Name: East of the Grand Ummayad
Brand: Cune Press (US)
SKU: 9781614571605
Price: 16.99 GBP
Availability: InStock

East of the Grand Ummayad

Freemasons in Damascus 1868-1965

By (author): Sami Moubayed

Published by Cune Press (US)

£16.99

Not yet Published Available to Pre-order

Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781614571605
Publication Date: 03-Jul-2017

Subjects:
Middle Eastern history
Freemasonry & secret societies
Middle East

Quantity

In the Middle East under Ottoman rule Freemasonry was tolerated, emerging in the ancient city of Damascus as early as 1868 and continuing under colonial rule. In 1941, after Hitler's occupation of Paris, the Vichy French outlawed Freemasonry in all French territory and colonies. During World War II in Syria, Freemasonry emerged as Vichy control weakened and it continued to exist until it was outlawed by Syria's Baath regime in 1965, two years after they took power. East of the Grand Umayyad is the story of Damascus Freemasonry from 1868 until 1965. It shows how the crème-de-la-crème of Syrian society were Freemasons, men such as Fares al-Khoury and Abdul Rahman Shahbandar (leaders of the anti-colonial movement). This book shows how they contributed to the building of their societies through scholarly work in an academic setting, politics, industry, and philanthropy.

Sami Moubayed is a Syrian historian who recently served as a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut. His research focuses on Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and the Arab-Israeli conflict. He is also a research fellow at St. Andrews University in Scotland and a co-founder of its Syrian Studies Center. He is an expert on pre-Baath Syria. Moubayed served as editor-in-chief of Forward Magazine, Syria s premier English monthly from 2006 to 2011. In 2004, he co-founded SyrianHistory.com, the first online museum of Syrian history for which he continues to work as chief editor. From 2000 to 2001, Moubayed served as bureau chief for the Daily Star in Syria and since 2005 has taught international relations at the University of Kalamoon in Syria, where he currently serves on the board of trustees. He is also vice president of Haykal Media in Syria. Moubayed has written several books, including Damascus Between Democracy and Dictatorship (University Press of America, 2000), Steel & Silk: Men and Women Who Shaped Syria 1900-2000 (Cune Press, 2005), and Syria and the USA: From Wilson to Eisenhower (IB Tauris, 2012). Moubayed's work-in-progress, Quwatli: The George Washington of Syria, is scheduled for a 2015 release from Cune Press. Moubayed studied at the American University of Beirut (AUB) and obtained his PhD in Middle East Affairs from the University of Exeter.