Freemasonry in the Ottoman Empire: A History of the Fraternity and its Influence in Syria and the Levant.

• Author: Balanli, Esra
• Position: Book review

Freemasonry in the Ottoman Empire: A History of the Fraternity and its Influence in Syria and the Levant By Dorothe Sommer New York: I.B. Tauris, 2015, p. 317, $87.64 ISBN: 9781780763132

The modernization attempts of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th and the 20th centuries were widely perceived as limited in the areas of military and the bureaucracy. However, transformation within the process of modernization in the structures of the Empire affected the general society as well. During this time, freemasonry came to be seen as a salvation formula for the survival of the state by local actors and the masonic ideas were adapted to compose a sense of unity in Ottoman society to resist against the deterioration derived from the weakening of the state authority.

This book is about the freemasons of the Ottoman Empire, especially in the areas of Tripoli, Beirut and Mount Lebanon around the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. The book analyses the masonic lodges and their social networks to provide an insight from their influence on politics and social life in the Empire. The thesis of the book is that freemasonry developed in Tripoli and its surrounding area with the intent of strengthening the unity of the society by dissolving the denominational and religious divisions under masonic ideology.

Sommer successfully deals with the reasons why people were drawn to become members of the lodges. The aim of the book is to display the role of local fraternity and its development within the changes in socio-cultural life in the Empire. Adapting to new conditions encouraged a proliferation of "native" freemasons who belonged mainly to the upper and middle class. These new circumstances in turn motivated freemasons to produce a common goal to unite against the crises affecting their lands.

The book is divided into two parts. In the first three chapters, Sommer portrays Grand Bodies [referring to headquarters of the masonic lodges] which had been founded across the Ottoman territory while explaining the historical progress of the Ottoman modernization at the same time. Moreover, she considers whether there is a relationship between these lodges and their principles with their Ottoman counterparts. The next three chapters go into detail about the freemasons of Beirut, Mount Lebanon, Tripoli, and El Mina, and their different structures due to geographical settings.

In the book, Sommer elaborately analyses the situation of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th...