DRUZES. - A people inhabiting Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, the surroundings of Damascus and the Hawrān massif. The D. are distinguished by a religion of their own and enjoyed a particular administrative situation in the Ottoman Empire. They seem also to have had particular ethnic characteristics already before the founding of their religion, by the work of Hamzah and Darazi, in the 11th century A.D.: curious is the claim of the Druze emirs in the 17th century to be descended from Godfrey of Bouillon.
The religious system has preserved the Ismā'īlī doctrine (v. CARMATI; ISLĀM); according to which God becomes incarnate in every epoch in humanity: God himself (or at least his creative force) is conceived as composed of several principles emanating one from another, each of which becomes incarnate in a man. For the D. the Fāṭimid caliph al-Hākim (386-411 of the hegira) is the representation of God as unity: he is even worshipped and bears the title of "our lord": he is the last incarnation of God and it is not admitted that he died; he is only hidden and one day will reappear. Below al-Hākim there are five ministers incarnating different principles emanated from God (the Universal Intelligence, the Universal Soul, the Word, the Preceding, the Following). Then follow 3 classes of inferior ministers. The moral system of the Druze religion, which applies to both sexes, consists of seven precepts: truthfulness, the obligation for the adepts to watch over their mutual security, renunciation of any other religion, the obligation to keep away from the devil and from unbelievers, the obligation to recognize in all epochs the principle of the divine unity incarnate in humanity, to approve the works of al-Hākim whatever they may be, to be resigned to his will as represented by his ministers.
This learned system, however, is known only to the 'uqqāl ("intelligent"): the mass, on the other hand, is composed of the guhhāl ("ignorant"). Only the 'uqqāl take part in the religious assemblies, which are held on the night between Thursday and Friday. The most deserving 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 in the form of children, the wicked instead in the form of dogs. Polygamy is permitted and, although the law forbids it, marriage between brother and sister appears sometimes to be practiced.
The D., a warlike and daring people, have had over the course of history famous emirs, such as Fahr ad-din (known in Italy by the name "Faccardino"), who in the 17th century had relations with the grand duke of Tuscany; and the emir Bashir in the 19th century.
Bibliography2 works
Alessandro Bausani