Lebanon’s hidden role in Freemasonry’s origins

There are estimated to be about six million Freemasons around the world with just under two million in the United States. For those outside “the craft”, it’s a clandestine order characterized by secret handshakes and codes. But there’s a lot more to Freemasonry including a rich history that features Lebanon very prominently. According to Masonic legend, the first Grand Master of Freemasonry was the architect of King Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem, three thousand years ago. A man called Hiram Abiff who came from what is now Lebanon, sent by the King of Tyre (also called Hiram) to help Solomon with his mega-project. Tyre was a Phoenician kingdom centered on the city of the same name. In Masonic histories, Tyre was famed for its skilled craftsmen, expert at working in metal, stone, and timber. Solomon had already reached out to King Hiram to secure vast quantities of cedar and cypress timber from the forests of Lebanon to build his new temple. This was floated down on rafts by sea to the port of Jaffa. But the Jewish king also needed skilled people that could not be found in Israel. Hence his request to the king of Tyre for the services of the renowned architect, Hiram Abiff. This man, who plays a central role in Masonic ritual, right up to the present day, was Tyrian on his paternal side and Israelite on his maternal side. His mother was a widow and any Freemason in distress today, can make a coded request for aid from a brother by asking: “Is there no help for a widow’s son?”

Solomon was building the temple to house the Ark of the Covenant, a sacred vessel that housed the Ten Commandments and other holy relics. The ark was made during the exodus of the Jewish people across the desert, fleeing the pharaoh of Egypt. They had pledged to build a temple for the ark, but it took years for work to get underway in Jerusalem. Mount Moriah was chosen for the temple, the place where Abraham had nearly sacrificed his son Isaac before God stayed his hand. Freemasons claim that it was there that Solomon, Hiram of Tyre, and Hiram Abiff formed The Sacred Lodge. Hiram Abiff became the first Masonic grand master with his genius level knowledge of geometry, a science revered by Masons. While the great temple was built successfully, things did not go so well for Hiram Abiff. He was murdered by three jealous junior masons who threatened him, wanting to know the secrets of the craft. This murder is re-enacted by Freemasons when they elevate an individual to the Master Mason level. The blindfolded victim, standing in for Hiram Abiff, is then reborn at the new level. The first modern Masonic lodge in the Middle East was established in Beirut in 1861. Palestine Lodge No. 415 operated under the Grand Lodge of Scotland and met at a time when the Ottoman authorities went from hostility to the Masons to embracing the movement as an agency for change and progress. Indeed, Sultan Murad V became the first Ottoman ruler to join the Freemasons in 1872 when he was inducted into the Grand Lodge of Turkey. It’s often thought that Freemasonry in the Levant was another tool of colonialism. But the movement saw an influx of Arabs and Turks, often overcoming sectarian and religious divisions. Members of the Palestine lodge included the Trad and Yazidi families, a Muslim civil servant in the Beirut municipality (Hassan Bayham) and a leading member of the Druze Jumblatt family, Hasib Bey. The Maronite lecturer Elias Habelin, who later converted to Protestantism, was another active member.  The religious pluralism of Freemasonry was possible because of the vague description of the divine creator as the “Great Architect of the Universe”. Interestingly, the Ottomans preferred the British model of Freemasonry, with its semi-religious overtones, to the French version, which tended to be more atheistic. But the French influence in Lebanon did lead to the dissemination of Enlightenment ideas through the lodges, which was seen as dangerous by some especially the Catholic church. Some Lebanese Freemasons were convinced that the Jesuits were causing them problems by whispering to the Ottoman authorities that they were plotting revolution behind closed doors.