I'm glad to hear this scholarly confirmation of the most logical solution to the
'Baphomet' riddle, namely that
the name is a corrupt form of 'Mahomet'.
Your remark that the witness himself (the Occitan Brother named Gaucerant) must
have known, contrary to Bernard
Marillier, that such a representation would be Islamically unacceptable, and
indeed absurd, but that he must
have known also "that exoteric Islam may differ greatly from esoteric Islam,
whose teachings, as previously
pointed out, are likely to have much in common with pre-Islamic Arab ones",
leaves me uncertain what conclusion
you wish to draw here. If you are implying that Gaucerant would have known that
some such idolatry really might
have been practiced in the region, whether or not the Templars themselves took
part in it, this seems a trifle
far fetched to me. I thionk it is more likely that like the tortured victims of
later inquisitions he had been
coached to tell a spine chilling tale for the completely ignorant.
I agree with your conclusion : fascinating though such questions are, the search
for a hidden arcanum is not of
direct political importance, though it may be of some indirect value, to
demystify the Masons, Roscrucians,
Templars, etc.
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