Page 12

Page 12

Druses THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG 12

ha founded the sect which received its namo from him, duruz being the plural of darazi. Three years later the Persian sectary Hamzah again sought to propagate kindred doctrines in Egypt, but was forced to take refuge in flight with Darazi, whose theological authority he became. A few years later the calif al-Hakim mysteriously disappeared, and the Druses believe that he is concealed somewhere as the incarnation of the divinity and will appear at the end of time as theMahdi.

In origin the Druses were both political and religious, since they were closely connected with the Shiites, the strict legitimists who upheld the claims of Ali and the first three califs, but rejected the Ommiads and the Abbaseids. These Shiites, especially in Persia, regarded Ali and his descendants, the Imams, as incarnations of the Deity, and held that the soul of an Imam passed immediately at his death into the body of his successor. Since it was politically dangerous to appear s. Moham- as an Imam, the theory of a hidden

medan Imam was developed, of whom the Forerunners Mahdi is to be the last. The mis-

of the sionary activity of the various Shiite Druses. sects included northern Africa, and was accepted by the Fatimite califa. Of these sects the Ismailiyyah and the Karmathians were the most important for the development of the Druees. The Ismailiyyah rose about 765. After the death of the Imam Jaafar a schism was caused by the fact that some accepted his son Musa as the seventh Imam, while others gave this honor to his other son, Ismail. The same period saw a development of the theory that incarnations of the divinity had been sent to earth to bring man nearer to God and to reveal his will. These prophets, who were called "speakers" (nafik), were Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, and Mohammed al-Mahdi, the son of Ismail. These prophets, each of whom marked an advance on the teachings of his predecessors, were aided by a " silent one," who spoke nothing on his own authority, but proclaimed and promulgated the tenets of the " speakers." These "silent ones" are the Imams, so that Seth was the Imam to the prophet Adam, Shem to Noah, Ishmael to Abraham, Aaron to Moses, Peter to Jesus, Ali to Mohammed, and Abdallah ibn Maimun to Mohammed al-Mahdi, and between each prophet came swen Imams. This entire system of prophets and Imams was accepted, though with modifications, by the Druses. The Abdallah ibn Maimun just mentioned was an adherent of a dualistic sect and used his propaganda of the doctrines of the Ismailiyyah solely to advance his teachings which were a confused mixture of Zoroastrian, Manichean, and Greek concepts. His missionaries were charged to lead suitable adepts of the new faith through various stages (at first seven, and later nine) to his own nihilistic and materialistic point of view, thus alienating them not only from Shiite Mohammedanism, but from all positive religion. Abdallah's propaganda naturally brought upon him the hostility of the authorities, and he was forced to flee to the town of Salamiyyah in Syria. Many adherents were won in Persia and the lands lying along the Euphrates, while on the lower Euphrates

the Karmathians split off from the Ismailiyyah and formed a political party with communistic tenets. The Iamailiyyah also made their way back to Africa before the califate of al-Hakim bi'amri-llah, as noted above, and communities of them still exist in Syria.

The doctrines of the Druses mark an advance over the tenets of the Iamailiyyah and the Karmathians, their immediate predecessors, and they regard the teachings of the Ismailiyyah, like Shiitiam and Islam in general, as superseded by their own and even hostile to them. On the other hand, the Mohammedans consider the Druses infidels, and Islamic writings seldom mention them. The difficulty of a clear presentment of the confused doctrines of the Druses is increased by the fact that their religion is esoteric, its adherents being forbidden

3. Obscur- to reveal its mysteries to non-believers ity of the and being required to hide their reDruse ligious books from all. Druses who

Religion. have been initiated into the faith sel dom become converts to other religions, and from the uneducated nothing can be learned. Many dogmas and customs, moreover, which for merly had a distinct religious meaning, now survive as unintelligible remnants, especially as the Druses seldom pursue deep religious studies, and the very fact that the religion is secret (as it must be on account of the Mohammedan attitude toward it) renders it peculiarly liable to the danger of degen erating into meaningless phrases and ceremonies. The many-sided character of their religion makes it possible for Druses to emphasize the Islamic ele ments of their faith in conversing with Moham medans and to follow a similar course with Chris tians or even with freemasons.

According to the teaching of the Dr~aea, God is one, and the confession of his unity is the first duty of religion. While this coincides with the Koran, their doctrine that God is devoid of all attributes, having neither origin, limitations, definitions, names, or anthropomorphism of any sort, makes them closely akin to the rationalistic Mutazilah. This philosophical concept of God might ¢. Doctrine seem to lead to pantheism, but its

of God. principal result was the theory that the Deity, in order to approach more closely to man, has revealed himself in bodily form, and has accordingly hidden himself in men; al though man does not thereby become the Divinity. God ever remains the same, even in these forms which serve him as a veil, and it is, therefore, the duty of each one to attain through these manifes tations a knowledge of God and a proof of his exist ence. The last of the ten (or nine) incarnations of the Divinity was the calif al-Hakim.

The real administrators of the world and the actual preachers or priests for mankind, however, are the " bonds" (hudud), or "revelations" (ayyat), which are also called by many other names. The chief terms are derived from the fact that before the origin of the Druses the Mohammedan sect of the Bataniyyah interpreted every expression of the Koran allegorically and applied it to persons. In the system of the Druses such administrators were primarily abstract ideas which were later regarded as incarnate. The persons in whom they dwelt,