Lebanon - Religious Sects
Druzes
While there are two main branches of Islam (Sunni and Shi'a), there are also dozens of smaller Islamic sects scattered throughout the Muslim world, one is the Druze. It is estimated the Druze number at most only one million around the world, including Syria, Turkey and Jordan and Isreal. They appear to have branched off the Shi'a theology around the 11th century and are influenced by both Christianity and Classical Greek philosophy.
The Druze are an Arab community who have lived for centuries in the Middle East. Due to the political events that the Arab region has experienced over the years, it has been divided into several countries separated by geographical borders, which has led to the division of the Druze sect as well, especially in the early twentieth century, and they have become mainly spread out among three main countries: Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine.
As a result of the conflicts and political events that the Druze have experienced over the decades, some of them have migrated to other countries outside the Arab region, and they are now present in many countries, and their number is estimated at about 1.5 million Druze across the world.
The Druze community in Lebanon is mainly concentrated along the western side of the Lebanon Mountains, as well as in the southeastern part of the country, and their number there is more than 300,000 people. The Druze have held significant political power in modern Lebanon since its independence. One of the most prominent Druze political figures in the country is Kamal Jumblatt, a Druze leader who held several positions during his political career, most notably Minister of the Interior. His opposition to President Camille Chamoun, including inciting an uprising against him in 1958, also earned him the respect of Arab nationalists.
The religion was brought to Lebanon around the eleventh century by Darazi (hence the name Druze), a disciple of Al Hakim, the Fatimid caliph of Egypt who considered himself the final incarnation of God. The religion is secretive, and very few members are masters. The Druze community lives primarily in West Beirut, the Shuf Mountains, the Al Matn district and the regions around Hasbayya and Rashayya.
Most Muslims in the region do not consider the Druze to be Muslim and throughout their history they were routinely and brutally persecuted by other Muslim communities. Due to this persecution, the Druze have accepted the practice of taqiyya (takeeyah) in which they outwardly assume the tenets of the dominant Muslim religious beliefs while secretly adhering to the Druze faith.
The religion of the Druzes may be regarded as an offshoot of Ismaili Islam. Historically it springs from the Fatimid caliph of Egypt, Hakim (996-1021 A.D.), who considered himself the final incarnation of God. His close associates and followers Hamza and Darazi (hence the name Druze) spread the new doctrine among the inhabitants of southern Lebanon, and founded among them a sect which non-Druzes called "Druze" and Druzes called "Unitarian." The Druzes believe that Hakim is not dead but absent and will return to his people. Like the Ismailis, they also believe in emanations of the deity, in supernatural hierarchies, and in the transmigration of souls.
The Druzes are religiously divided into two groups. Those who master the secrets and teaching of the sect and who respect its dictates in their daily life, are referred to as uqqal (the mature) and are regarded as the religious elite. Believers who are not entitled to know the inner secrets of the religion and who do not practice their religion are called juhhal (the ignorant). The leadership of the Druze community in Lebanon traditionally has been shared by two factions: the Jumblatt and the Yazbak family confederations. The community has preserved its cultural separateness by being closely knit socially.
Many Druze fled the persecution of the seventh Fatimid Caliph, Ali al-Zahir, before the year 1026 AD, and settled in the mountains of Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine. This persecution forced them to isolate themselves. Despite their small number, they had political and military participation historically. They helped the Ayyubids and later the Mamluks resist the advance of the Crusaders on the Lebanese coast during the Crusades. At certain times, they entered into conflicts, such as what happened to them with the Christians (Maronites) in Lebanon in 1841 AD and 1860 AD, and they participated in resisting French colonialism.
The Druze enjoyed a great deal of autonomy under the Ottoman Empire, and often rebelled against it, aided in this by the mountainous terrain of the areas they inhabited. A series of feudal lords dominated Druze political life between the 16th and 19th centuries, the most famous of whom was the 17th-century ruler Fakhr al-Din II (of the Maan family), who formed an alliance with the Maronite Christians of the Lebanon Mountains and challenged Ottoman authority in an alliance with Tuscany, as well as other major feudal families such as the Shihabs, Aslans and Jumblatts.
They initially maintained good neighborly relations with the Maronites (referring to the Maronite Church, a religious group present in the Levant, especially in Lebanon, and who follow the Maronite Church), and even helped them liberate themselves. However, in the nineteenth century, differences between the clan leaders and between the two sects intensified, and the escalating tensions between them led to the massacres of 1860, which eventually hastened the entry of European powers into Lebanon.
