{"collection":"asia","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/asia/odpr/odpr09.htm","path":"asia/odpr/odpr09.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/asia/odpr/odpr09.htm","text":"Origins of the Druze People and Religion, by Philip K. Hitti, [1924]\nVarious Hypotheses:\u2014As in the case of determining the racial origins of the Druze people, so in the case of ascertaining the origin of their religion, all kinds of theories, some curious and amusing, others fantastic and na\u00efve, have been proposed. By different authors at different times the Druze religion was thought to be related to ancient Judaism, Samaritanism and Mandaeism. 1 Madame Blavatsky, the founder of theosophy, traces, in an early issue of The Theosophist, the Druze religion back to Tibetan Lamaism. 2 Others have declared the whole thing an \"enigma hardly possible to explain.\" 3\nPeriod of Concealment:\u2014The difficulties in the way of reaching a thorough and scientific appreciation of the Druze religion are due to the scarcity of outside sources, to the secrecy with which the Druzes themselves practice their religious rites and mystic ceremonies, to the carefulness with which they guard their sacred writings against the profane, to the allegorical and esoteric character of the Arabic style of the few manuscripts which have fallen into our hands, and to the legitimate practice of taqiyyah, or dissimulation (according to which a member of this religion is free to profess publicly any other dogma or creed if therein lies the path of safety)\u2014all these conspire to make the Druze riddle\none of the most baffling in the history of religious thought. 1 According to Druze teaching, they are now, pending the \"absence\" of al-\u1e24ak\u012bm, in a \"period of concealment\" (zam\u0101n al-sitr) and nothing of their religion should be divulged or promulgated.\nManuscripts:\u2014Almost the only sources, therefore, consist o the manuscripts of a hundred or so texts, many of which are didactic and polemic treatises, which as a result of local disturbances in the Druze region, particularly the invasion of Ibr\u0101h\u012bm Pasha, 1831-1838, and the civil war of 1860, found their way into the hands of scholars. One of the first manuscripts to be carried into Europe was presented in 1700 to Louis XIV by a Syrian physician, and is now deposited in the Biblioth\u00e8que Nationale. Most of these manuscripts are written in a language which from the standpoint of diction, grammar and style is quite far from the language of the Koran and bristles with contradictory and obscure passages, cryptic phrases, and ambiguous words. The present study is based on twenty or more original manuscripts, many of which are in the Robert Garrett collection at Princeton University.\nThe Historical Setting:\u2014Viewed as a distinct religious phenomenon, as an independent sphere of thought detached from its historical setting and background, Druzism does present somewhat of an enigma; but considered as an outgrowth of the Ism\u0101\u2018\u012bliyyah sect, which itself belonged to the ultra group of the Sh\u012b\u2018ah heterodoxies of Islam, and properly envisaged in the Moslem milieu out of which it arose and in which it developed, the Druze religion yields to analytical treatment and becomes comparatively easy of explanation.\nSilvestre de Sacy, the father of Arabic scholarship in Europe, whose monumental work Expos\u00e9 de la religion des Druzes (2 vols., Paris, 1838) has not yet been superseded though it appeared some\nninety years ago and before many original sources were brought to light, gives us an excellent internal interpretation of the Druze religion but does not go far in disentangling the different fibers in the intricate and complex web of the system and in tracing them back to the remote origins in the various religions or philosophical and metaphysical schools of thought. And whereas many eminent scholars in recent times, chief among whom stands the late Ignacz Goldziher of the University of Budapest, have addressed themselves to the task of analyzing the component elements that entered into the composition of Sunni (orthodox) and Sh\u012b\u2018ite Islam, the Druze sect still remains without an interpreter in the field of the history of religion.\nWhimsical Character of al-\u1e24ak\u012bm:\u2014The basic and distinctive dogma of Druze theology is the deification of the young F\u0101\u1e6dimite Caliph (996-1020).\nSunni Moslem historians, such as al-Dhahabi, ibn-al-Ath\u012br, abu-al-Fida, ibn-al-Qal\u0101nisi, 1 al-R\u016bdhr\u0101wari 2 and ibn-Khallik\u0101n, 3 remembering him as the heretic who abolished the five pillars of Islam and ordered the names of the early Caliphs associated with a curse in the public prayer, have portrayed him in terms of a medieval Nero, tyrannical and unbalanced to the point of mental derangement. The Christian historians, such as Ya\u1e25ya ibn-Sa\u2018\u012bd, 4 al-Mak\u012bn 5 and Bar-Hebraeus, 6 associating his memory with the destruction of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem \"leaving not one stone upon another\" 7 and the revival of the old regulations,\nfirst enacted by the \u2018Abb\u0101sid al-Mutawakkil, which made it incumbent upon all Christians to wear distinctively colored clothes with heavy wooden crosses dangling from their necks, were equally merciless in his condemnation. Through Gibbon, 1 who paints quite a dark picture of al-\u1e24ak\u012bm, the English-speaking world has become acquainted with him as a bizarre and whimsical character. What we have from the pen of these writers is not a portrait but a caricature.