Between Empire and Nation-State
Freemasonry played a key role in that revolutionary era. In a society
not ready to abandon hierarchies of religion, and in which sectarian-
ism had become a problem, leading to massacres in Anatolia and Syria,
Christians, Jews, and Muslims could meet in Masonic lodges as equals,
united in secrecy. Freemasons benefited from social egalitarianism, which
allowed them to reconcile their religious differences and promote soci-
etal change.^60 At Masonic lodges, urban strangers were transformed into
brothers seeking the same political goal.^61 Murad V’s successor, Abdülh-
amid II, recognized the threat and repressed the Freemasons, his govern-
ment labeling them “a habitual source of sedition.”^62
There were close links between secret societies of Freemasons and the
diverse members of the CUP, a secret society imitating Masonic prac-
tices and meeting in Masonic lodges. Secrecy afforded political organiza-
tion. The Jewish attorney Emmanuel Carasso, who received medals of
honor from the very sultan he worked to overthrow, one of the leaders
of the CUP in Salonika and in the hierarchy of the entire organization,
headed the Italian rite Macedonia Risorta. Its lodge was the site of secret
CUP meetings and the place where CUP archives and records were kept,
and the order counted among its members the majority of the leaders
of the Salonikan branch of the CUP.^63 Once the CUP came to power,
it established its own exclusive Masonic lodge in 1909 , Le Grand Ori-
ent Ottoman, in order to reduce the power of foreign-affiliated lodges.^64
Freemasonry was thus important for the CUP; Masonic lodges were not
merely sites where they could hold their secret meetings prior to the
revolution.
Many prominent Dönme were Freemasons as well as Sufis, which facil-
itated their entry into the CUP. Yıldız Sertel mentions Bektaşi, Mevlevi,
and Masonic lodges in the same sentence in which she describes the
Dönme New Mosque in Salonika.^65 The journalist Fazlı Necip, the fu-
ture final Ottoman finance minister Faik Nüzhet (at the time the deputy
inspector of public debt), and Osman Adil, the son of Mayor Hamdi Bey
(at the time an assistant director in one of the offices of the Foreign Min-
istry), who was a regular contributor to Gonca-i Edeb,^66 were members
of the Véritas [Truth] Obedience, established in 1904.^67 Osman Adil was
among the founders of this order and sat on its supreme council.^68 Véri-
tas’s 150 members in 1908 included 129 Jews and 15 Muslims or Dönme,
including one of the founders of the Terakki school, Tevfik Ehat.^69 It also
counted at least four CUP members, two future grand viziers, Ali Rıza