> the termudis were jewish freemasons in a lodge that may have been affiliated to the french rite of memphis, which had spread in the levant and the middle east. glauer was initiated into the lodge by old termudi and subsequently inherited his occult library. in one of these books glauer discovered a note from hussein pasha, describing the secret mystical exercises of traditional islamic alchemists, still practised by the baktashi sect of dervishes. one of the books that glauer inherited from termudi featured a note from hussein pasha, which piqued his interest in the sufi bektashi order, in regards to their alchemical and numerological practices. speculations say he might have converted to islam with sufi-orientation, although the evidence (from his own semi-autobiographical writings) is rather tenuous on this point. in his autobiographical novel der talisman des rosenkreuzers (the rosicrucian talisman), sebottendorff distinguishes between sufi-influenced turkish masonry and conventional masonry > the bektashis are a branch of shia islam that has, according to its world leader, baba mondi (edmond brahimaj), 150 million believers. they were reputed to be muslims in outward appearance only, and to practice among themselves libertinism and the freedom of the children of the spirit, wrote gershom scholem, the great scholar of sabbateanism. scholem maintained that sabbatai zevi was deeply influenced by the bektashi community; after all, the sufi sect practices their mystical rites in secret, as do sabbateans, but act in everyday life as regular muslims. indeed, in a letter sabbatai zevi wrote from albania in marvelous hebrew in 1673, seven years after converting to islam himself, he instructed his believers: chop off utterly the branches of that faith till nothing remains buried in your hearts but the root alone bury this my very great faith.
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