'Dorothe Sommer makes two important contributions to the field. She not only provides us with a detailed overview of masonic activity in Ottoman Syria and Palestine, she also convincingly demonstrates that the Syrian lodges were not instruments of imperialist expansion serving a European agenda, but opportunity structures used by Ottoman Syrians to build solidarity networks that transcended ethnic and religious divisions in society.'
- Professor Erik-Jan Zürcher, Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University, and author of Turkey; A Modern History (I.B. Tauris)
'Dorothe Sommer makes two important contributions to the field. She not only provides us with a detailed overview of masonic activity in Ottoman Syria and Palestine, she also convincingly demonstrates that the Syrian lodges were not instruments of imperialist expansion serving a European agenda, but opportunity structures used by Ottoman Syrians to build solidarity networks that transcended ethnic and religious divisions in society.'
- Professor Erik-Jan Zürcher, Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University, and author of Turkey; A Modern History (I.B. Tauris)
