Secret Sects Of Syria

Bernhard H. Springett, Springett

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9780710312075
• eBook ISBN: 9781317845713
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Anthropology
• Index: Social Sciences

First published in 2007. Secret sects are deeply rooted in the history and culture of the Middle East, and a number of them are as powerful now as they were in the times of the Crusades. In the West, the best-known organisation with connections to these ancient sects are the Freemasons, whose rituals are believed to derive from those originally practiced by the Knights Templar in the East, and later brought by them to Europe. In this classic work, Bernard Sprigett describes and analyses the symbolism, ceremonies and beliefs of these secret sects including the Sabaeans, the Gnostics and Manicheans, the followers of Simon Magus, Sufism and the Dervish Orders, the Shiite Metawileh, the Essenes, the Ismaelis, the Assassins and the Druses, and their links with and influence upon the Knights Templar and modern Freemasonry. Springett demonstrates the persistence of ancient symbolic and ritual elements in modern life and gives insight into the creeds and practices of secret sects that are active today in the Middle East and beyond.

APPENDIX

NEW YEAR'S EVE CEREMONY AMONG THE MANDAITES

THE NUSAIRI FESTIVAL OF CHRISTMAS, OR MEELAD

THE NUSAIRI FESTIVAL OF NUROOZ

MOHAMMEDAN FESTIVAL OF MOHURRAM

LAMENTATIONS FOR ADONIS

DISCUSSION OF HASKETT SMITH'S PAPER ON THE DRUSES

FAITH HEALING AMONG THE DRUSES

THE TWO PILLARS OF NIMROD

TWO PILLARS IN CASTLE OF HARAN

THE TWO PILLARS OF SETH

JACHIN AND BOAZ

LEGENDS OF ENOCH

MOSES' KNOWLEDGE OF ASTRONOMY

DISPUTE BETWEEN ADAM AND MOSES

MOSES DID NOT TEACH THE DOCTRINE OF IMMORTALITY

ELIAS THE FOUNDER OF THE ESSENES

THE ANCIENT BOOK OF JASHER

CLASSIFICATION OF THE TEMPLE WORKMEN

JEWISH FREEMASONRY IN THE BABYLONISH CAPTIVITY

GNOSTIC EMPHASIS ON “RIGHT” AND “LEFT”

THE SPIRIT OF GNOSTICISM

PORPHYRY

MANES MEANS COMFORTER

GEBAIL, THE ANCIENT BYBLUS

ANTIQUITY OF SIDON

RUINS NEAR MARAH, WITH MASONS' MARKS

ANCIENT OLIVE GROVES OF SYRIA

AQUEDUCT OF SEMIRAMIS

THE MYTH OF THE PHŒNIX

WORSHIP OF THE PEACOCK

THE TRIQUETRA AND PENTALPHA

THE SANCTITY OF THE TREFOIL

EASTERN IDEAS OF PARADISE

NAMES AND FUNCTIONS OF THE SEVEN ARCHANGELS

ORIGIN OF THE KORAN

CREATION OF THE KORAN

ORIGIN OF THE SWASTIKA

CIRCUMAMBULATING THE LODGE

CIRCUIT WITH THE SUN, FROM LEFT TO RIGHT

THE THREE STEPS OF VISHNU

ORIENTATION OF LODGES

MASONIC TRACING BOARDS AND ANCIENT CHRISTIAN CHURCHES

RELIGIOUS WORK OF THE ANCIENT FREEMASONS

THE PATRIARCHAL SOURCE OF FREEMASONRY

TRANSITION FROM ANCIENT TO MODERN INITIATIONS

KHONX-OM-PAX

THREE STARS OF ORION'S BELT

SYRIAN USE OF TOBACCO

FAMA FRATERNITATIS : THE FOUNDING OF THE ROSICRUCIAN ORDER

KABALISM

THE TEMPLE AND THE CHURCH

MASONIC MEETING IN A MOSQUE

NEW YEAR'S EVE CEREMONY AMONG THE MANDAITES

THE following interesting account of a New Year's Eve ceremony among the Mandaites, or Followers of John the Baptist, was published in the London Standard of October 19, 1894, under the title of