\nThe Druze writers, while not denying some of his excesses, interpret them allegorically and symbolically. 2 His freakishness only serves to intensify the belief in his superhuman character. His extraordinary conduct proves his divine nature.\nThe fact that al-\u1e24ak\u012bm introduced many reforms regulating weights and measures, fought immorality with police ordinances and succeeded in establishing a religious community that has survived for nine centuries like a fossil\u2014and if ever there was a fossil in history that certainly is the Druze community\u2014amidst a hostile environment indicates that he was not the kind of a maniac or fool whose biography these early writers have left us. (See Appendix B.)\nHis Deification:\u2014Strange as the apotheosis of al-\u1e24ak\u012bm may seem\u2014especially in view of the black picture left us by his biographies\u2014yet the idea itself was not a novel one in Islam. Prior to the rise of Druzism, different Sh\u012b\u2018ah sects have held different shades of the belief that \u2018Ali and his successor Im\u0101ms were infallible supernatural beings endowed to some degree with the divine essence. The Ism\u0101\u2018\u012bliyyah sect, from whose bosom Druzism sprang as did also the Assassins of Crusading fame, together with al-Qar\u0101mi\u1e6dah, which between the ninth and twelfth centuries swept through Western Asia, had both venerated certain descendants of \u2018Ali and hailed them as infallible rulers of the world.\nThe step from that position to an incarnational philosophy of theism is not, indeed, a long one; and a few of the extremist (Ghul\u0101t) Sh\u012b\u2018ah sects had taken it. In the polemic literature of Islam, and particularly in the works of al-Baghd\u0101di 1 (\u2020 1037 A.D.), ibn-\u1e24azm 2 (\u2020 1063) and al-Shahrast\u0101ni 3 (\u2020 1153), we have preserved for us among the semi-religious, semi-philosophical sects of unorthodox Islam the names of many groups with incarnational theories which may be considered the prototypes of the Druze al-\u1e24ak\u012bm cult. First among these was al-Saba\u2019iyyah, so called after a Jew who declared \u2018Ali god. Al-Baghd\u0101di 4 devotes a chapter to the incarnational sects (al-\u1e24ul\u016bliyyah) and enumerates ten different ones.\nThe Nu\u1e63ayriyyah, who preceded the Druzes and had early contacts with them, as attested by the Druze manuscripts, 5 and who are represented until the present day by three villages 6 in the Druze district at W\u0101di-al-Taym, deify \u2018Ali. 7 \u2018Ali-God adherents are also to be found today in a sect of Turcoman peasants at Qars (Ardagh\u0101n) whose very name \"\u2018Ali-Il\u0101hi\" 8 betrays their characteristic belief.\nEven in other than Sh\u012b\u2018ite circles of Islam, the elevation of a mortal to the ranks of the deity finds not an altogether\nuncommon expression. The case of the Safi al-\u1e24all\u0101j, 1 who was crucified in Baghd\u0101d in 922 A.D. because he identified himself with God, and his fellow self-deified \u1e62\u016bfi, al-Shalmagh\u0101ni, 2 who was beheaded also in Baghd\u0101d in 934 A.D., may be cited as illustrations.\nAl-\u1e24\u0101kim as the Messiah:\u2014Having determined the antecedents of the Druze incarnational dogma in the preceding Islamic thought, our next task is to push back our query into the intellectual ancestry of that Islamic idea in the pre-Islamic realm of thinking. The influence of the Christian incarnation precedent must have been too widespread and too apparent to have escaped the attention of the early Moslem thinkers. The great ibn-Khald\u016bn and before him al-Shahrast\u0101ni 3 blame the incarnational Moslem heresy on Judaeo-Christian sects. Among modern Western scholars, de Sacy, 4 van Vloten 5 and Goldziher 6 have laid great stress on the Messianic tendencies in early Islam as the main source of Sh\u012b\u2018ism. In the case of the Druzes, \u1e24amzah, of course, with an eye upon the Copts of Egypt and other Christians, goes so far as to declare al-\u1e24ak\u012bm \"the Messiah.\" 7\nHis argument in defense of deification is clever:\u2014\"If ye Christians and Jews believe that God spoke to Moses through a dry tree and, on another occasion, through a mountain . . ., is it not then meet to believe that our Lord [al-\u1e24ak\u012bm] is a more worthy means through whom God manifests to the world his power and behind whom he conceals himself?\" 8\nIn the Druze catechism, al-\u1e24ak\u012bm is repeatedly identified with \"the living Messiah.\" 1 Likewise Bah\u0101\u2019-al-D\u012bn, in his turn, identifies \u1e24amzah with the Messiah. 2 In his many epistles directed to the Christians, Bah\u0101\u2019-al-D\u012bn often calls the Christians \"saints\" and \"assemblies of saints.\" (See Appendix D.)\nA Series of Divine Incarnations:\u2014The guiding thought of Druze theogony, as it was with the Ism\u0101\u2018\u012bliyyah, is the belief in a succession of divine manifestations through a progressive series. Hence with the Druzes, al-\u1e24ak\u012bm is not only the incarnation of God but the final and most perfect manifestation, having been preceded by nine others among whom figure al-B\u0101r (Barkhoda), \u2018Ali and the ancestors of al-\u1e24ak\u012bm in the F\u0101\u1e6dimite Caliphate.