DRUSES, an independent people of Palestine, of warlike habits, who inhabit the mountains of Libanus, Anti-Libanus, and all the coast from Gibail to Saide, and east as far as Balbec. There are various conjectures concerning the origin of this singular race; the most rational of which is, that they were originally a persecuted sect of Mahommedans, who, flying from oppression, took refuge, about the commencement of the eleventh century, amongst the mountains of Lebanon, and there formed an independent society.

The unity of the Mahommedan faith was at a very early period broken by contending sectaries; and, according to the full and accurate details of Vólney, from whom the following account is chiefly compiled, Egypt, under the influence of these delusions, became, in the reign of the third caliph of the race of the Fatimites, and in the year of the Hegira 386 (a. d. 996), the theatre of the most extravagant enthusiasm and absurdity ever perhaps recorded in history. This prince, called Hakem-b’amr-ellah, was remarkable for his heresies and fanatical zeal. He caused the first caliphs, the companions of Mahommed, to be cursed in the mosques, and afterwards revoked the anathema; he compelled the Jews and Christians to abjure their religion, and then permitted them to resume it; he forbade the pilgrimage to Mecca, fasting, and the five prayers; and at length carried his madness so far as to desire to pass for God himself. This impious pretension was supported by a false prophet, who came from Persia into Egypt, and who, to ingratiate himself with Hakem, maintained that this caliph was God himself incarnate. But unluckily for the prophet, his new god had not the power to protect him from the fury of his enemies, who slew him in a tumult almost in the arms of the caliph, who was himself massacred soon afterwards on Mount [7:8:218]Mokhattam, where, as he said, he had held conversation with angels.

The death of these two chiefs did not stop the progress of their opinions. A disciple of Mohammed-ben-Ismael, named Hamzu-ben-Ahmud, propagated them with indefatigable zeal in Egypt, in Palestine, and along the coast of Syria, as far as Sidon and Berytus. But his proselytes being persecuted by the sect in power, took refuge in the mountains of Lebanon, where they were better able to defend themselves; and shortly after this era we find them established there, and forming an independent society.

The difference of their opinions naturally disposes them to be enemies, but the urgent interest of their common safety forces them to allow mutual toleration; and they have always appeared united, and have jointly opposed, at different times, the Crusaders, the sultans of Aleppo, the Mamelukes, and the Ottomans. The conquest of Syria by the latter made no change in their situation. Selim I. on his return from Egypt, meditating no less than the conquest of Europe, disdained to waste his time before the rocks of Lebanon. Soliman II. his successor, incessantly engaged in important wars, either with the knights of Rhodes, the Persians, the kingdom of Yemen, the Hungarians, the Germans, or the emperor Charles V. had no time to think of the Druses. Emboldened by this inattention, and not content with their own independence, they frequently descended from their mountains to pillage the Turks. The pashas in vain attempted to repel these inroads; for their troops were invariably routed or repulsed. But about the year 1588 they .were at last subdued by Amurath III., to whom they became tributary, and under whose powerful sway the anarchy by which the country was distracted under its different chiefs was put an end to; and one head or chief was established, who was invested with the executive power, and who was made liable to the sultan for the stipulated tribute, which he was to collect as he best could from the people. The whole power and resources of the country being by this conquest or revolution concentrated under one head, the Druses were engaged in continual warfare and in marauding hostilities with the Turks; and towards the middle of the seventeenth century they had attained to the height of their power under the celebrated emir Fakir el-din or Fakar-din. This chief extended his conquests, and at length became so formidable that he excited the terror of the sultan, who resolved to make an effort for his destruction. To avert the threatening storm he embarked for Italy to solicit succours from the court of the Medici, at Florence, where he remained for nine years. On his return he found every thing prosperous under the wise government of his son Ali. But .this prince was afterwards defeated in a battle with the Turks; and Fakir-el-din himself being compelled to take refuge in the mountains, was betrayed into the hands of the Turks by his companions, and by the orders of Amurath he was strangled at Constantinople in the year 1631.

After the death of Fakir-el-din, the posterity of that prince still continued in possession of the government, though at the pleasure, and as vassals, of the Porte. But as this family failed in the male line at the beginning of the last century, the authority devolved, by the election of the scheiks, on the house of Shelah. The only emir of that house whose name deserves to be preserved, is Melhem, who reigned from 1740 to 1759; in which interval he retrieved the losses of the Druses, and restored them to that consequence which they had lost by the defeat of Fakir-el-din. Towards the end of his life, about the year 1754, Melhem, wearied with the cares of government, abdicated his authority, to live in religious retirement, after the manner of the Okkals; but the troubles which succeeded forced him once more to resume the reins of government, which he held till 1759, when he died universally regretted.

