Word: shrine
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...entrances, opening new doors to the north, and praying facing south across the aisles toward Mecca. A few decades later, Moslem caliphs began to raise the first authentic mosques, blending Byzantine and Persian architecture, and in 691 A.D. the Caliph of Damascus, Abdul Malik Ibn Marwan, completed the great shrine called the Dome of the Rock...
...representatives of an organization forthrightly dedicated to whoopee in a good cause, the Shriners are pranksters by profession, obligation and tradition. Launched over a Manhattan lunch table in 1870 by 13 Masons determined to have more cheer than that earnest, philanthropic brotherhood provided for, the Order of the Shrine is no frivolous minor offshoot but the second highest level of all Masonry. Only 32nd-degree Masons or Knights Templar are eligible -though admittedly their degree can be attained, if a man puts his mind to study, in a matter of months. The Shriners' caste mark, worn proudly if sometimes...
Manna from Mecca. Why a fez? The most dedicated Shriner is hard put to say. The reason is that the history of the Shrine was invented after its founding, and has been elaborated ever since. The fact seems to be that one of the 13 founders happened to have made a trip to the Middle East just before the historic meeting, and thought the Arabs were quaint and Mecca romantic. And in a country of egalitarians, there is something about titles like "Imperial Potentate" or "Grand Chief Rabban" that can make any true democrat tingle...
...from Rank. Neither strong nor furious, except occasionally with their wives, most Shriners seemed less like noble pranksters than a mobilized cross section of middle-class Americans. They claim an unrestricted membership (though Negroes would be welcome, none have tested the claim, preferring a similar, separate-but-equal Negro Shrine). The organization does include a substantial number of Jews, who are apparently more interested in what one Imperial Potentate called "the opportunity for fun and play and mirth on a truly magnificent scale" than in the Shriners' proud Arabic ancestry...
Imperial Potentate Omar Carlyle Brock, 64, an Erie, Pa., businessman and 43-year member of the Masons, took the fearsome honor with due solemnity. He is a zealous worker in the Shrine's child-welfare program, which has built and maintains 17 children's hospitals and has just raised $10,000,000 to build and staff three specialized institutions for the treatment of burns (the most common of childhood's accidents) in Galveston, Boston, and Cincinnati. He succeeds to an office once held by Actor Harold Lloyd, assumes leadership of more than three-quarters of a million...