\nAccording to a further development of this idea, the divine humanity of God, though it appears under different names in different countries and times, is essentially one and always the same in its diverse manifestations. The human figure serves only as a veil to hide the divine essence behind.\nIn contrast to the Druze ten successive incarnations, the Nu\u1e63ayriyyah believe in seven only, corresponding to the seven heavens and the seven planets. 3\nTo this same sphere of thought should be consigned the recent Bah\u0101\u2019i theory of divine manifestations which is an outgrowth of B\u0101bi and Sheikhite ideas which in turn flourished in the fertile Sh\u012b\u2018ah soil of Persia. And as in modern Bah\u0101\u2018ism so in ancient Druzism, resort is had to Pythagorean subtleties and to the occult art of manipulating letters and combinations of letters assigning cabalistic numerical values 4 to them in order to\ndetermine the periods that elapsed between one manifestation and the other.\nThe Disappearance and Triumphal Return of al-\u1e24\u0101kim:\u2014Closely allied to the incarnational theory, and working out as a corollary from it, was the belief in the immortal character of the Im\u0101m in whose case \"disappearance\" (ghaybah) takes the place of death and whose final \"return\" (raj\u2018ah) is expected so that he may lead his people in triumph to a new and happy age. When, therefore, al-\u1e24ak\u012bm, on that fateful day in 1020 A.D., went on his usual promenade to the Muqa\u1e6d\u1e6dam hill just outside of the city of Cairo never to return\u2014probably because he fell a victim to a plot prearranged by his sister Sitt-al-Mulk 1\u2014his \"admirers refused to believe in his death and began to expect his return.\" 2 They still hold that he is in a state of temporary occultation. History has preserved for us the names of few who on different occasions tried to impersonate the returned al-\u1e24ak\u012bm. In his dramatic work entitled \"The Return of the Druzes,\" Browning tells the story of one of these impostors.\nThis \"hidden Im\u0101m\" idea was carefully worked out by many of the extreme Sh\u012b\u2018ah sects prior to Druzism, and reached its most elaborate expression as a doctrine in the Ism\u0101\u2018\u012bliyyah group. Its psychological basis should surely be sought in the strong but unfulfilled desires and hopes of a persecuted and depressed people (as the Sh\u012b\u2018ah were under the Umayyads and \u2018Abb\u0101sids) with the supreme ambition for a saviour-leader whose coming shall usher in for them a new era of liberty and prosperity.\nThis Moslem Mahdi idea was subjected to Semitic Judaeo-Christian Messianic influences on the one hand, and, in its later development, to Iranian-Mandaean influences. The case of the prophet Elijah, called throughout the Christian East \"the Living One\" (al-\u1e24ay), was a prototype of the ever-living Im\u0101m. The stories of the assumption of Moses and the ascension of Isaiah in the non-canonical literature of the Bible might have served\nas stimuli. The expression of the \"hidden Im\u0101m\" Sh\u012b\u2018ite doctrine 1 was a reflex of Isaiah, chapter XI. The second advent of Christ was paralleled by the \"return\" of the Mahdi bringing politico-religious restoration. 2\nIndo-Iranian Influences:\u2014The problem of disentangling and sorting the different elements\u2014labelling each Judaeo-Christian, Hellenistic or Zoroastrian\u2014which went into the make-up of the historic Sh\u012b\u2018ah schisms is one bristling with difficulties and uncertainties. How much did Sh\u012b\u2018ah owe to western Neo-Platonic philosophies on the one hand, and how much to eastern Persian and Indian systems of thought on the other, is not always easy to ascertain at the present stage of research.\nModern European Semitic scholars, led by Ignacz Goldziher, have, however, been inclined to underrate the eastern influence. Certain French Persian scholars, on the other hand, such as E. Blochet and Baron Carra de Vaux 3 have tried to attribute to Persianizing influences a great many of the cardinal Sh\u012b\u2018ah beliefs. The former scholar traces the origin of the incarnational and Mahdi idea to Zoroastrian sources, Barham Amavand being the Iranian Messiah. 4\nFurther investigation will probably reveal that the Indo-Iranian influence on the rise and the development of the Sh\u012b\u2018ah sects was greater than we now realize. That such influence was clearly recognized by early Moslem scholars is evinced by the fact that al-Baghd\u0101di, 5 for instance, goes so far as to exclude the B\u0101\u1e6diniyyah, including the Qar\u0101mi\u1e6dah and Ism\u0101\u2018\u012bliyyah, from the list of Moslem sects and to classify them under Maj\u016bs (Magians), i.e., Zoroastrians. A tradition (\u1e25ad\u012bth) puts in the mouth of the Prophet himself the following words: \"The Qadarites are the Magians of my people.\" 6 Besides, there is no gainsaying the fact\nthat Sh\u012b\u2018ah sprang up on Persian \u2018Ir\u0101qi soil, that its chief protagonists have been mostly Persian, and that until the present day it constitutes the state religion of the kingdom of Persia.\nIn its further development the \"return\" doctrine (parousia) gave rise to interesting eschatological ideas to which unbridled human fancies contributed their fantastic share. According to Druze doctrine the \"return\" of al-\u1e24ak\u012bm will result in the triumph of the Unitarian religion and the worldly reward of its adherents, who will thus become high office-holders, to the discomfiture and affliction of all infidels and apostates who are then metamorphosed into menial servants, swine and dogs. 1 This corresponds in general to the resurrection day.