He left three sons, minors, the eldest of whom ought, according to the custom of the country, to have succeeded him; but being only eleven years of age, the authority devolved on his unclo Mansour, agreeably to a law very general in Asia, which provides that the people shall be governed by a sovereign who has arrived at years of maturity. The young prince was but little fitted to maintain his pretensions; but a Maronite, named Sad-el-kouri, to whom Melhem had intrusted his education, took this upon himself. Aspiring to see his pupil a powerful prince, that he might himself become a powerful vizir, he made every exertion to advance his fortune; and accordingly entered into a great many plots and intrigues, in which he succeeded by means of an emir of the name of Yussuf in subverting his authority. We have no exact or accurate information of the internal state of this country, or of the domestic agitations and wars by which it has since been distracted. Nor would the detail of these petty wars, however ample or correct, possess any peculiar interest. The country is ruled by an emir, who is considered as the vassal of the Turks.

In their religion the Druses have very peculiar tenets and observances. They practise neither circumcision, nor prayers, nor fasting; they observe neither festivals nor prohibitions. They drink wine, eat pork, and allow marriage between brothers and sisters, though not between fathers and children. From this we may conclude, with reason, that the Druses have no religion; yet one class of them must be excepted, whose religious customs are very peculiar. These who compose it are to the rest of the nation what the initiated were to the profane. They assume the name of Ohhals, or spiritualists, and bestow on the vulgar the epithet of Ojahel, or ignorant. They have various degrees of initiation, the highest orders of which require celibacy. These are distinguished by the white turban, which they affect to wear as a symbol of their purity; and so proud are they of this supposed purity, that they think themselves sullied by even touching a profane person. If you eat out of their plate, or drink out of their cup, they break them; and hence the custom, so general in this country, of using vases with a sort of cock, which may be drank out of without touching them with the lips. All their practices are enveloped in mysteries. Their oratories stand alone or detached, and are constantly situated on eminences; in these they hold their secret assemblies, to which women are admitted. It is believed that they perform ceremonies therein presence of a small statue resembling an ox or a calf; and hence some have pretended to prove that they are descended from the Samaritans. But besides that the fact is not well ascertained, the worship of the ox may be deduced from other sources.

The rest of the Druses, strangers to this spirit, arc wholly indifferent about religious matters. The Christians who live in their country pretend that several of them believe in the metempsychosis, and that others worship the sun, moon, and stars. All this is possible; for every one, left to his own fancy, follows the opinion which pleases him most; and these opinions are those which present themselves most naturally to unenlightened minds. When among the Turks, they affect the exterior of Mahommedans, frequent the mosques, and perform their ablutions and prayers. Among the Maronites, they accompany them to church, and, like them, make use of holy water. Many of them, importuned by the missionaries, suffer themselves to be baptized; and if solicited by the [7:8:219]Turks, receive circumcision, and conclude by dying neither Christians nor Mahommedans. But they are not so indifferent in matters of civil policy.

The Druses may be divided into two classes: the common people; and the people of eminence and property, distinguished by the title of scheiks and emirs, or descendants of princes. The greater part are cultivators, either as farmers or proprietors; and every man lives on his inheritance, improving his mulberry trees and vineyards. In some districts they grow tobacco, cotton, and some grain; but the quantity of these is inconsiderable. It appears that at first all the lands were, as formerly in Europe, in the hands of a small number of families. But in order to render them productive, the great proprietors were forced to sell part of them, and let leases; which subdivision has become the chief source of the power of the state, by multiplying the number of persons interested in the public welfare. There still exist, however, some traces of the original inequality, which even at this day produces pernicious effects. The great property possessed by some families gives them too much influence in all the measures of the nation; and their private interests have too great weight in every public transaction. Their recent history affords sufficient proofs of this, since all the civil or foreign wars in which they have been engaged have originated in the ambition and personal views of some of the principal families, such as the Lesbeks, the Djambelats, and the Ismaels of Solyma. The scheiks of these houses, who alone possess one tenth part of the country,-procured retainers by means of their money, and at last involved all the Druses in their dissensions. It must be owned, however, that possibly to this conflict between contending parties the whole nation owes the good fortune of never having been enslaved by its chief.

