New book chapter: "International Esoteric-Masonic Islamophilia"

For HCTIUSv1 I untangled a complex web of esoteric and Masonic organizations in the US and Europe in the late 19th century, which, as I explained in more detail in a separate article, had largely grown out of the efforts of a small group of British Masons who had come together between 1869 and 1875. What was most fascinating to me about this esoteric current is it displayed a significant interest in Islam, and several of the organizations that it directly and indirectly produced (including the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor, which I've also discussed in detail) not only emphasized Islam in their teachings, in some cases they also had ties to prominent Muslim converts and Western Islamic movements. The first volume of "A History" went into detail about the white American men and women whose Islamic genealogies revealed ties to this current, and HCTIUSv2 will look at African American links--but my latest publication helps bring to light this current's multiple contacts with the single most prominent white Muslim of the late 19th and early 20th centuries: the British mosque leader Abdullah Quilliam.

Having been drawn to fringe Masonic movements since a young age, Quilliam's confidence to start a non-Christian community seems to have been at least partly inspired by his participation in some of the various esoteric-Masonic groups that were showing Islamophilic tendencies--most notably John Yarker's Ancient and Primitive Rite, through which Quilliam was in touch with highly prominent esotericists like Papus and Aleister Crowley. My essay, "Abdullah Quilliam and the Rise of International Esoteric-Masonic Islamophilia," provides documentation of this European development, which I believes gives insight into a larger phenomenon that was taking place in the West: the origins of the modern liberal movement of Westerners embracing non-Christian religions. To read this essay, as well as several new pieces about Quilliam and his impact, check out
Victorian Muslim: Abdullah Quilliam and Islam in the West, edited by Jamie Gilham and Ron Geaves.

Download the abstract here