Category: INGOs & Societies

Secret Societies: Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem / Knights of Rhodes / Knights of Malta

Afif Tabsh1 Comment
Ok so now for the second organization, and here I’d like to clarify why it is considered “secret”. Namely, no one is allowed to know from times of its initiation until today, the ongoings inside the society, the decisions, the plans nor the affiliated members unless they disclose it.
Name of Organization: Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem / Knights of Rhodes /  Knights of Malta
Date of Origin: 1099 AD – Present
Historic Significance: Crusades from 1095 – 1314
Founder: Thomas Gerald
Motto: Pro Fide, Pro Utilitate Hominum (For the faith, in service of mankind)
Origin & Work: The Hospitallers were a military/religious order founded to protect religious pilgrims from Europe to the holy land. They initiated and managed hospitals in Jerusalem during& after crusades to provide medical care for the injured and the needy. They took care of Christian knights, warriors and followers in times of war and peace as well.
Following the liberation of the Holy Land by the Islamic forces, they departed out of Jerusalem by Saladin. They moved to Rhodes in Cyprus and changed many of there name, tactics and field of work entirely from protecting Christian pilgrimages and warriors to fighting against Islam .
Later, the Knights of Rhodes were kicked out of Cyprus by a wave of Islamic forces and the remaining knights were allowed to withdraw to Sicily. After few years, the king of Sicily gave the knights Malta as a headquarters for a certain fee in return, from there on they were known as Knights of Malta. In Malta again the knights changed their tactics and field of work from fighting on the ground to protecting the Christian sea trade routes and navies from and too the Levant(today known as Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and Jordan).
Later on Malta was overtook by Napoleon and the knights were dispersed into Europe loosing much of their income and power due to the many political/religious changes in Europe.  Early 1800’s the knights gathered themselves in Russia and from there tried to re-establish the links in Europe.
In WWI and afterwards the resumed their activity mainly focusing on medical care and found themselves in much need in Europe.
Today, the Knights of Malta, known as the Sovereign Order of Knights of Malta (SMOM) holds a sovereign status, has diplomatic relations with more than a hundred countries, an observer position in the UN, issues its own passports, has its own rules..etc.

Secret Societies: House of Wisdom – دار الحكمة

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The first thing I will be talking about is Secret Societies and so I will start with the first documented society and move forward in chronological order.
Note that I would like to repeat and stress on the fact that what I will be presenting is informational and aims at giving a quick glimpse about the numerous societies and clubs that I will be skimming through. The aim is not to promote or demote any society/club.

Name of Organization: House of Wisdom (دار الحكمة)

Date of Origin: 1004 AD – mid 1060s

Historic Significance: Reign of Abbasids over the Arab/Muslim world from 750 – 1258. Specifically Al Qadir was ruling during 991 – 1031.

Founder: Hassan Al Sabbah

Origin: Hassan Al Sabbah, after learning the secrets of the Ismaili faith (a sub-sect of Shia) in Egypt, returned to Persia to take his revenge from Omar El Khayyam after  he was disgraced by Omar infront of the Sultan who dismissed him from his governmental position. Hassan worked in secrecy to re-attain power by spreading his Ismaili beliefs in secret, gathering followers and building a stronghold in Mount of Alamut where Dar Al Hikmah produced “Assassins” that terrorized the government of Persia.

Work: The Assassins (or what was then the Asaseyoun). It is claimed that modern word of “Assasin” comes from that time, yet others some people claim that hey were called Hashasheen due to wide spread rumors that those individuals were drugged with Hasheesh(marijuana) to brain wash them and motivate them to do the assassinations.
PS: For further info, feel free to research on the keywords/tags I have on this post.
Enjoy!

Secret Societies & International Clubs – 1 of ??

Afif Tabsh10 Comments
In an attempt to shed light on the not-so-well-known side of civil society in the world and to give a different perspective of who are the “players” on the field in our community I will be writing a series of small posts about the various secret societies and international clubs in the world.

The information that will be presented is a compilation of interviews, readings from books/articles about the mentioned times and personal research online. It is important to specify that many of the details and issues have been excluded to simplify the concepts and to make it clearer to understand the picture without having to dwell into intensive explanations nor expecting any prior knowledge of history and details of such times.

All that will be presented is to be thought of critically and further researched if interested in understanding it in more details, and I’m more than ready to discuss any issue in more details and to give further explanations.

I hope you find the information presented interesting, eye-opening, and useful yet I hope no one becomes paranoid about the world and what is going on in life. The more we know the more powerful we are, the clearer we can plan and the better we can understand the world around us…and its always important to weigh all the odds before coming up with decisions, or stating opinions or stances towards any person, idea or organization.

In terms of secret societies, I prefer to start with the historical societies up until today so that my beloved readers get to understand more the context of how and why this society started and whether it is still there… (yes that ironically conflicts with it being “secret” ..don’t worry this too will be explained in the posts)

As for the international clubs, I will give just 4 or 5 examples of the most prominent ones…the rest I can give more details on if requested.

At this point I want your opinion …shall I start the posts with the secret socities or the international clubs? Which would you like to read about first?…one society/club at a time 🙂

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Defining Secret Society
An organization that conceals all or part of its internal activities, ceremonies, beliefs, membership.
An organization which membership is exclusive, claims to have hidden truth that are gained gradually.

Defining International Club
An organization that has membership and operates in more than one country. Its activities, membership and beliefs are open to the public. The name “club” is from the structure of the organization and the type of projects/activities it does.