattakia, 85, 184, 199, 224 Law of Ottoman Nationality, 32 Levant, 9, 24, 76, 213 Lewis Affair, 102, 112, 192 Liberation, 25, 72, 76 Liberté, egalité et fraternité, 76, 116 Liberty, 15, 39, 52, 53, 55, 61, 67, 75, 121, 147 Libya, 40, 73, 119 Lions, 190, 211, 212, 213 Literature, 24, 51, 69, 206, 207, 208, 209, 232 Local Power Base, 42 Local Production, 42, 43 Lodge Hopping, 16, 81, 126, 133, 139, 149 Lodge Meetings, 10, 20, 21, 49, 52, 74, 77, 95, 103, 113, 115, 126, 131, 156, 159, 173, 178, 180, 181, 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 194, 213, 216, 217, 219, 220 Lodges, Brazilian, 126, 147, 158, 159

Sommer_Index.indd 308

OTTOMAN EMPIRE British, 5, 6, 9, 15, 48, 64, 65, 66, 81, 136, 154 Egyptian, 26, 52, 81, 123, 128, 135, 136, 138 English, 5, 49, 74, 81, 133, 134, 135, 136 European Grand, 15, 16, 19, 73–83, 110, 112, 126, 134, 185 French, 9, 15, 25, 26, 49, 66, 73, 74, 75, 76, 138, 147 German, 63, 65, 66 Greek, 77 Irish, 5 Italian, 2, 65, 66, 73, 81 Ottoman, 1–20, 25, 26, 44, 55, 56, 66, 71, 76–81, 94–101, 104–113, 121, 124, 125, 126, 128, 131, 133, 135, 136, 137, 158, 160, 174, 178, 179, 180, 185, 186, 194, 195, 206, 209, 216, 218, 226, 227 Scottish, 5, 74, 80, 96, 109, 114, 136, 139, 148, 149, 179, 182, 186 Syrian, 1, 2, 7, 9, 10, 12, 16, 17, 18, 44, 55, 80, 95, 105, 124, 136, 180, 185, 218 Turkish, 133, 134 Western, 6, 7, 66, 67, 134 London, 20, 49, 74, 79, 123, 134, 136, 189 Loyalty, 7, 31, 35, 48, 69, 70, 91, 94, 120, 133, 137, 151, 167, 171, 173 Lyon, 9, 108, 151 Mabahith, 209 Macedonia, 40 Majority, 30, 40, 42, 44, 48, 50, 52, 55, 69, 71, 74, 86, 89, 133, 142, 149, 160, 162, 167, 169, 171, 178, 181 Market Economy, 143 Marmara Sea, 4, 37 Maronite Church, 142, 147, 150, 151 Maronite Clergy, 114, 148, 156 Maronites, 1, 12, 14, 42, 89, 116, 141, 147, 151, 164, 178, 188, 235

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INDEX Al Mashriq, 24, 209 Masonic Charges, 14, 65 Masonic Culture, 16 Masonic Grand Bodies, 6, 18, 73, 75–83, 115, 124, 149, 217 Masonic Ideal, 47, 63 Masonic Mirror, 99, 103 Masonic Principles, 5, 18, 44–72, 156, 213 Masonic Rituals, 58, 215, 218 Matn, 150 Middle Class, 8, 21, 33, 49, 90, 92, 94, 99, 100, 101, 103, 113, 116, 179, 188, 216 Migrants, 84, 86, 93, 106, 144, 148, 155, 159, 188 Migration, 5, 28, 29, 108, 159, 246, 279, 297, 298 Military, 39, 40, 42, 43, 54, 64, 68, 75, 117, 151, 215, 221 (see also Army, Troops) Militia, 144 Millet, 29, 32, 70, 237 Mingrelia, 40 Minority, 33, 40, 42, 86, 173 Mission Civilisatrice, 26 Missionary/ies, 12, 13, 20, 53, 64, 84, 89, 92, 100, 132, 143, 145, 147, 168, 173, 191, 192, 195, 199, 208, 232 Moallaka, 137 Modern States, 61 Modernisation, 6, 8, 27, 32, 37, 38, 39, 40, 54, 55, 65, 68, 92, 168 Modernity, 27, 28, 38, 54, 55, 70, 87 Moldavia, 40 Monotheistic, 65 Montenegro, 107, 223 Motherland, 44, 91 Movements, 1, 7, 23, 25, 29, 31, 39, 40, 52, 63, 76, 78, 79, 108, 110, 134, 136, 220, 227 Mughara, 137 Muhyiuddin, 100 Multi-ethnic, 2, 49, 84