\nUnitarians:\u2014The Druze conception of the deity is declared by them to be one of strict and uncompromising unity. In their desire to maintain a rigid confession of unity they stripped from God all attributes (tanz\u012bh) which may savor of, or lead into, polytheism (shirk). In Allah there are no attributes distinct from his essence. He is wise, mighty, just, &c., not by wisdom, might, justice, &c., but by his own essence. There is neither \"how,\" \"when\" nor \"where\" about him: he is incomprehensible.\nIn this dogma, as in the others, the Druzes were no originators. They had for precedent that interesting semi-philosophical, semi-religious body which flourished under al-Ma\u2019m\u016bn and was known by the name of al-Mu\u2018tazilah 2 and the equally interesting fraternal order of the \"Brethren of Purity\" (Ikhw\u0101n al-\u1e62afa).\nThe Druze favorite name for themselves is Muwa\u1e25\u1e25id\u016bn 3\u2014Unitarians\u2014believers in one and only one God. In this they\nfollow the precedent of the Mu\u2018tazilah who insisted on calling themselves \"The People of Justice and Unity\" (Ahl al-\u2018Adl w-al-Taw\u1e25\u012bd).\nThe Process of Emanation:\u2014Having accepted the Allah of the Mu\u2018tazilah and \"Brethren of Purity,\" already reduced to a flimsy abstraction, the Druze mind could not rest until it had personified God's mind, will, word, &c., and made separate beings out of each of them, constituting the five supreme ministers (\u1e24ud\u016bd, literally, bounds or precepts).\nThe first one whom the primeval God created, and that by a process of emanation from himself, 1 was the \"Universal Mind,\" \u1e24amzah himself, the real founder of the Druze religion and its supreme pontiff who thus becomes the ruler of the universe. Even on the day of judgment he promotes and demotes whomsoever he pleases, a sort of proxy or demiurge for the divine \u1e24\u0101kim. In the meantime an \"Opposer\" (\u1e0cudd) 2 is created by the same process of emanation, a kind of antagonist to the \"Universal Mind,\" whose object it is to nullify the work of the Mind. This makes it necessary for God to create, by emanation from the \"Universal Mind,\" a second minister\u2014the \"Universal Soul.\" This \"Universal Soul\" is in the position of a wife to the \"Universal Mind,\" and from it emanates the \"Word.\" By similar processes the \"Right Wing\" or \"Precedent\" and the \"Left Wing\" or \"Follower\" are brought into existence, the \"Left Wing\" being none other than al-Muqtana Bah\u0101\u2019-al-D\u012bn, the fifth and last supreme minister who stands at the head of a lower hierarchy 3 and whose multitudinous treatises and epistles, together\nwith those of \u1e24amzah, form the Druze sacred literature. This Bah\u0101\u2019-al-D\u012bn may have been of Christian origin 1 as his writings reveal unusual familiarity with the New Testament and Christian liturgy. (See Appendix E.)\nThe Neo-Platonic Source:\u2014We are evidently here in the atmosphere of the \"emanation\" theory which characterizes both Neo-Platonic 2 and Gnostic schools of philosophy and which must have filtered into the Druze system through Qar\u0101mi\u1e6dah and \"Brethren of Purity\" channels. According to Professor Scott in Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, 3 \"The first characteristic feature of Gnosticism is that at the head of the Universe stands a supreme God who is not so much a personal Deity as the abstract ground of all existence. From the supreme God there proceed a number of beings in a descending scale of dignity who are arranged in pairs, male and female.\"\nThe third minister, the \"Word,\" is presumably an echo of the Christian Alexandrian Logos.\nThe doctrine of \"Opposers,\" or the simultaneous revelation of the Deity in a good principle and an evil principle, parallels the Zoroastrian dualistic doctrine and reminds us of the Syzygy theory in the pseudo-Clementines. 4 The Zoroastrian influence is further shown by the reference to God as the \"light\" with the opposing principle as the \"darkness.\" 5 A further working out of this same principle in the Druze system is in the case of the\ncreation of the prophets where many of them have \"Opposers.\" Adam for instance has \u1e24\u0101rith ibn-Tarm\u0101\u1e25 against him. 1\nLike Neo-Platonism and Gnosticism, the Nu\u1e63ayriyyah assume an agent of creation, a demiurge, in the person of \u2018Ali. The Mufawwa\u1e0diyyah 2 (the Believers in Entrusting) taught that God had entrusted Mu\u1e25ammad with the creation and management of the universe, but Mu\u1e25ammad in turn entrusted \u2018Ali with the task. But the \"Brethren of Purity\" have perhaps contributed more than any one else towards the introduction into and the formulation of the emanation-demiurge idea in Islam, and that because through their religious philosophic works, 3 which were encyclopaedic in their character, they not only gave technical expression in Arabic to the foreign concepts involved but popularized the concepts and gave the expressions currency.\nInferior Ministers:\u2014Below the five superior ministers and standing in a subordinate position to them are three orders of minor ministers which we may term: \"Propagator\" (D\u0101\u2018\u012b), \"Licensed\" (Ma\u2019dh\u016bn), and \"Pioneer\" (Muk\u0101sir or Naq\u012bb). 