Freemasons in Arabia

Historical Masonic activity in Arabia developed through warrants from European grand lodges during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Scottish Constitution Freemasonry was established at Aden through Lodge Felix No. 355 1, while English Constitution lodges later operated in the Arabian Gulf, including Arabian Gulf Lodge No. 3754 and Lodge No. 7678 in Bahrain, as a paper read before Quatuor Coronati Lodge records. Modern listings for Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates indicate no active recognized lodges operating present-day within those territories, as recorded by the United Grand Lodge of England.

Beyond Craft Masonry, romanticized accounts of Arabian origins appeared in American appendant bodies. Walter M. Fleming and William S. Paterson published claims that the Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine was instituted at Mecca in 644 AD 1. These traditional histories served to establish the exotic dramatic context of the Shrine degree rather than representing the actual history of Freemasonry in the region 1.