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309

Multi-religious, 2, 49, 84, 103 Multilingual, 61 Muqattam, 112 Al Muqtataf, 51, 68, 69, 71, 111, 112, 204, 210 Muslim Authorities, 44 Muslim Benevolent Society, 101 Muslims, 1, 6, 12, 14, 29, 33, 35, 44, 45, 46, 47, 50, 54, 85, 86, 95, 97, 101, 115, 116, 119, 140, 143, 157, 165, 166, 168, 169, 170, 172, 178, 181, 188, 190, 193, 213, 222, 232, 235 Nablus, 85 Nahda, 6, 27, 28, 112, 159, 163 National Consciousness, 7 National Evangelical Church of Beirut, The, 132 National Grand Lodge of Egypt, 78, 79, 81, 98, 125, 128, 131, 137, 174, 178, 179, 189, 203, 226 National Movement, 7 National Societies, 63 Nationalism, Arab, 169 Armenian, 121 Balkan, 33 German Romantic, 64 Romantic, 64, 68 Turkish, 36, 78 Nationalist, 1, 7, 29, 31, 33, 34, 35, 45, 47, 59, 68, 69, 71, 77, 78, 79, 80, 92, 136, 202 Nationalist Entities, 71 Nationalist Freemasonry, 71 Nationalistic, 33, 35, 47, 71 Nationality, 8, 32, 65, 67, 209 Natural Sciences, 50 Network, 1, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 17, 20, 33, 36, 53, 56, 60, 63, 64, 65, 81, 87, 88, 90, 97, 98, 103, 108, 111, 126, 130, 141, 149, 163, 186, 187, 197, 207, 209, 213, 216, 218, 219, 220 (see also Social Network)

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310

FREEMASONRY

IN THE

Newspapers, 51, 68, 87, 158, 163, 173, 209 (see also Press) Nineteenth Century, 9, 10, 14, 18, 24, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 37, 39, 40, 42, 44, 45, 50, 51, 54, 61, 62, 63, 66, 67, 69, 73, 78, 84, 88, 89, 91, 100, 104, 113, 122, 131, 134, 141, 142, 145, 151, 156, 157, 159, 161, 167, 168, 170, 171, 172, 176, 211, 215, 218, 234, 237, 238 Noble Edict of Gülhane, 31, 222 Non-Sectarian, 14, 124 North Caucasians, 4 Occident, 67 Occupation, 54, 68, 77, 80, 96, 112, 117, 133, 165, 166, 205, 206, 219 Old Charges, 56 Opposition, 26, 49, 75, 134, 151, 167 Organised Interest Group, 49 Orient, 5, 9, 14, 15, 20, 24, 26, 47, 54, 57, 64, 65, 66, 67, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 81, 82, 83, 95, 96, 97, 98, 105, 108, 109, 110, 111, 115, 116, 122, 124, 125, 126, 127, 131, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 141, 145, 148, 154, 156, 160, 161, 170, 175, 179, 185, 189, 200, 223, 226, 227 Ottoman Bank, 40, 104 Ottoman Coast, 33, 49, 143 Ottoman College, 91 Ottoman Company, 104 Ottoman Freemasons, 3, 6, 39, 66, 71, 78, 216 Ottoman Grand Orient, 78, 81, 98, 136, 137, 185, 226 Ottoman Orientalism, 54 Ottoman Population, 31, 37, 41 Ottoman Provincial Law, 90 Ottoman State, 4, 29, 54, 70, 168 Ottomanism, 32, 33, 36 Pagans, 47 Pan-Islam, 34, 35