4 Their functions are not clearly defined in the Druze manuscripts, but seem to be of the missionary type. This can be ascertained from the meaning of the Arabic names applied to them and from a study of corresponding officials in the B\u0101\u1e6diniyyah system, which was one of the best and most efficiently organized systems of religious propaganda that Islam ever developed.\nThe \"Propagator\" assumes the r\u014dle of the chief agent for the spreading of the faith. The \"Licensed\" has authority to preach, but is subject to the direction and guidance of the \"Propagator.\" The \"Pioneer\" assumes responsibility for arousing the doubts of the would-be convert regarding his old beliefs, thus preparing him for the reception of the novel religion as soon as it is\npreached to him by a \"Licensed\" or a \"Propagator.\" His office, as the Arabic name indicates, is one of breaking up and destroying.\nHere again the male and female principles are represented in these ministers in their relation one to the other, and to the upper hierarchy. The \"Propagator\" is in the position of a wife with respect to the \"\u1e24ujjah\", and of a husband with respect to the \"Licensed.\" The \"Licensed\" is in the position of a wife to the \"Propagator,\" and a husband to the \"Pioneer.\" The same double status applies to the \"Pioneer.\" 1\nBelow these inferior ministers stand the rank and file of Druze believers.\nSeven Major Prophets:\u2014Next in rank to the divine ministers in the Druze hierarchy stand the prophets. The prophetic succession tallies in general with the preceding Ism\u0101'\u012bliyyah series of seven. 2 Adam heads the list which includes Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus (\u2018\u012asa ibn-Y\u016bsuf), Mu\u1e25ammad, and Mu\u1e25ammad ibn-Ism\u0101\u2018il. Each one of these legislating prophets (N\u0101\u1e6diq) has by his side a minor prophet (As\u0101s) acting as a lieutenant or substitute and having under him twelve disciples (\u1e24ujjah). The substitute, also called \"silent\" (\u1e62\u0101mit), utters no new doctrine but merely teaches and develops that which he has received from his chief, the legislative prophet. The substitute represents the female and the legislator the male principles. 3 The list of substitutes includes Ishmael, Aaron, Simon and \u2018Ali, and that of disciples, Enoch, Daniel, Plato and other biblical and Greek characters. 4 Each \"period\" or \"cycle\" is introduced by a legislative prophet. Between one legislative prophet and the other are seven intervening Im\u0101ms of whom the first is in each case the trusted and intimate substitute (As\u0101s, \u1e62\u0101mit) of his chief, the legislating prophet (N\u0101\u1e6diq).\nSeven a Sacred Number:\u2014As in the case of the \"periods\" between the successive incarnations, so in the case of the prophetic successions, the \"periods\" or, \"cycles\" are all nicely arranged and determined by cabalistic figuring in which the numbers seven and seventy, 1 as is to be expected, take a prominent place. The Pythagorean origin of this system of computation is not difficult to detect. Regarding the mystic nature of the number seven, Bah\u0101\u2019-al-D\u012bn reasons thus: \"Everything when it gets to be seven ends and should be replaced by another. For example the seven days, when they end they begin over again. . . Also the heavens are seven, the earths are seven, the climates are seven, the height of man by his own span is seven, and the orifices in his face are seven. Likewise the legislative prophets are seven, their substitutes are seven and the intervening Im\u0101ms between one legislator and the other are seven.\" 2\nFollowing their spiritual ancestors, the Ism\u0101\u2018\u012bliyyah, the Druzes also believe in seven heavens, seven seas, seven earths and seven hidden Im\u0101ms. The identification of the Im\u0101ms with the heavens becomes an easy step and betrays ancient Babylonian and Chaldaean astrological influences. Ism\u0101\u2018il ibn-Mu\u1e25ammad is identified with the first heaven; Mu\u1e25ammad ibn \u2018Abdull\u0101h, with the fourth; al-\u1e24usayn ibn-Mu\u1e25ammad, with the fifth and \u2018Abdull\u0101h ibn-al-Mahdi with the seventh. 3\nExcellence of Druze System:\u2014Each one of the Druze legislator-prophets abrogates in his turn the law of the preceding one. So did the Ism\u0101\u2018\u012bliyyah prophets. The antecedent of this general idea should be sought in the abrogation by Mu\u1e25ammad of the Jewish law 4 and is in harmony, though not identical, with the Marcionite Gnostic theories. As a corollary to that, the Druzes consider all former religions, including Christianity, Judaism and\n[paragraph continues] Islam as forerunners and varied types of Druzism, which supersedes and excels them all.\nAdam:\u2014Of special interest to us are Adam and Jesus who seem to stand above the other prophets and share in the divine essence. A number of Jewish Christian sects, such as the Essenes and Nazarenes, adopted this gnostic view, which, combined with Persian and old Babylonian mythology, furnished Mani with the doctrine of the original man. The Adam of the Druze theology, therefore, is not exactly the Adam of Genesis but the \"original man\" 1 of the Manichaeans, the Adam Kadmon 2 of the Jewish cabala.\nCertain Moslem sects, like the Mu\u1e25ammadiyyah, went so far as to declare the divinity of Adam.