Some researchers believe that the number of Druze members exceeds one million, and that 80% of them settled in Syria, in the city of Sweida, the Golan Heights, and the Damascus suburbs, in the Jordanian city of Azraq, in southern Lebanon, and in northern and central Palestine. Some of its people live in occupied Palestine and hold Israeli citizenship. The number of Druze in the diaspora in the United States, Canada, Australia and elsewhere is estimated at about one hundred thousand, and they participated in the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990) within the Popular Army led by Walid Jumblatt.
In Israel, the Druze have served in the Israeli army since 1948. Several prominent Israeli spies have been Druze and they are widely regarded by Israeli society as the perfect example of an Israeli patriot. Because of their secretive nature - they don't accept converts and strongly discourage conversion to other faiths - little detail is known about their religious beliefs. They strongly emphasize the oneness of God and place importance on prophets common to Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
They do not practice polygamy or use tobacco, alcohol or pork. Women are considered equal to men in all aspects and are regarded as spiritually superior to men. Druzi women figure prominently in religious leadership, in sharp contrast to the surrounding Christian and Muslim communities.
Because of the existence of large Christian population, Lebanon, more than the other Arab nations in the Middle East, has been influenced greatly by the western world. The area fell under the control of the Ottoman Turks, who defeated the Mamelukes in 1517. When in 1860, the Druze, a Moslem sect located in the mountains of Lebanon and Syria, massacred thousands of the Maronite Christians, French troops landed to intercede on behalf of the Christians. Turkey was forced by the European powers to grant semi-autonomy to the Maronites in the Mount Lebanon area under a Christian governor.
As if the French did not have enough trouble on their hands in Morocco, a major rebellion flared to the east in Syria, where Druze tribesmen had first risen in 1922-23, and then again in July of 1925, holding one garrison town under siege and defeating a 3,000-man relief column. The Breguet 14s and Poetz 25 bombers of the 39th Regiment d'Aviation flew in support of thirty-two battalions of infantry supported by tanks, horse cavalry and field artillery as the rebellion flared to its climax. From mid-July through September 1925 the Druze laid siege to the 700-man garrison of Suwayda. During their sixty-five day ordeal the defenders were solely dependent for supplies upon daily airdrops flown by four aircraft detailed exclusively for that mission.
As in the Rif, groundfire proved to be a major threat. "The citadel was at most 100 by 150 yards in area and to drop supplies accurately the aircraft had to descend to between twenty and one hundred feet above the rooftops, where they made fine targets for Druze marksmen, rarely returning to base without bullet holes." The Druse riflemen became increasingly adept at hitting the canvas-winged transports. "Aircraft flying low were at risk from rifle fire and several were brought down. By mid-August 1925 the three squadrons at Rayak had lost six pilots and three machines, and all their remaining aircraft badly needed repair." Such losses were the price of suppressing a rebellion which lasted until 1927.
After Kamal Jumblatt’s assassination in 1977, his son Walid took over the political leadership of the Druze community in Lebanon. He opposed Syrian intervention in Lebanon in 1976, leading some to describe his orientation as pro-Western, but in 2011 he supported the pro-Syrian Hezbollah in the Lebanese political crisis, leading others to say he favored Arab unity over pro-Western or pro-Syrian orientations. The Jumblatt family competes with the Arslan family for leadership of the Druze in Lebanon, which is often at odds with Lebanese politics, and Majid Arslan, who served as defense minister under Camille Chamoun, was a rival of Kamal Jumblatt. Moreover, unlike the Jumblatts, the Arslans maintained close relations with Syria.
The Lebanese-Syrian dispute caused a crisis and disagreements within the Druze community, and they sought to separate the issue of Syria from Lebanon, but to no avail. The situation became more difficult after the outbreak of the Syrian revolution , as the two political leaders of the community were divided: Walid Jumblatt, who stood against the regime of Bashar al-Assad, and Talal Arslan, the head of the Lebanese Democratic Party, who supported the regime. The situation of the community worsened when the war between the regime and the armed opposition reached the province of Sweida.
The division occurred between those who called for the necessity of arming them to confront the armed opposition and the Islamic State organization, such as the head of the Arab Unification Party, Wiam Wahhab, and those who see this as a mere card to drag the members of the sect into strife - which, although it generally supports Bashar al-Assad, has remained neutral and has not engaged in fighting alongside him - in favor of a regime that must fall, and who call on the Islamic State organization and the armed Syrian opposition to understand the situation of the Druze and keep them neutral, such as Walid Jumblatt.
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