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OTTOMAN EMPIRE Pan-Turkism, 36 Paris, 20, 25, 26, 47, 49, 95, 98, 111, 113, 115, 116, 117, 135, 175, 203, 209 Parliament, 34, 201, 223 Particularism, 29, 61 Passport, 57, 58 Patriarch, 29, 117, 125, 142, 150 Patriot, 71 Patriotism, 31, 66, 71, 120 Patronage, 7, 9, 10, 15, 16, 73, 76, 81, 100, 108, 122, 126, 134, 148, 174, 179, 185 Peace Movement, 63 Peasants, 42, 142, 143, 144 Philanthropy, 5, 16, 77, 79, 97, 107 Photographers, 117, 120, 163 Political Freedom, 45 Political Movements, 7 Political Parties, 60 Port Cities, 8, 33, 49, 91 Positivism, 39 Power Relations, 64, 66 Pre-Islamic Period, 54, 70 Predicament, 48 Presbyterians, 89, 157 Press, 35, 68, 69, 105, 158, 162, 163, 173, 178, 222, 228, 229, 230–238 (see also Newspapers) Public Press, 68 Private Sphere, 55 Privileges, 15, 38, 43, 61, 84, 88, 91, 116, 122, 124, 133, 140, 142, 181 Profane, 16, 55, 59, 62, 63 Professional Associations, 49 Protection, 31, 43, 65, 75, 88, 89, 112, 122, 124, 133, 141 British, 133 Protectorate, 40, 80 Protestantism, 100, 132, 133, 208 Protocols of the Elders of Zion, The, 24 Provincial Council, 90, 93, 93, 166 Provincial Grand Lodge of Turkey, 15, 78, 97

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INDEX Provincial Grand Master, 76, 97, 155, 159 Public Debt Administration, 41, 87 Public Sphere, 49, 55, 104 Qa’immaqam, 166 Al Qahtaniyya Society, 98 Radical, 4, 9, 25, 52, 64, 67, 75, 88, 139, 159, 162 Radicalism, 139, 162 Radicalisation, 9, 52 Railways, 41, 90, 121, 171 Railway Construction, 35 Raw Materials, 41, 43 Reform, 6, 7, 8, 25, 27, 28, 32, 33, 34, 35, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 46, 48, 49, 50, 52, 53, 54, 55, 63, 67, 68, 75, 77, 78, 91, 99, 103, 104, 108, 111, 115, 141, 144, 152, 159, 160, 161, 162, 165, 169, 171, 172, 173, 179, 208, 209, 221, 222 Reform Edict, 77, 172, 222 Refugees, 29, 91 Religiosity, 46, 193 Religious Affiliation, 3, 5, 9, 14, 30, 31, 33, 35, 46, 47, 56, 70, 140, 164, 187, 199, 216 Religious Fanaticism, 71 Religious Gap, 49, 213, 218, 219 Religious Tolerance, 5, 187, 194, 219 Renaissance, 27, 94 Rescript of the Rose Chamber, 31, 32, 165 Revolution, 2, 7, 24, 25, 28, 39, 40, 52, 53, 56, 67, 69, 74, 76, 78, 79, 81, 88, 109, 112, 116, 124, 126, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 147, 149, 161, 162, 217, 220 Riots, 42, 43, 71, 222 Risorgimento, 121 Rite of Memphis, 79, 125 Rituals, 16, 23, 58, 63, 74, 104, 179, 190, 194, 195, 196, 215, 218 Roman Church, 44

