19th century photo of Masons in Cairo

 This rather splendid photo is being sold by Bloomsbury auctions in London with an estimate of £400-£600.

It was taken in Cairo in 1895 and is being sold with others.

The catalogue description follows and includes a brief history of Masonry in Egypt.

Freemasonry.- Makarios (Shaheen Bek) (Shaheen, Bek) Kitab Al Adab Al Masoriyah, illustrations, browned, modern half morocco, original upper wrapper bound in (foxed), Cairo, 1895 § Abassi (Mahmoud, Bek) B`ism Mouhandis Al Kawn Al `Azam..., illustrations, lightly stained at lower edge, original wrappers, stapled, browned, Cairo, National Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and accepted Masons of Egypt, 1919 § Al Masouneyah, Garidat Adabeyah Masouneyah, 2 vol., facsimile reprint, roan backed-rexine, Cairo, 1901-02 [but later]; and 15 others on Egyptian Freemasonry and some related ephemera including photographs of masonic meetings, invitations to meetings and a lottery ticket from the Grand Loge Nationale d`Egypte, 8vo & 4to (sm. qty) order`s rejection of dogma and its tendency to create a platform for political debate, membership was not dictated by the boundaries of faith or denomination.

However, this inclusive, combined with the order`s pretence of secrecy, was what eventually led to its demise. Conspiracies and accusations, primarily of the Freemasons` support for Zionism, abounded and, after the creation of Israel in 1948, forced many lodges to close.

In addition the rise of a self-made military elite after the 1952 Revolution either pressured pro-British lodges to close or made revolutionary lodges obsolete.

Despite the common conception that Freemasonry would only attract a Christian membership, it thrived in Egypt and across the Ottoman Empire in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Brought over by French Masons following Napoleon`s expedition in 1798 the ties between Egyptian Freemasonry and French Republicanism would last until its decline after the Second World War.

Indeed, whilst traditional English lodges that sprung up much later (not until the 1870s) attracted a membership of landed elite that benefitted from the British occupation, French lodges drew political activists and ambitious members of the middle class who were discontent with the imposed British hierarchy.

Well-known personalities included the anti-imperialist Islamist reformers Jamal al-Din al-Afghani and his disciple Muhammad `Abduh including other supporters of the `Urabi revolt of 1882, as well as nationalist politicians like Mohammed Farid and Saad Zaghloul.