A PRAYER MEETING OF THE STAR-WORSHIPPERS

Sook-es-Shookh, on the River Euphrates, in the Mesopotamian villayet, though an interesting spot, is not an imposing or attractive place. Like most of the townlets in this part of Asia Minor, it is just a straggling overgrown village; a few one-storied plastered houses, with flat roofs and narrow doorways, dotted here and there, a number of wattled and mud-daubed huts huddled irregularly about, a mesjid of course, a khan or caravanserai, and one or two open spaces with the inevitable refuse and rubbish heaps, where a bazaar or market is held on Fridays. It looks, however, picturesque and peaceful enough as we ride into it in the deepening twilight of a late September evening. The stars are beginning already to twinkle overhead; but there is still light left to note the strange white-robed figures moving stealthily about in the semi-gloom down by the riverside. Clad in long, snowy garments, reaching nearly to the ground, they pass to and fro near the edge of the water, some wading into midstream, while the sound of a strange salutation exchanged in a strange tongue, Sood havilakh, strikes oddly upon the ear, long accustomed to the ordinary salutation, Salem Alekum, of the Arab-speaking Moslemin. “Paderha Sutekh” (“Their fathers were burned”) cries our Persian Charvadar and guide in disgust as he catches a glimpse of their white-robed figures: thus delicately hinting that they are not followers of Islam: and a Jew from Hamadan, who accompanies our party on his way to the tomb of Ezekiel, deliberately spits upon the ground and exclaims in pure Hebrew, “Obde kokhabim umazaloth” (“Servants of the stars and planets”). And the Hebrew is not wrong. The forms gathering by the riverside in the twilight are those of Star-worshippers, the last remnants of the famous Magi of ancient Chaldea and their followers, the Babylonian adorers of the host of heaven. To the number of about four thousand in all, they still survive in their Mesopotamian native land, principally along the banks of the Euphrates river, where they form small village communities. They invariably keep their settlements somewhere near a stream, for their religious rites and ceremonies are preceded by frequent bathings and ablutions, and a rill of flowing water passing near or through their tabernacle or meeting-place is indispensable. Hence this edifice is always raised quite close to the river.

They call themselves Mandaya, Mandaites, possessors of the “word,” the “living word”; keep strictly to their own customs and observances, and language, and never intermarry with Moslems, who call them Sabba, Sabeans. Their dialect is a remnant of the later Babylonian, and resembles closely the idiom of the Palestinian Talmud, and their liturgy is a compound of fragments of the ancient Chaldean cosmogony, with Gnostic mysticism influenced by later superstitions. They are a quiet and inoffensive people, noted, oddly enough, for the quality of their dairy produce in the villages, and for their skill as metal workers and goldsmiths in the towns where they reside. Their principal settlement is, or was, at Mardin, in the Baghdad district, but there has always been a small community of them at Sook-es-Shookh, on the banks of their favourite stream, the Euphrates.