This chief, called Hahem or governor, and also Emix or prince, is a sort of king or general, who unites in his own person the civil and military powers. His dignity is sometimes transmitted from father to son, sometimes from one brother to another; and the succession is determined rather by force than by any certain laws. Females can in no case pretend to this inheritance. They are already excluded from succession in civil affairs, and consequently can still less expect it in political. In general the Asiatic governments are too turbulent, and their administration renders military talents too necessary, to admit of the sovereignty of women. Among the Druses, the male line of any family being extinguished, the government devolves to him who is in possession of the greatest number of suffrages and resources. But the first step used to be to obtain the approbation of the Porte, of whom he became the vassal and tributary. It even happens, that, not unfrequently, to assert its supremacy, it names the Hakem, contrary to the wishes of the nation, as in the case of Ismael Hasbeya, raised to that dignity by Djezzar; but this constraint lasts no longer than it is maintained by the violence which gave it birth. The office of the governor is to watch over the good order of the state, and to prevent the emirs, scheiks, and villages, from making war on each other; and in case of disobedience, he may employ force. He is also at the head of the civil power, and he names the cadis, reserving to himself the power of life and death. He collects the tribute, from which he annually pays to the pasha a stated sum. This tribute, which is called niiri, is imposed on the mulberry trees, vineyards, cotton, and grain. All sown land pays in proportion to its extent; every foot of mulberries is taxed at three medins, or three sols nine deniers (not quite twopence). A hundred feet of vineyard pays a piastre, or forty mcdins; and fresh measurements are often made to preserve a just proportion. The scheiks and emirs have no exemption in this respect; and it may truly be said that they contribute to the public stock in proportion to their fortune. The collection is made almost without expense. Each man pays his contingent at Dair-el-kamar, if he pleases, or to the collectors of the prince, who make a circuit round the country after the crop of silks. The surplus of this tribute is for the prince; so that it is his interest to reduce the demands of the Turks, as it would likewise be to augment the impost. But this measure requires the sanction of the scheiks, who have the privilege of opposing it. Their consent is necessary, likewise, for peace and war. In these cases, the emir must convoke general assemblies, and lay before them the state of his affairs. There every scheik, and every peasant who has any reputation for courage or understanding, is entitled to give his suffrage; so that this government may be considered as a mixture of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy. Every thing indeed depends on circumstances. If the governor be a man of ability, he is absolute; if he be weak, he is a cipher. This proceeds from the want of fixed laws; a want common to all Asia, and the radical cause of all the disorders in the governments of the Asiatic nations.

Neither the chief nor the individual emirs maintain troops; they have only persons attached to the domestic service of their houses, and a few black slaves. When the nation makes war, every man, whether scheik or peasant, able to bear arms, is called upon to march. He takes with him a little bag of flour, a musket, some bullets, a small quantity of powder made in his village, and repairs to the rendezvous appointed by the governor. If it be a civil war, as sometimes happens, the servants, the farmers, and their friends, take up arms for their patron, or the chief of their family, and repair to his standard. In such cases, the parties irritated frequently seem on the point of proceeding to the last extremities; but they seldom have recourse to acts of violence, or attempt the death of each other. Mediators always interpose, and the quarrel is appeased the more readily, as each patron is obliged to provide his followers with provisions and ammunition.

The Druses are noted for their hospitality. Whoever presents himself at their door in the quality of a suppliant or passenger, is sure of being entertained with lodging and food in the most generous and unaffected manner. Volney often saw the lowest peasants give the last morsel of bread they had in their houses to the hungry traveller; and when it was observed to them that they wanted prudence, their answer was, “God is liberal and great, and all men are brethren.” There arc, therefore, no inns in their country any more than in the rest of Turkey. When they have once contracted with their guest the sacred engagement of bread and salt, no subsequent event can make them violate it. Various instances of this are related which do honour to their character. A few years ago an aga of the janissaries having been engaged in a rebellion, fled from Damascus and retired among the Druses. The pasha was informed of this, and demanded him of the emir, threatening to make war on him in case of refusal. The emir demanded him of the scheik Talhouk, who had received him; but the indignant scheik replied, “When have you known the Druses deliver up their guests? Tell the emir, that as long as Talhouk shall preserve his beard, not a hair of the head of his suppliant shall fall.”

