DRUSI. - A people inhabiting Lebanon and the Anti-Lebanon, in the vicinity of Damascus and in the massif of the Hawran. The Drusi distinguish themselves by their own religion and enjoyed, within the Ottoman Empire, a special administrative status. They also seem to have had particular ethnic characteristics even before the foundation of their religion, which was established by Ḥamzah and Darazī in the 11th century A.D.; curious is the claim of the Druse emirs in the 16th century to descend from Godfrey of Bouillon.
The religious system has preserved Isma'īlite doctrine (cf. CARMATH; ISLAM), according to which God incarnates in every age in humanity: God Himself (or at least His creative force) is conceived as composed of several principles emanating one from the other, each of which incarnates in a man. For the Drusi, the Fāṭimid caliph al-Ḥākim (386-411 A.H.) is the representation of God as unity: He is the last incarnation of God, and it is not admitted that He died; He is only hidden and will reappear one day. Below al-Ḥākim there are five ministers incarnating different principles emanated from God (the Universal Intelligence, the Universal Soul, the Word, the Precedent, the Subsequent). They are followed by three classes of inferior ministers. The moral system of the Druse religion, which applies to both sexes, consists of seven precepts: truthfulness, the obligation for the initiates to ensure each other's mutual safety, renunciation of any other religion, the duty to shun the devil and unbelievers, the duty to recognize in every age the principle of divine unity incarnated in humanity, to approve of al-Ḥākim's works whatever they may be, and to be resigned to His will as represented by His ministers.
This learned system, however, is known only to the 'uqqāl (the intelligent); the masses instead are composed of thejuhhāl (the ignorant). Only the 'uqqāl take part in the religious assemblies, which are held on the night between Thursday and Friday. The most meritorious among them (one in fifty) become the "perfect" and are the religious leaders of the "nation." The people generally believe in metempsychosis: the good are reborn as children, the wicked instead as dogs. Polygamy is permitted, and despite the law's prohibition, marriage between brother and sister sometimes occurs.
The Drusi, a warlike and bold people, have had famous emirs in the course of history, such as Fakhr ad-Dīn (known in Italy by the name "Faccardino"), who in the 17th century had relations with the Grand Duke of Tuscany; and Emir Bashīr in the 19th century.