Druze

Druze
Druze star
Populations
Total population	450 000 to 1 000 000
Regions with significant populations
Syria	600 000 to 750 000
Lebanon	280 000 350 000
Outside the Middle East	100 000
Other
Language (s)	Arabic
Religion (s)	Islam
change

Another form of traditional dress, contemporary (Sheikh Toufic Al Hilal - Jiba el Chouf)

The Druze ( Arabic : ) plural) people of the Middle East professing a religion Muslim heterodox, are mainly located in the central part of Mount Lebanon , southern Syria (where they occupy including the mountainous area of Hawran, known as the Jebel Druze) and in the northern state of Israel in Galilee .

Their religion based on the philosophical initiation is also regarded as being originally a sect of Ismaili branch of Shiism current Muslim, whose willingness to distance itself from the abandonment of Islamic teachings has transformed in religion apart .

They would be recognized as Muslims by the Al-Azhar in Cairo, the most famous Sunni authority in Egypt ) and Israel (where they would be about 118 000) thousands of them on the plateau of the Golan , belonging to the State of Israel. Druze living outside the Middle East are estimated at about 100,000.

In Lebanon, they live mainly in the mountains of Shuf , their traditional territory.

Religion

The doctrine developed by the Druze is a derivative of the Ismailis. Officially named Din al-Tawhid (Divine Unity of religion), it is a synthesis of various religious and intellectual currents. It contains both elements from the mystical Muslim Koran and thought, but also elements from Persian and Indian religions, the Neoplatonism of Gnosticism and messianism. Druze religious discipline is a common monotheistic par excellence and stresses the absolute unity of God .

There is no liturgy , no places of worship in the Druze religion. Druze doctrine is secret and is revealed to the faithful after various degrees of initiation, it is based on the belief in metempsychosis. Indeed, some verses of the Koran are sometimes interpreted as moving in the direction of metempsychosis. For example in verse 28 of the second sura, "The Cow" (Al-Baqara), it is said: "How can you deny God when he gave you life when you were in private, then it you did die, then He revives you and then you return to Him. "

Druze reject Sharia and ritual obligations arising therefrom. In Lebanon, the community has been led in part by families Jumblatt and Hamadeh. The Sheikhs Hamadeh, Farid in particular, are known thanks to the Druze sheikhs Akl Rachid and Mohammed Hussein. They are sheikhs Akl Druze Yazbak opposed to Jumblatt. They are descendants of the Imamate from master Hamza Bin Ali.

The highest religious authority and spiritual is the Machyakhat al Akl , Sheikh Akl Druze. There has always been a Druze Sheikh Akl Yazbak and another Jumblatt , no family can claim the monopoly of the business management community. Today, the policy requires only one Sheikh Akl who has lost his authority. The power held by the Sheikhs Hamadeh Akl was initiatory order based on "Wisdom". Because of pressure from politicians, particularly Jumblatt, the community loses its spring somehow specifically religious. The main cause is the direction of the community for essentially political reasons.

Antoine Isaac Sylvestre de Sacy gave in 1838 a Statement of the Druze religion.

History

Two Ismailis are the origin of the Druze religion: a Persian named Hamza , who claimed to be universal intelligence, and a Turk named Mohamed ad Darazi , whose name is the origin of the word "Druze", which was one of the viziers Caliph Fatimid al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah ( 996 - 1021 ).

Hamza and ad-Darazi therefore founded the Druze sect. While the imam Twelver Ja'far as-Sadiq had burned the Shiites who had wanted to deify, al-Hakim have encouraged this tendency to deify, instead of fighting it.

Al-Hakim disappeared in 1021. He did not return a night walk around the Cairo in the hills of al-Muqattam. His body was never found. Some of her relatives, gathered around the Vizier ad Darazi , made him an incarnation of God, proclaiming obscured. According to them, the caliph was the last and most important incarnation of God (maqam), a title he also had himself awarded in 1017 , considering itself as a manifestation of the universal intellect.

Druze women.

In the nineteenth ^century , the Druze are tributaries of the Ottoman Empire but in fact almost independent. Retired to the mountains of Lebanon, they went long dreaded and resisted the attacks of the Turks. It is the Druze emir, the prince Fakhreddine of the dynasty "Maan", what caused this resistance. The Druze were subjected to tribute Ottoman 1588 by Sultan Murad III. The Sublime Porte granted in 1842 a leader in their community (a system of millet ).

The Druze have played a major role during the Lebanese civil war between 1975 and 1990 under the leadership of one of their political leaders, Kamal Jumblatt , the founder of the Progressive Socialist Party of Lebanon, then his son Walid Jumblatt.

Although he attempted to seize leadership of the majority of Lebanese Druze, Walid Jumblatt is challenged by a large segment of the community. Farid Hamade , a descendent of a line of Druze sheikhs Akl , son of Sheikh Rashid Akl Hamadeh , s' was allied with the moderate Christian parties, struggling for peaceful communities, when the Lebanese civil war (1975-1990) and was forced into exile to the completion thereof. He died in France and was buried in Pere Lachaise cemetery. The liberal movement based on the brotherhood between communities, continues to exist and in recent years takes an important place in the political arena in general and Lebanese Druze in particular. They are the children of Sheikh Farid Hamad, Sheikh Khaled Sheikh and Maan Hamadeh Hamadeh, who now bear the political doctrine and its traditional values, following the initiation teachings of their ancestors.

People Druze

• Chekib Arslan (Emir activist and Pan-Islamism)
• Magid Arslan (Amir)
• Talal Arslan (Amir)
• Kamal Jumblatt (politician)
• Walid Jumblatt (politician)
• Asmahan (singer)
• Sultan al-Atrash
• Farid El Atrash (singer)
• Marwan Hamadeh (politician)
• Ghazi Aridi (politician)
• Samih al-Qasim (poet)
• Faisal Al Kacim (journalist)

Bibliography

A bibliography is provided puble online by the Association for Study and Information on religious movements on the site Home Interassociation under "AEIMR"

• Georges Dagher, Rivoal, Isabelle. Masters of the secret order worldly and religious order in the Druze community in Israel, Paris, Editions de l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, 2000, 427 p., Journal of African Studies, 162, 2001 http://etudesafricaines.revues.org/document93.html
• The Druze revolt and insurrection of Damascus, 1925-1926, General Andrew, Ed. Payot, 1937
• Journey to the East (History of the Caliph Hakim), Gerard de Nerval , Folio / Gallimard
• God by way of rights in the druzisme, Jad Hatem , Paris, Librairie de l'Orient, 2006
• Aractingi Jean-Marc and Lochon Christian, "Secrets of initiation rituals in Islam and Masonic", Ed L'Harmattan, Paris, 2008 ( ISBN 978-2-296-06536-9 ).

References

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