In consequence, says Volney, of their prejudices, the Druses do not choose to make alliances out of their own families. They invariably prefer their relation, though poor, to a rich stranger; and poor peasants have been known to refuse their daughters to merchants of Saide and Bairout, who possessed from twelve to fifteen thousand piastres. They [7:8:220]observe also, to a certain degree, the custom of the Hebrews, which directed that a brother should espouse his brother’s widow.

In short, the proper and distinctive character of the Druses is a sort of republican spirit, which gives them more energy than any other subjects of the Turkish government, and an indifference for religion, which forms a striking contrast with the zeal of the Mahommedans and Christians. In other respects, their private life, their customs and prejudices, are the same with those of other orientals. They may marry several wives, and repudiate them when they choose; but, except by the emir and a few men of eminence, that is rarely practised. The women are all veiled, so that no man knows the face of any other woman than his wife, his mother, his sister, and sisters-in-law. Every man lives in the bosom of his own family, and goes little abroad. The women, those even of the scheiks, make the bread, roast the coffee, wash the linen, cook the victuals, and perform all domestic offices. The men cultivate their lands and vineyards, and dig canals for watering them. In the evening they sometimes assemble in the court, the area, or house of the chief of the village or family. There, seated in a circle, with legs crossed, pipes in their mouths, and poniards at their belts, they discourse of their various labours, the scarcity or plenty of their harvests, peace or war, the conduct of the emir, or the amount of the taxes; they relate past transactions, discuss present interests, and form conjectures on the future. Their children, tired with play, come frequently to listen. This is the only education of those who are termed the Ignorant.

This account of the character, manners, and religious tenets of the Druses has been corroborated by modern travellers. The reverend Mr Connor, a missionary and travelling agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society, mentions that there are many sects among them; but that they are divided into two great classes, that of the Okkals or the Intelligent, who to the number of 10,000 form the sacred order; and the Djahels or Ignorant. It is stated to be extremely difficult to learn any thing satisfactory respecting the religious creed of this people. It is generally agreed that they believe in the transmigration of souls; and according to the character of the individual in his journey through life, will be the nature of the body which his soul will animate in a future state of existence. If his conduct has been fair and honourable, his soul will vivify the body of some respectable character in life. But if his conduct has been evil, his soul will enter the body of a horse, a mule, or an ass. In like manner it is believed that persons of eminent and conspicuous virtue will, as the highest recompense of their merit, pass after death into the bodies of Chinese Druses. In the schools, which are frequent among the Druses, the Okkals are generally the masters, and are paid by the pupils. They teach reading and writing, and the book generally used is the Koran. In some villages where there are Christian schools, the Druses send their children thither, where they are taught to read the Psalms of David. There are no Christians among the Druses, though the emir with his family and some of the other nobles have their children baptized, have chapels in their houses, and hear mass on Sunday, not from any rational belief in the truths of Christianity, but for the same reason that, though they dislike the Mahommedans generally, and entertain no tenet in common with their faith, yet many of them, as we learn from Buckingham, are infected with their customs, and keep the feast of Ramadan with aš much rigour as the most orthodox follower of the Arabian prophet; just as the Mussulmans of India, though they despise and hate the Hindus, have nevertheless adopted many of their superstitions and ceremonies.

The Djahels or the Ignorant, who form by far the most numerous class, perform no religious rites whatever, unless when they are obliged by circumstances to assume the appearance of Mahommedans. They cherish an equal dislike to the Christians and Turks; and believe that the deity was incarnated in the person of Hakem, caliph of Egypt, and that he will shortly appear again and utterly destroy all his enemies.

The Druses are a restless and enterprising people; they are formidable in irregular war, being brave even to temerity; excellent marksmen, and noted for sudden surprises. The passion of all classes for arms is remarked by every traveller; and Buckingham mentions a keen dispute at which he was present relative to the value of different weapons, in which the sabres of Ispahan and Damascus, and the muskets and pistols of England, were unanimously preferred. They are of industrious habits, devoting their attention to the cultivation of the soil; and the same traveller, who was over all this country, on quitting a Mahommedan village and entering one inhabited by Druses, was struck with the contrast of the superior order and neatness everywhere conspicuous, as well as in the more cultivated state of the land. No great distinction of ranks is preserved among them, scheiks and peasants treating each other with the greatest familiarity. They speak pure Arabic. Soeda, which is the capital of the Eastern Druses, and the residence of their emir or prince, is about two miles westward of the summit of that range of hills which forms the eastern boundary of the plains of the Hauran.