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311

Romania, 107 Rose Chamber Edict, 31, 32, 165 Rotary Club, 23, 24, 190, 211, 212, 213 Russo-Ottoman War, 34 Saida, 85, 117, 140, 141, 154, 157, 161, 194 Saint Joseph’s University, 12, 24, 89, 92, 192 Salonica, 25, 77 Secrecy, 46, 52, 58, 59, 63, 79, 94 Secret Societies, 26, 59, 81, 99 Secular, 6, 8, 38, 45, 46, 48, 49, 75, 92, 151, 152, 163 (see also Education) Secularisation, 48 Self-Determination, 79 Self-Help, 51, 52, 53 Self-Improvement, 54 Separatism, 72, 215 Serbia, 107, 223 Shiites, 141 Shweifat, 182, 225 Shweir, 96, 111, 115, 125, 126, 137, 145, 146, 147, 152, 155, 156, 158, 160, 161, 194, 224, 226 Silk, 9, 42, 43, 100, 140, 141, 145, 151, 189 Sociability, 7, 11, 62, 65, 216 Social Balance, 42, 141 Social Communication, 49 Social Mobility, 63 Social Networks, 4, 97, 141 (see also Network) Social Structure, 2, 38, 43, 77, 123 Socialism, 52 South Marmara, 4, 37 Sovereign Grand Council of the Memphis Rite, 79 Sovereignty, 62, 74, 85, 133, 220 SPC, see Syrian Protestant College Speculative Freemasonry, 62 State Loans, 40 State Reforms, 49 Sublime Porte, 32, 38, 41, 88, 104, 114, 142, 215, 216

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312

FREEMASONRY

IN THE

Subprovinces, 85 Sudan, 80, 194 Sufi Order, 170 Sultan, 7, 31, 33, 34, 39, 41, 44, 78, 107, 108, 114, 172, 192 Sunnis, 142, 143, 193 Supreme Architect, 138 Grand Architect, 74–75 Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite, 79 Suspicion, 41, 45, 107, 114, 131, 157 Symbols, 16, 31, 45, 57 Syrian, Catholics, 29 Freemasons, 1, 7, 16, 69, 71, 81, 124, 149, 185, 216 Identity, 70 Lands, 9, 81 Syrian-Lebanese Grand Lodge, 83 Syrian Protestant College (SPC), 12, 50, 51, 89, 92, 101, 102, 106, 110, 112, 113, 117, 121, 122, 123, 154, 158, 172, 194, 223 Syrian Society of Arts and Sciences, 101 Al Tabib, 110 Tamaddun, 199 Tanzimat, 25, 34, 38, 85, 104, 167, 222 Taxes, 31, 41, 42, 85, 86, 87, 88, 144, 223 Tax Farms, 31, 41, 43 Telegraph, 35, 39, 167, 171, 222 Tolerance, 2, 5, 16, 45, 47, 55, 56, 64, 109, 163, 167, 186, 187, 194, 197, 208, 217, 219 Toleration, 28, 45, 94 Trade Relations, 187, 213 Traders, 9, 42, 88, 105, 108, 144, 145, 178, 186, 206 Traditional Boundaries, 61 Traditions, 6, 7, 29, 38, 50, 55, 73, 74, 94, 95, 152, 175, 190, 193, 194, 215, 218, 219 Trajectory Analysis, 4

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OTTOMAN EMPIRE Treaty of Karlowitz, 39 Treaty of Ouchy, 121 Treaty of San Stefano, 34 Tripoli, 1, 2, 3, 7, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 33, 40, 50, 70, 85, 86, 87, 96, 104, 125, 131, 140, 141, 145, 150, 158, 161, 164–214, 217, 218, 224, 225, 226, 231, 234, 235, 237, 238 Troops, 40, 144 (see also Army, Military) Tunisia, 40, 107, 223 Turkey, 15, 66, 73, 77, 78, 80, 97, 119, 121, 134, 135, 137, 160, 203, 225 Ulama, 42, 93, 166 Unification, 67, 109 United Grand Lodge of England, 6, 15, 20, 81, 116, 134, 135 United States, USA, 105, 132, 145, 158, 160, 170, 191, 209, 210, 237 Unity, 1, 3, 30, 34, 56, 69, 70, 72, 98, 124, 154, 167, 184, 187, 215, 216, 217 Universal Solidarity, 62 Universalism, 37, 61, 63, 64, 128 Universalist, 62, 64 ‘Urabi Revolt, 79 Utopian, 47, 60 Vienna, 39, 49 Vilayet, 32, 33, 85, 96, 144, 164, 167, 184, 223 Vilayet Law, 32, 33 Virtues, 27, 45, 51, 95, 138 Walachia, 40 Weltanschauung, 39, 64 Weltbürger, 61, 252 West, the, 1, 5, 10, 27, 29, 30, 32, 38, 67, 68, 77, 80, 84, 85, 91, 92, 95, 99, 107, 192, 194 Western Affiliations, 134 Western Ideas, 28, 50, 193 Western Institutions, 6, 7

