Monday, November 24, 2014

Rudolf von Sebottendorf's Turkish Freemasonry

A recent article by Thierry Zarcone, "Occultism in an Islamic Context: The Case of Modern Turkey from the Nineteenth Century to the Present Time" (in Henrik Bogdan and Gordan Djurdjevic, Occultism in a Global Perspective, Durham: Acumen, 2013) shows that the identification between Freemasonry and Sufism made by Rudolf von Sebottendorf in 1924 was also made frequently during the nineteenth century, especially with regard to the Bektashi Sufis.

Von Sebottendorf's Die Praxis der alten türkischen Freimaurerei (Leipzig: Theosophisches Verlagshaus, 1924) is now available in two English translations, as Secret Practices of the Sufi Freemasons: The Islamic Teachings at the Heart of Alchemy (Rochester: Inner Traditions, 2013) and The Practice of the Ancient Turkish Freemasons (Runa-Raven Press, 2000, out of print). It is also available in Turkish translation, as Eski Türk Masonlarının Uygulamaları: Bektaşi, Gülhaç ve Simya Sırları (The Practices of the Ancient Turkish Freemasons: The Secrets of Bektash and Rosicrucian Alchemy, Istanbul: Hermes Yayınları, 2010).