The Crescent and the Compass: Islam, Freemasonry, Esotericism and Revolution in the Modern Age - Softcover

Millar, Angel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0994252544 ISBN 13: 9780994252548

Publisher: Numen Books, 2015

Synopsis

A timely survey of radical spirituality and political activism in Islam and the West over the last century and a half, The Crescent and the Compass uncovers numerous previously unknown and unexplored connections between European, American, and Muslim movements, organizations, secret societies, and thinkers. Subjects covered include Ayatollah Khomeini and Islamic mysticism; Sufism and Shi'ism; the influence of the ideas of René Guénon, a former Catholic and Freemason, and convert to Sufism; and Charles, the Prince of Wales, Traditionalism and Islamic spirituality.

At the heart of the book, however, are the many connections, during the 19th and early 20th centuries, between various Muslim revolutionaries and Freemasonry, a fraternal movement that was influential in the spiritual and occult avant-garde of Western Europe and America. The Crescent and the Compass not only explores how revolutionaries and anti-colonialists, such as Sayyid Jamal ad-Din al-Afghani, attempted to mold Masonic Lodges for political aims, but how interpretations of Islam and Freemasonry converged in the writings and practices of such figures as poet and occultist Aleister Crowley; Noble Drew Ali, founder of the faith of Moorish Science in the USA; Abdullah Quilliam, Shaykh-ul-Islam of the British Isles; and, as anti-Freemasonry, in the contemporary Takfiri, Islamist movement.

Exploring one of the least documented yet one of the most important historical chapters of the modern era, the picture that emerges will challenge the way reader looks at the Middle East and Islam, and their relationship to the West.

Angel Millar is the author of Freemasonry: Foundation of the Western Esoteric Tradition (2014) and Freemasonry: A History (2005). His articles and papers have been published in The Journal of Indo-European Studies, and by Eurasian Review dot com, among others.

About this title

Review

..".a highly significant work... of extra ordinary importance in this time of cultural and even spiritual conflict." - Robert Black, New Dawn magazine.

..". an excellent reminder of the wisdom that can come studying the intersections of cultures, people, and places." - Aimee E. Newell, The Northern Light.

"Millar's... understanding of his chosen subjects is deep. I can recommend this book wholeheartedly as an example of scholarship and research in the interest of making clearer Freemasonry's tangled relationship with little-understood trends and figures in the modern world." - Jay Kinney, The Plumbline (Scottish Rite Research Society).

..". a brilliant exposition on a neglected topic... crucial for an accurate understanding of Islam and Freemasonry today." -- Greg Kaminsky, Occult of Personality podcast.

"Millar argues convincingly that the historical connections between Muslims and Freemasonry are much more abundant, and much more complex, than is usually given credit for." -- Justine Bakker, Correspondences, an online journal for the academic study of Western esotericism.

"Millar calls to us to develop new ways of looking at the world, especially the religion of Islam" -- Gangleri.nl.

About the Author

Angel Millar is the author of Freemasonry: Foundation of the Western Esoteric Tradition (2014) and Freemasonry: A History (2005). His writing has also been published in The Journal of Indo-European Studies, Quest magazine, and Philalethes: The Journal of Masonic Research, among others.

About this edition

• Publisher: Numen Books
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0994252544
• ISBN 13: 9780994252548
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 218