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INDEX Western Languages, 50 Western Occupation, 77 Western Orientalism, 54, 243 Westernisation, 27, 37, 38, 39, 68 World Exposition, 104 World Fair, 104, 105, 106, 116, 203 World War One, 24, 66, 79, 85, 88, 108, 119, 139, 154, 160, 173, 174, 178, 193, 194, 197, 202, 203, 210, 224

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313

Worshipful Master, 15, 106, 128, 131, 138, 154, 175, 180, 181, 188 Young Turk Revolution, 2, 39, 40, 56, 69, 78, 81, 109, 124, 126, 133, 134, 136, 137, 149, 162, 217, 220 Zeitgeist, 22, 49, 55, 75 Zionist, 23, 24, 136 Zionist conspiracies, 136

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INDEX OF PERSONS

Abcarius Family 117, 118 Abcarius, Amin 117 Abcarius, Nassib 117 Abd al-Qadir 98, 100, 208 Abduh, Mohammad 34, 50, 51, 52, 68, 81 Abdulaziz 33 Abdulhamid 18, 33, 34, 35, 40, 41, 78, 88, 91, 92, 102, 104, 107, 108, 134, 136, 137, 139, 160, 162, 202, 211, 220, 221, 222, 223 Abduljalil Family 193 Abdullatif, Omari 184, 186 Abdulwahab Family 190, 192, 193 Abdulwahab, Khaireddeen 190, 192, 193, 194 Abed, Ibrahim 158 Abi-l-Lama Family 152, 156 Abu Nasser, Kamil 159 Abu-Jamra, Faris 158 Abu-Jamra, Sa’id 158 Abu-Nakad, Assad 158 Achou, Selim 109, 227 Adhamy, Yasser 181, 182 Afghani, Jamal al-Din 34, 50, 52, 68, 78, 79, 216 Aftimus, J.F. 106 Ahmad Pasha al-Jazzar 100 Anderson, James 14, 46, 47, 56, 58, 65

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Andraos, Adib 183 Antakly, George and Salim 158, 203, 205, 206, 227 Arbili, Ibrahim and Joseph 112 Arnaout, Abdelkader 188, 227 Arslan, Emin 111, 232 Ashi, Ahmed Effendi 127, 128, 129, 131, 159, 187, Ashkar, George Abboud 130 Assmani, Wadi 188 Attieh, Habib 178 Awad, Iskandar 81 Azm Family 97 Bandali, George 131, 132 Barbour, Najib 112 Barroudi/Baroody, Alexander 126, 137, 147, 153, 154, 159, 177, 227, 229 Bashir, Amir 100 Bashir, David 148, 227 Bassily, Antonius 207, 227 Bassily, Assad 207 Batashe, George 193, 211 Bayhum Family 101 Bayhum, Hassan 101 Berbari, Wadih 155 Bey Hamade, Hamade 138 Bey Zouain, Georges 149, 150, 152 Bey-Dagher, Canaan 149, 150, 152

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INDEX Bezjian, Zenop 122 Bisbany, Nassib 189, 227 Bitar, Michel 138 Borghossian, Krikor 122 Bort, Assad 193, 196, 197, 198, 199, 202, 211, 227 Boutagi, Shukri 113 Brigstock, Dr. 102 Buccianti, Vittorio 110 Büchner, Louis 50 Bulwer, Henry 77 Burnaby, Lieutenant-Colonel 96 Bustani, Butrus 54, 55, 56, 101, 117, 208, 218, 232 Bustani, Nassib 104, 228 Bustani, Suleiman 104, 233 Bustros, Nakhle 104 Catafago, Cesar 101 Catseflis Family 170, 206, 207, 237 Catseflis, Edouard and Rodolf 206 Catseflis, Iskander 209, 238 Catseflis, Jean 208, 238 Cherrif, Hikmet 125, 227 Churchill, Henry 101 Clarke, Hyde 15 Colenso-Jones, G.L. 182 Corseiri, A. 109

