Abstract

The following article analyzes in three sections the way in which freemasonry managed to break through in Dar al-islam as part of the European imperialist expansion, which had its first expressions in the 18th century and reached its apogee in the 19th century. The first section aims to establish the link between freemasonry and imperialism, the second focuses on the internal structural transformations suffered by Dar al-islam facing the European imperialist challenge, and finally, the third section analyzes how freemasonry sought to establish itself in the Islamic world, reflecting on its mystical and associative origins based on the references to Islamic cultural practices that were regarded as similar to those of freemasonry.

Keywords: Masonry; Islam; Mysticism; Sufism; Dervishes; Imperialism; Modernity; Reformism