\nJesus:\u2014The Jesus (\u2018\u012asa ibn-Y\u016bsuf) of the Druze manuscripts is also somewhat different from the Jesus of the New Testament. He is rather the Moslem Jesus patterned after the conception of him by the ancient heretic sect of the Docetae who held that Christ suffered only in appearance. This doctrine was handed down to the Moslems probably through Manichaean channels. 3 The Manichaean movement, which arose in close connection with Mandaeanism in \u2018Ir\u0101q or southern Babylonia, about the middle of the third century A.D., and which, as al-Fihrist declares, was a blend of the old Magian cult with Christianity, 4 was Iranian in its mythology and cosmological beliefs. It exercised a great influence over the Moslem sects in al-\u2018Iraq, which was also rich in Jewish and Christian sects and heresies.\nThe B\u0101\u1e6diniyyah:\u2014Having deviated from the letter as well as from the word of Allah as revealed in the Koran, and without seeming to abrogate altogether its legislative precepts, certain schools of thought, designated by orthodox theologians B\u0101\u1e6diniyyah, found it expedient to resort to a new and ingenious device\u2014that of interpreting the religious facts esoterically or allegorically. Though classified by al-Baghd\u0101di, al-Shahrast\u0101ni and ibn-\u1e24azm as \"sects,\" the B\u0101\u1e6diniyyah were rather unorganized philosophical schools of thought. They belonged in the main to the Qar\u0101mi\u1e6dah and Ism\u0101\u2018\u012bliyyah sects, from which Druzism sprang, and to certain \u1e62\u016bfi fraternities. Truth, according to the cardinal B\u0101\u1e6diniyyah concept, is to be ascertained by the discovery of an inner meaning (b\u0101\u1e6din, hence the appellation B\u0101\u1e6diniyyah = Innerites) of which the outer form is a mere veil intended to keep the truth from the eyes of the uninitiate.\nThis device put at once into the hands of the Sh\u012b\u2018ah schismatic sects a powerful weapon which dealt deadly blows to the core of Islam leaving only its outside shell. The shadow was there but the substance had gone. Meanwhile it enabled its adepts to appropriate from non-Moslem sources whatever suited their own convenience.\nThus through \u1e62\u016bfi and Sh\u012b\u2018ah channels, Druzism was made to enter into the inheritance of Philo and early esoteric exegetes.\nDarazi, one of the founders of the Druze system\u2014if system it could be called\u2014was a B\u0101\u1e6dini missionary, as we are told by many of his biographers. 1\nThe Mu\u1e25ammadan Law Abrogated:\u2014Between unbridled allegorical interpretation of the law and its virtual suspension lies one short step, and that step was actually taken by \u1e24amzah, the real founder of the Druze religion. Following the Ism\u0101\u2018\u012bliyyah precedent, \u1e24amzah, in his Kit\u0101b al-Naq\u1e0d al-Khafi, went so far as to abolish the so-called five pillars of Islam, including fasting,\npilgrimage and almsgiving, and substituted for them four articles of faith relating to the knowledge of God, of \u1e24amzah, the ministers, and the seven moral precepts. 1 These precepts enjoin the love of truth in speech, watching over one another's safety, renouncing other religions, recognizing the existence in all ages of the principle of divine unity in al-\u1e24\u0101kim and acquiescing in his actions whatever they be. 2\nOn account of this, orthodox Islam never hesitated to exclude Druzism from its fold. In fact certain conservative canonists, like the puritan ibn-Taymiyyah (1263-1328 A.D.), whose legal system greatly influenced the rise of the Wahh\u0101bi movement in Nejd, went so far as to express a religious opinion (fatwa) favoring \"warring against the Druzes as a more meritorious duty than warring against the Armenians, because the former are included in the Moslem territory but are not of it.\" 3\nThe Mystic Element:\u2014Akin to the esoteric conception of the scriptures is the principle of mysticism which found its highest expression in Islam in the \u1e62\u016bfi movement and traces of which are prominent in the Druze initiate view of life. \u1e62\u016bfism began as asceticism, became in succession mystical and theosophical, and finally advanced to extreme pantheism. The four principal sources of \u1e62\u016bfism are Christianity, Neo-Platonism, Gnosticism and Buddhism. The Neo-Platonic character of Moslem \u1e62\u016bfism has been rendered clear by the contributions of two English scholars, E. G. Browne and R. A. Nicholson. It would, however, be a mistake to ignore entirely the influence of the Buddhist view upon the later development of historic \u1e62\u016bfism, especially after Islam had spread eastward to the confines of China and brought Indian thought within its horizon. The encyclopaedic author of al-Fihrist 4 (\u2020 996) quotes at some length from an archaic version\nof a Buddhist book. The monumental piece of Arabic literature al-Agh\u0101ni 1 has left us at least one portrayal of an unmistakable Buddhistic view of life. And the Zind\u012bq monks, described by al J\u0101\u1e25i\u1e93, 2 were, according to Goldziher, \"Either Indian Sadhus, or Buddhist monks or at least their imitators.\" 3 Under Indian influence the pantheistic idea in \u1e62\u016bfi Islam becomes more apparent.