OF

PERSONS

315

Erny, R.E. 106 Fadel, Antonious 178 Fiani, Michel 109 Fakhouri, Bahij 182, 183 Fakhouri, Shukri 191, 192, 194, 195, 210, 227 Farrah Family 105 Fayad, Assad 109 Fayad, Joseph 109, 125 Ferrier, Louis Gaston 108 Fuad Pasha 54, 55, 86, 157 Gallais, Emile 109 Gedai, Joseph 109 Gelegh, Habib 109, 227 Gelegh, Joseph 109, 227 Gellad, Antonios 186 Ghoraib Family 199, 200, 201, 202, 211, 227 Ghoraib, Abdallah 189, 199 Ghoraib, Alexandre 199, 201, 202, 227 Ghoraib, Salame 178 Ghureiggeh, Salame 125

Dagher Family 151 Derghazarian, Eghia 122 Diab, Antoine 123 Dibs, Najib 113 Dichy, Victor 183 Dombrowosky, Constantin 109 Douba, Pious 210 Doumani Family 203 Doumani, Alexander 157 Doumani, Constantin 203 Drummond Alexander 157 Durneika, Abdul Zataar 131

Habale, Hamade 138 Habarjeb, Nicholas 155 Habelin, Elias 101 Habib, Alexandre 203, 227 Haggi, Loutfallah 108 Haggi, Nicolas 111, 138, 147 Hagguri, Yacub 123 Hakim, Bakhus 113 Hakim, Hannah 184, 203, 204, 206 Halwatiyya Sheikhs 170 Harris, Jerry 191, 192, 194, 195, 210 Hasibi Family 157 Herder, Johann Gottfried 68 Hikimian, Iskandar 122 Hobaika, Nimr. S. 148, 227 Howard, Alexander 81, 82

El-Malek, Mounir 186 Eldrige, J. G. 82

Ibrahim Pasha 85 Isak, Assad 111

Sommer_Index of Persons.indd 315

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316

FREEMASONRY

IN THE

Jafet, Nehmeh 152 Jessup, Henry J. 13, 146, 170 Jidaun, Joseph Jarjar 123 Jisr, Hussein 50, 51, 68, 167, 170, 173 Kafrouni, Ibrahim 113 Kanawati, Joseph R. 106 Kassab, Amin 138 Kassab, Salim 138, 152 Kehyayan, Armenag 120 Khairallah, Dagher 152 Khouly, Ibrahim 210 Khouri, I. E. 160 Khoury, Boutros 183 Klat Family 201, 202 Klat, Lutfallah 201, 202, 231, 315 Klat, Toufik 201, 202 Koller, Eduard 103 Kulph, Jules 109 Kusa Family 151 Lahoud Family 151 Lahoud, Elias 151 Lahoud,Faris Gibrael 151 Lair, Edouard 125, 227 Lambert, Alphonse 108 Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim 59, 60 Lewis, Edwin 50, 102, 112, 192 Løjtved, Julius 102 Lord Cromer 51 Lord Kitchener 80 Lowther, Gerard 134, 135, 136 Lutfi, Michael 210 Lyon, Fahd 160 Mabro, Toufik 203 Magelssen, William B. 145 Mahmud II 166, 192 Majdalani, Michail G. 123 Majdalani, Towfik 123 Makarius, Shahin 106, 110, 111, 112, 168 Malek, Habib 178