It happens to be the festival of the Star-worshippers, celebrated on the last day of the year, and known as the Kanshio Zahlo, or day of renunciation. This is the eve of the New Year, the great watch-night of the sect, when the annual prayer meeting is held, and a solemn sacrifice made to Avatar Ramo, the Judge of the under world, and Ptahiel his colleague; and the white-robed figures we observe down by the riverside are those of members of the sect making the needful preparations for the prayer meeting and its attendant ceremonies. First they have to erect their mishkana, their tabernacle or outdoor temple; for the sect has, strange to say, no permanent house of worship or meeting-place, but raises one previous to their festival, and only just in time for the celebration. And this is what they are now busy doing within a few yards of the water as we ride into the place. The elders in charge of a Shkando, or deacon who directs them, are gathering bundles of long reeds and wattles, which they weave quickly and deftly into a sort of basket work. An oblong space is marked out, about 16 feet long and 12 feet broad by stouter reeds, which are driven firmly into the ground close together, and then tied with strong cord. To these the squares of woven reeds and wattles are securely attached forming the outer containing walls of the tabernacle. The side walls run from north to south, and are not more than 7 feet high. Two windows, or rather openings for windows, are left east and west, and space for a door is made on the southern side, so that the priest when entering the edifice has the North Star, the great object of their adoration, immediately facing him. An altar of beaten earth is raised in the centre of the reed-encircled enclosure, and the interstices of the walls well daubed with clay and soft earth, which speedily hardens. On one side of the altar is placed a little furnace of dark earthenware, and on the other side a little handmill, such as is generally used in the East for grinding meal, together with a small quantity of charcoal. Close to the southern wall a circular basin is now excavated in the ground, about 8 feet across, and from the river a short canal, or channel, is dug, leading to it. Into this the water flows from the stream and soon fills the little reservoir to the brim. Two tiny cabins, or huts, made also of reeds and wicker-work—each just long enough to hold a single person—are then roughly put together, one by the side of the basin of water, the other at the further extremity of the southern wall beyond the entrance. The second of these cabins or huts is sacred to the Ganzivo, or high priest of the Star-worshippers, and no layman is allowed to so much as to touch the walls with his hands after it is built and placed in position. The doorway and window openings of the edifice are now hung with white curtains, and long before midnight, the hour at which the prayer meeting commences, the little Mishkna, or tabernacle, open to the sky, is finished and ready for the solemnity.

Towards midnight the Star-worshippers, men and women, come slowly down to the Mishkna by the riverside. Each, as he or she arrives, enters the tiny wattled hut by the southern wall, disrobes, and bathes in the little circular reservoir; the tarmido, or priest, standing by and pronouncing over each the formula: “Eshmo d'hai Eshmo d'manda hai madkhar elakh” (“The name of the Living One, the name of the living world, be remembered upon thee.”) On emerging from the water each one robes himself or herself in the rasta, that is the ceremonial white garments peculiar to the Star-worshippers, consisting of a sadro, a long white shirt reaching to the ground, a nassifo, or stole, round the neck falling to the knees, a hiniamo, or girdle of woollen material, a gabooa, square headpiece reaching to the eyebrows, a shalooal, or white overmantle, and a kanzolo, or turban, wound round the gabooa headpiece, of which one end is left hanging down over the shoulder. Peculiar sanctity attaches to the rasta, for the garments composing it are those in which every Star-worshipper is buried, and in which he believes he will appear for judgment before the Avatar in the nether world, Matherotho. Each one, as soon as he is thus attired crosses to the open space in front of the door of the tabernacle and seats himself upon the ground there, saluting those present with the customary “Sood havildakh” (“Blessing be with thee”), and receiving in return the usual reply, “Assootah d'hai kavilakh” (“Blessing of the Living One be with thee”). The numbers increase as the hour of the ceremonial comes near, and by midnight there are some twenty rows of these white-robed figures, men and women, ranked in orderly array facing the Mishkna, and awaiting in silent expectation the coming of the priests. A couple of tarmidos, lamp in hand, guard the entry to the tabernacle and keep their eyes fixed upon the pointers of the Great Bear in the sky above. As soon as these attain the position indicating midnight the priests give a signal by waving the lamps they hold, and in a few moments the clergy of the sect march down in procession. In front are four of the shkandos, young deacons, attired in the rasta, with the addition of a silk cap or tagha under the turban to indicate their rank. Following them come four tarmidos, ordained priests, who have undergone the baptism of the dead. Each wears a gold ring on the little finger of the right hand, and carries a tau-shaped cross of olive wood to show his standing. Behind the tarmidos comes the spiritual head of the sect, the Ganzivro, a priest elected by his colleagues, who has made complete renunciation of the world, and is regarded as one dead and in the realms of the blessed. He is escorted by four other deacons. One holds aloft the large wooden tau cross, known as the derashvod xivo, that symbolizes his religious office, a second bears the sacred scriptures of the Star-worshippers, the Sidra Rabba, “the great Order,” two-thirds of which form the liturgy of the living, and one-third the ritual of the dead. The third of the deacons carries two live pigeons in a cage, and the last a measure of barley and of sesame seeds. The procession marches through the ranks of the seated worshippers, who bend and kiss the garments of the Ganzivro as he passes near them. The tarmidos guarding the entrance of the tabernacle draw back the hanging over the doorway, and the priests file in, the deacons and tamidos to right and left, and the Ganzivro standing alone in the centre, in front of the earthen altar facing the North Star, “Polaris,” The Sacred Book, Sidra Rabba, is laid upon the altar, folded back where the liturgy of the living is divided from the ritual of the dead. The high priest takes one of the live pigeons handed to him by a shkando, extends his hands towards the Polar Star, upon which he fixes his eyes, and lets the bird fly, calling aloud: “Bahma d'hai rabba mshabbah zivo kadmaya Elaha Edman Narshi Ebrah” (“In the name of the Living One blessed be the primitive light, the ancient light, the Divinity self-created”). The words clearly enunciated within are distinctly heard by the worshippers without, and with one accord the white-robed figures rise from their places and prostrate themselves upon the ground towards the North Star, on which they have silently been gazing.