\nSheikhs:\u2014The Druzes share with their intellectual ancestors\u2014the \u1e62\u016bfis, Ism\u0101\u2018\u012bliyyah and Qar\u0101mi\u1e6dah\u2014both the esoteric interpretation of the law and the mystical outlook on life. Their community is divided into \u2018Uqq\u0101l, initiate, intelligent, spiritual; and Juhh\u0101l, uninitiate, ignorant, worldly. A course \u1e63\u016bf 4 (wool) outer garment is the distinguishing dress of the former, among whom the most meritorious Aj\u0101w\u012bd lead an almost ascetic life.\nThe \u2018Uqq\u0101l are also called \"Sheikhs,\" 5 an Arabic word connoting old age, seniority and respect. This word has in recent years been introduced into the English language and corrupted in both pronunciation and meaning.\nTo the high rank of enlightened \u2018Uqq\u0101l, no one can aspire whose character has not marked him out as one entirely trustworthy and capable of extreme secrecy. Before admission, however, he must be subjected to a rigorous process of long trial and probation. Then follows the ceremonial rite of induction. This secret ceremony has been witnessed and described by only one or two outsiders throughout the whole history of the Druze religion.\nOnce admitted to the favored rank, the Sheikh begins to wear a heavy white turban, and abstains from gaudy colors, swearing and obscene language. His deportment becomes dignified and reserved. Under no condition is he thereafter to touch alcoholic liquor or to smoke. He may even refrain from eating at the table of a wealthy man or government official lest something of the money used in buying the food might have been illegitimately acquired.\n24:1 Court de Gebelin in Monde primitif, t. 8, p. 3, tries to make it a branch of \"Sab\u00e9isme.\" Cf. Baron de Bock, Essai sur l\u2019histoire du Sab\u00e9isme, auquel on a joint un cat\u00e9chisme, qui contient les principaux dogmes de la religion des Druses, op. cit., pp. 136 seq.\n24:2 Springett, Secret Sects of Syria, pp. 234-247.\n24:3 Guys, La Nation Druse, pp. 13-15.\n25:1 True to the principle of taqiyyah, \u1e62\u0101li\u1e25 ibn-Ya\u1e25ya, himself probably a Druze, from whose pen we have the best history of Beir\u016bt (Ta\u2019r\u012bkh, ed. Cheikho, Beir\u016bt, 1902) written in the fifteenth century, does not even mention the Druzes by name.\n26:1 Dhayl Ta\u2018r\u012bkh Dimashq, ed. H. F. Amedroz (Beir\u016bt, 1908). pp. 44-50, 55-7f.\n26:2 Dhayl Kit\u0101b Taj\u0101rib al-Umam, ed. Amedroz (Oxford, 1921), III, 233 seq., English translation by D. S. Margoliouth, vol. VI, 246-247.\n26:3 Wafay\u0101t al-A\u2018y\u0101n (Cairo, 1299 A.H.), III, 4-7, English translation by MacGuckin de Slane (4 vols., Paris, 1842-1871), III, 449 seq.\n26:4 Op. cit.\n26:5 Op. cit.\n26:6 Abu-al-Faraj ibn-al-\u2018Ibri, Mukhta\u1e63ar al-Duwal (Beir\u016bt, 1890), pp. 312-313.\n26:7 Al-Qal\u0101nisi, op. cit., p. 67.\n27:1 Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ed. H. H. Milman (a new edition in five volumes, New York, 1845), IV, 173.\n27:2 \u1e24amzah, Kit\u0101b f\u012bhi \u1e24aq\u0101\u2019iq Ma, MS.\n28:1 Mukhta\u1e63ar al-Farq bayn al-Firaq, ed. Philip K. Hitti (Cairo, 1924). Al-Baghd\u0101di, al-Farq bayn al-Firaq, ed. Bedr (Cairo, 1910), partly done into English by Kate Chambers Seelye and entitled Moslem Schisms and Sects (New York, 1920).\n28:2 Al-Fi\u1e63al fi al-Milal (Cairo, 1317 A.H.).\n28:3 Al-Milal w-al-Ni\u1e25al, on the margin of ibn-\u1e24azm. Translated by T. Haarbr\u00fccker under the title Asch-Schahrast\u0101ni, Religionspartheien and Philosophen-Schulen (Halle, 1850).\n28:4 Ed. Hitti, op. cit., pp. 160-161.\n28:5 An early Druze MS. al-Radd \u2018ala al-Ris\u0101lah al-D\u0101mighah li-al-F\u0101siq al-Nu\u1e63ayri was written by \u1e24amzah to refute the charges of a Nu\u1e63ayri.\n28:6 These are: \u2018Aynf\u012bt, Za\u2018\u016bra and Ghajar. They lie not far from B\u0101niy\u0101s, ancient Caesarea Philippi.\n28:7 R. Dussaud, Histoire et Religion des Nosairis (Paris, 1904), p. 53.\n28:8 Saeed Khan, \"The Sect of Ahl-i-\u1e24aqq\" in The Moslem World (New York), Jan., 1927, pp. 31-42.\n29:1 Abu-al-Fida, op. cit., II, 75; ibn-Khallik\u0101n, op. cit., I, 261 seq. = de Slane Translation, I, 423 seq.; De Lacy O\u2019Leary, Arab Thought and its Place in History (London, 1922), p. 193; L. Massignon, al-\u1e24all\u0101j (Paris, 1922), vol. I, pp. 292-329.\n29:2 Y\u0101q\u016bt, Mu\u2018jam al-Udab\u0101\u2019, ed. Margoliouth (Leyden, 1907), I, 302; Duncan B. Macdonald, op. cit.; p. 185.\n29:3 Op. cit., II, 10.\n29:4 Expos\u00e9, I, XXXI seq.\n29:5 Recherches sur la domination arabe, le chiitisme et les croyances messianiques sous le khalifat des omayyades (Amsterdam, 1894), pp. 54 seq.\n29:6 Vorlesungen \u00fcber den Islam (2nd ed., Heidelberg, 1925), pp. 3, 17, 520 and Chap. V, \"Das Sektenwesen.\"\n29:7 \u1e24amzah, Khabar al-Yah\u016bd w-al-Na\u1e63\u0101ra, MS.\n29:8 Kashf al-Haq\u0101\u2019iq in C. Seybold, \"Die Drusenschrift,\" Kit\u0101b al-Noqa\u1e6d (Leipzig, 1902), p. 92.\n30:1 Adler, op. cit., pp. 121, 132.\n30:2 See his epistle entitled al-Mas\u012b\u1e25iyyah (Christianity), MS., and Appendix E.\n30:3 Dr. Wolff; \"Ausz\u00fcge aus dem Katechismus der Nossairier,\" Zeitschrift der Deutschen morgenl\u00e4ndischen Gesellschaft (1849), III, 303.\n30:4 This science is represented in Islam by the \"\u1e24ur\u016bfi\" school and the Bekt\u0101shi order of dervishes. See Goldziher, Vorlesungen, pp. 246, 274, 362; E. G. Browne, Persian Literature under Tartar Dominion (Cambridge University Press, 1920), pp. 370-375; Browne, \"Literature and Doctrine of the \u1e24ur\u016bfi Sect,\" Journal Royal Asiatic Society, Jan., 1898.