DRUZE

The Druze religion was founded in the eleventh century by followers of Caliph Hakim ibn Amr Allah. Its origins are in the Egyptian Isma?ili sect, which derives from monotheistic Islam combined with Greek philosophy and other influences. Its tenets include reincarnation and the transmigration of souls, and it recognizes as prophets or persons of great esteem (in addition to those of the Qur?an) such diverse figures as Hermes, Jethro (Moses' father-in-law), Jesus, and John the Baptist, and the philosophers Pythagoras, Plato, and Plotinus. In the fifteenth century, Jamal al-Din ?Abda-llah al-Tannoukhi was supposed to have compiled the existing Druze religious texts into six volumes, known under the name of "Wisdom Epistles" (Rasa?il al-Hikma), which constitute the basis of Druze doctrine. The mysteries of the Druze religion are secret; the Druze do not proselytize and have been essentially a closed community almost since the beginning.

Historically, the Druze community has practiced dissimulation (kitaman), meaning in practice that the Druze adopt local customs and are loyal to the established state.

The Druze settled in the mountains of the Shuf region of Lebanon, where they became, along with the Maronites, the dominant people in the Lebanese mountains. Currently, the Druze live in the Metn, Kesrouan, Shuf, and Hermon regions in Lebanon, in the Hauran and the Golan Heights in Syria, and in parts of Jordan, as well as in the Galilee in Israel. The opposition of the Druze to Sunni orthodoxy inclines them toward lay Lebanese parties, such as the Progressive Socialist Party. Bloody conflicts between the Druze and Christian communities were rife during the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990). On 4 August 2001, with the visit of Monseigneur Sfeir to the fief of Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, there was a reconciliation between the two communities. The great Druze communities of Lebanon are represented by the Jumblatt and Shahab families.

In Israel, the Druze number around 100,000 (plus another 18,000 in the Golan), mainly in rural areas in the Galilee, and are officially considered non-Arab. As supporters of the state, Druze serve in the Israel Defense Force (IDF). Though a privileged minority in Israel, their status has not increased their prosperity, and the use made of them by the IDF during the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, in alliance with Maronite forces and in opposition to Lebanese Druze forces, has created some conflict within the Israeli Druze community between the younger and the more conservative older generations.

SEE ALSO Ismaili;Jumblatt, Walid Kamal;Maronites;Sfeir, Nasrallah.