Unity is strength : Masonic lodges in Ottoman Syria with special focus on Tripoli and El Mina (1860-1908)

Abstract

Unity is Strength – this was the core statement made by Syrian freemasons already in 1876 when spreading their ideas all over the Syrian lands. With this phrase in mind, in this book Dorothe Sommer analyses early masonic lodges that existed in the late Ottoman Empire showing how Syrian freemasons used the lodges to reach out to other Syrians. Freemasons in Syria wanted to form a sense of unity inside Ottoman Syria; a unity that could act as a bridge to span religious cleavages and to ultimately help to produce inter-confessional sociability. European freemasonry, outside of the Western sphere of direct influence, developed a life of its own and paradoxically promoted a new sense of self-perception among Ottoman Syrians. Consequently, this analysis directly contradicts previous research carried out in the field of colonial freemasonry, according to which the lodges served as vanguard for Western purposes of occupation and domination. Additionally, freemasonry during Ottoman times was the first and by then the only institution that overcame religious cleavages outside Beirut and attracted more participants than any other society or fraternity. In this, it was unique and warrants an in-depth study.