Noiselessly the worshippers resume their seated position on the ground outside. Within the Mishkna, or tabernacle, the Ganzivro steps on one side and his place is immediately taken by the senior priest, a tarmido, who opens the Sidra Rabba before him on the altar and begins to read the Shomshotto, “confession,” of the sect in a modulated chant, his voice rising and falling as he reads; and ever and anon terminating in a loud and swelling “mshobbo havi eshmakhyuo manda d'hai” (“Blessed be Thy Name, O Source of Life”), which the congregation without take up and repeat with bowed heads, their hands covering their eyes. While the reading is in progress two other priests turn and prepare the Peto elayat, or high mystery, as they term their Communion. One kindles a charcoal fire in the earthenware stove by the side of the altar, and the other grinds small some of the barley brought by the deacon. He then presses out some oil from the sesame seed, and, mixing the barley meal and oil, prepares a mass of dough, which he kneads and separates into small cakes the size of a two-shilling piece. These are quickly thrust into or on to the oven and baked, the chanting of the liturgy Shomshotto still proceeding with its steady sing-song and response, Mshobbo havi eshmakhyo from outside. The fourth of the tarmidos now takes the pigeon left in the cage from the shkando, or deacon, standing near him, and cuts its throat quickly with a very sharp knife, taking care that no blood is los...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• The Kegan Paul Library of Religion and Mysticism
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Introduction
• Table of Contents
• I. The Root Principles of All Freemasonry
• II. The Ancient Mysteries
• III. The Antiquity of the People of the Lebanon
• IV. The Sabeans, Worshippers of the Pole Star
• V. The Gnostics and the Manicheans
• VI. Other Gnostic Sects: The Ophites, Basilideans, and Followers of Simon Magus
• VII. The Schiite Sects: Sufeism and the Dervish Orders
• VIII. Initiation Rites Among the Dervishes
• IX. Others Chiite Sects: The Metawileh
• X. The Sect of the Essenes and Their Tenets
• XI. Pythagoras and His System
• XII. The Ismaeli and Their Various Branches: Origin of the Assassins
• XIII. The Assassins
• XIV. The Mohammedan Creed; from an Original Arabic Confession of Faith
• XV. The First Four Caliphs and the Twelve Imaums
• XVI. The Religious System of the Nusairis
• XVII. The Religious System of the Nusairis—continued
• XVIII. Religious Festivals of the Nusairis
• XIX. Fundamental Principles and Deeper Mysteries of the Nusairi Religion
• XX. The “House of Wisdom” at Cairo, and the Founding of the Druse Sect by El Dorazi and Hamzeh
• XXI. The Religion of the Druses
• XXII. Religious Ceremonies of the Druses
• XXIII. Religious Creed of the Druses
• XXIV. Resemblance of the Druse Religion to Thibetan Lamaism
• XXV. The Relation of the Druses to Freemasonry
• XXVI. The Yezidis, or Devil-Worshippers
• XXVII. Modern Arabian Freemasonry
• XXVIII. Syrian Influences on Modern Freemasonry
• XXIX. Syrian Influences on the Order of Knights Templar and the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite
• Bibliography
• Appendix—
• Principal Authors Quoted
• Index