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OTTOMAN EMPIRE Malik, Habib Khalil 117 Matar, Ilyas 70 Merhej, Moussah 152 Mehmed Emin Ali Pasha 32 Mehmed Fu’ad Pasha 32 Midhat Pasha 168 Mikati, Noureddin 183 Mishaqa Family 70, 100 Mishaqa, Mikha’il 70, 100, 101, 232 Mishaqa, Nassif 100 Mishaqa, Salim 98, 123 Mishriq, Elias 147 Mishriq, Faris 114, 115, 128, 147, 148, 159 Monasterski, Louis 109, 227 Monkara, Mahmud 185, 211, 227 Morris, Robert 24, 82 Moussorany, Rashid 184, 185 Mujais, David 159, 160, 161 Muqaddim, Hassan and Ismail 212 Murad V 33, 107 Mustafa Rashid Pasha 32 Muzaffer Pasha 150 Nahhas, Anton 109, 125 Nahhas, Moussa 178 Nahhas, Sami 178, 184, 236 Nahoul, David 154 Nasser, George 159 Naufal, Ibrahim 147 Naufal, Nicula Lutfallah 166, 167 Naufal, Selim 101 Naum Pasha 151 Nelson, W.S. 110 Nimr, Faris 51, 52, 69, 71, 102, 110, 111, 112, 148, 227, 230, 233 Noureddin Effendi 82 Ofaish, Assad 153, 154 Oweida Family 198, 211 Oweida, Mustafa 198, 199 Poladian, Deervelt 122 Post, George 110

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INDEX

OF

Prince Halim Pasha 79 Prince Lucien Murat 75 Qudsi, Joseph Elias 112 Rahmé, Michel 178 Ramsay, Andrew Michael 62 Rayess, Khalil 106, 137, 138, 227 Rayess, Selim G. 138 Rifai, Arif 173 Rihani, Amin 159 Rizcalla, Loutfallah 109 Robertson, Felix 118 Robertson, James 118 Sa’ad, Habib 152 Saikali, Raji 104 Sakakini Bey, Yusuf 135 Salhab, George 125, 148, 227 Salloum, Michel 185 Sarkissian, Philippe 122 Sarrafian Brothers 118, 120 Sarrafian, Abraham 118, 119 Sarrafian, Boghos 118 Sarruf, Yacoub 51, 52, 69, 71, 102, 110, 111, 112, 229, 233 Sawaya, George 161 Shadhiliyya Order 170 Shahlaoui, Habib 159 Shakhtuf, Michel 128 Shalhoub Family 148 Shalhoub, Antoine 148 Shama’un Family 158 Shaykhu, Louis 24, 25 Shehab Family 151, 152 Shehab, Fatik 157 Shehab, Malik 158 Shibli Family 113 Shibli, Wadi 113 Shoukair, Esper 138 Shweiry, Selim S. 126 Smiles, Samuel 51, 52, 53 Smith, Eli 101, 232 Smith, John Corson 105, 106, 112

Sommer_Index of Persons.indd 317

PERSONS

317

Sursock Family 105, 114, 217 Sursock, Alexandre 109, 189 Sursock, George Dimitri 100, 109, 110, 111, 137, 138, 153, 154, 161, 175, 177, 184, 189, 227 Sursock, Jean 109, 189 Sursock, Najib 104 Takvorian, Boghos Effendi 123 Taqla Family 163 Telemagen, Moyssiades 109 Trad Family 113, 114, 115, 217 Trad, Alexandre 114 Trad, Benjamin 114 Trad, Elias 114 Trad, Najib 114 Trad, Petro 115 Trad, Selim 114 Umari Family 170 Van Dyck, Cornelius 101, 232 Vasa Pasha 151 Wortabet, Yuhanna 101 Yanni, Constantin 184, 185, 231, Yanni, Jurji 70, 71, 137, 181, 184, 185, 186, 207, 208, 209, 227, 231, 233, 237 Yanni, Mikhail 207, 208 Yanni, Samuel 117, 184, 185, 208 Yaziji, Ibrahim 110, 111, 113, 229, 233 Yaziji, Nasif 101 Yaziji, Rashid 178, 184 Yaziji, Yasper 189 Youssef Pasha 161 Zabliet, Habib 178 Zaidan, Jurji 10, 51, 52, 102, 163, 216, 231 Zalzal, Bishara 113, 229 Zehiel, Elias 178 Zouhair, Mahomoud 183

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Sommer_Index of Persons.indd 318

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