\n31:1 \u1e24amzah may have had a hand in the conspiracy. Guys, La Nation Druse, p. 69.\n31:2 Al-Qal\u0101nisi, op. cit., 79-80; ibn-Khallik\u0101n, op. cit., III, 7; Appendix C.\n32:1 Cf. e.g. the Karbiyyah doctrine in al-Baghd\u0101di, ed. Hitti, pp. 36-37.\n32:2 See G. van Vloten, \"Zur Abbasidengeschidite,\" ZDMG, LII, 218 seq.\n32:3 Le mahom\u00e9tisme, le g\u00e9nie s\u00e9mitique et le g\u00e9nie aryen dans l\u2019Islam (Paris, 1898), p. 112.\n32:4 E. Blochet, op. cit., pp. 126 seq.\n32:5 Ed. Hitti, pp. 23,170 seq.\n32:6 Ibid., p. 16; al-Shahrast\u0101ni, op. cit., I, S4.\n33:1 See Druze catechism in Adler, op. cit., pp. 122-123; de Bock, op. cit., pp. 147-148; \"A Catechism of the Druzes,\" Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly Statement (London, 1886), pp. 39-40.\n33:2 al-Shahrast\u0101ni, I, 55; Mas\u2018\u016bdi, Mur\u016bj al-Dhahab, Texte et Traduction par C. Barbier de Meynard (Paris, 1871), VI, 20.\n33:3 The Moorish dynasty which originated with ibn-Tumart in the 12th century and conquered all northern Africa and Moslem Spain bore the same name corrupted through Spanish into \"Almohades.\" The same name is a favorite one with the modern Wahh\u0101bis of Nejd.\n34:1 For this process of creation, see Mukhta\u1e63ar al-Bay\u0101n fi Majra al-Zam\u0101n, MS. (translated in part by Guys, Th\u00e9ogonie des Druses, Paris, 1863, pp. 3-84). The theory was first promulgated by \u1e24amzah, Kashf al-Haq\u0101\u2019iq and in other MSS.\n34:2 Differently translated into \"Rival\" by de Sacy and Guys, and \"Contrast\" by Friedlaender.\n34:3 There was a hierarchy of missionaries graded into D\u0101\u2018i, Ma\u2019dh\u016bn, and Muk\u0101sir.\n35:1 De Sacy, Expos\u00e9, I, 85, n. I. In his Epistle to Emperor Constantine and in the one entitled \"Christianity,\" Bah\u0101\u2019-al-D\u012bn confuses John the Evangelist with John the Baptist and John Chrysostom. He identifies \u1e24amzah with Christ and finds in the \"three days\" in which Jesus said he could rebuild the temple direct reference to \u1e24amzah. He also uses parables that breathe the same atmosphere as those of the New Testament. See one of his parables in de Sacy, Chrestomathie Arabe (Paris, 1826), I, 304-309.\n35:2 See Goldziher, \"Neuplatonische and gnostische Elemente im \u1e24ad\u012bt,\" Zeitschrift f\u00fcr Assyriologie (1909), XXII, 317 seq.\n35:3 Article \"Gnosticism.\"\n35:4 Recognitiones, III, S9, 61; Homilies, II, I S.\n35:5 Cf. Friedlaender, Journal American Oriental Society, XXIX, I 16.\n36:1 \u1e24amzah, al-Sirah al-Mustaq\u012bmah, MS.\n36:2 Al-Baghd\u0101di, ed. Hitti, p. 157.\n36:3 See Ras\u0101\u2019il Ikhw\u0101n al-\u1e62afa, ed. F. Dieterici (Die Abhandlungen der Ichw\u0101n e\u1e63-\u1e62afa, Leipzig, 2883), pp. 3-4.\n36:4 Sabab al-Asb\u0101b w-al-Kanz, MS., also in Le Monde Oriental (Uppsala, 2909), vol. III, p. 100.\n37:1 \u1e24amzah, M\u012bth\u0101q al-Nis\u0101\u2019, MS.\n37:2 E. Blochet, Le Messianisme, op. cit., p. 59.\n37:3 Al-Tam\u012bmi, Taqs\u012bm al-\u2018Ul\u016bm, MS.; \u1e24amzah, M\u012bth\u0101q al-Nis\u0101\u2019, MS.\n37:4 \u1e24amzah, al-S\u012brah al-Mustaq\u012bmah, MS.\n38:1 \u1e24amzah, Kashf al-Haq\u0101\u2019iq, MS.\n38:2 Al-Juz\u2019 al-Awwal, MS.\n38:3 Al-Tam\u012bmi, Taqs\u012bm al-\u2018Ul\u016bm, MS.; \u2018Abd-al-Ghaff\u0101r, Majra al-Zam\u0101n, MS. = Henri Guys, Th\u00e9ogonie des Druses ou Abr\u00e9g\u00e9 de leur Syst\u00e8me Religieux, traduit de l\u2019Arabe (Paris, 1863), pp. 54-55.\n38:4 Koran 2:286, 4:558, 7:156.\n39:1 \"Ins\u0101n Qad\u012bm\" in al-Fihrist, ed. G. Fl\u00fcgel (Leipzig, 1872), p. 329. See also Fl\u00fcgel, Mani (Leipzig, 1862), pp. 97, 505.\n39:2 Louis Ginzberg, article \"Adam Kadmon,\" Jewish Encyclopaedia.\n39:3 F. C. Burkitt, The Religion of the Manichees (Cambridge University Press, 1925), pp. 38-40; Fl\u00fcgel, Mani, pp. 337-338.\n39:4 Al-Fihrist, p. 328. That Islam knew a great deal about Mani and Manichaeanism is evidenced by the fact that our oldest and most trustworthy sources on that movement are to be found in Arabic-Moslem literature and particularly al-Fihrist. A peculiar sect of Manichaeanism, Mazdakiyyah, seems to have exercised tremendous influence over the Moslem sects. Al-Shahrast\u0101ni (II, 29) informs us that the B\u0101\u1e6diniyyah and Qar\u0101mi\u1e6dah in al-\u2018Ir\u0101q were called \"Mazdakites.\"\n40:1 Ibn-Taghri-Birdi, op. cit., p. 69.\n41:1 See \u1e24amzah, M\u012bth\u0101q al-Nis\u0101\u2019, MS.\n41:2 These precepts occur in many Druze MSS. See infra, p. 51. Bah\u0101\u2019-al-D\u012bn devotes one tract to each one of them. Cf. Guys, Th\u00e9ogonie, op. cit., pp. 77-84.\n41:3 Al-\u2018Umari, al-Ta\u2018r\u012bf bi-al-Mu\u1e63\u1e6dala\u1e25 al-Shar\u012bf (Cairo, 1312 A.H.); Cf. al-Qalqashandi, \u1e62ub\u1e25 al-A\u2018sha (Cairo, 1918), XIII, 248-249.\n41:4 Op. cit., p. 347.\n42:1 Cairo edition (20 vols.), III, 24\u2014Sumniyyah is the term applied to the Indian sects which influenced many Moslems.\n42:2 Kit\u0101b al-\u1e24ayaw\u0101n (Cairo, 1323 A.H.), IV, 146-147.\n42:3 Vorlesungen, op. cit., p. 160.\n42:4 For the origin of the word \"\u1e62\u016bfi\" from \u1e63\u016bf = wool, see N\u00f6ldeke in ZDMG, XLVII, 47.f\n42:5 The middle vowel is pronounced long like \"i\" in \"bite,\" and the final \"kh\" is guttural, something like the German \"ch.\" Cf. \"Usi e Credenze dei Drusi\" in Oriente Moderno (Rome, 1925), V, pp. 469-472.","title":"Origins of the Druze People and Religion: Chapter V. Druze Theology and Its Sources","type":"page"}