Druze
The Druze (/ˈdruːz/ DROOZ;[19] Arabic: دَرْزِيّ, darzī or دُرْزِيّ durzī, pl. دُرُوز, durūz), who call themselves al-Muwaḥḥidūn (lit. 'the monotheists' or 'the unitarians'),[20] are an Arab and Arabic-speaking esoteric ethnoreligious group[21][22][23][24] from West Asia who adhere to the Druze faith, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, syncretic, and ethnic religion whose main tenets are the unity of God and the belief in reincarnation and the eternity of the soul.[25][26][27][28]
Not to be confused with Druse.
Most Druze religious practices are kept secret.[29] The Druze do not permit outsiders to convert to their religion. Marriage outside the Druze faith is rare and strongly discouraged.
The Epistles of Wisdom is the foundational and central text of the Druze faith.[30] The Druze faith originated in Isma'ilism (a branch of Shia Islam),[31] and was influenced by Christianity,[32][33] Gnosticism, Neoplatonism,[32][33] Zoroastrianism,[34][35] Gandharan Buddhism, Manichaeism[36][37] Pythagoreanism,[38][39] and other philosophies and beliefs, creating a distinct and secretive theology based on an esoteric interpretation of scripture, which emphasizes the role of the mind and truthfulness.[20][39] Druze believe in theophany and reincarnation.[40]
The Druze believe that at the end of the cycle of rebirth, which is achieved through successive reincarnations, the soul is united with the Cosmic Mind (al-ʻaql al-kullī).[41]
The Druze have a special reverence for Shuaib, who they believe is the same person as the biblical Jethro.[42] The Druze believe that Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, and the Isma'ili Imam Muhammad ibn Isma'il were prophets.[43] Druze tradition also honors and reveres Salman the Persian,[44] al-Khidr (whom they identify as Elijah, reborn as John the Baptist and Saint George),[45] Job, Luke the Evangelist, and others as "mentors" and "prophets".[46]
Even though the faith originally developed out of Isma'ilism, the Druze are not Muslims.[47][48] The Druze faith is one of the major religious groups in the Levant, with between 800,000 and a million adherents. They are found primarily in Lebanon, Syria, and Israel, with small communities in Jordan. They make up 5.5% of the population of Lebanon, 3% of Syria and 1.6% of Israel. The oldest and most densely-populated Druze communities exist in Mount Lebanon and in the south of Syria around Jabal al-Druze (literally the "Mountain of the Druze").[49]
The Druze community played a critically important role in shaping the history of the Levant, where it continues to play a significant political role.[50] As a religious minority in every country in which they are found, they have frequently experienced persecution by different Muslim regimes, including contemporary Islamic extremism.[51][52][53]
Location
The number of Druze people worldwide is between 800,000 and one million, with the vast majority residing in the Levant.[61] Druze people reside primarily in Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Jordan.[62][63]
The Institute of Druze Studies estimates that in 1998 40–50% of Druze live in Syria, 30–40% in Lebanon, 6–7% in Israel, and 1–2% in Jordan.[62] About 2% of the Druze population are also scattered within other countries in the Middle East, and according to The Institute of Druze Studies there were approximately 20,000 Druzes in the United States in 1998.[62][64] According to scholar Colbert C. Held of University of Nebraska, Lincoln the number of Druze people worldwide is around one million, with about 45% to 50% live in Syria, 35% to 40% live in Lebanon, and less than 10% live in Israel, with recently there has been a growing Druze diaspora.[65]
Large communities of Druze also live outside the Middle East, in Australia, Canada, Europe, Latin America (mainly Venezuela,[10] Colombia and Brazil), the United States, and West Africa. They are Arabs who speak Levantine Arabic and follow a social pattern very similar to those of the other peoples of the Levant (eastern Mediterranean).[66] In 2021 the largest Druze communities outside the Middle East are in Venezuela (60,000) and in the United States (50,000).[67] According to the Los Angeles Times in 2017 "there are about 30,000 in the United States, with the largest concentration in Southern California".[68]
Druzism
Between 1017 and 1018 CE
Cairo, Fatimid Caliphate[70]
c. 800,000 - 2,000,0000[72] (referred to as al-Muwaḥḥidūn al-Druze)
Beliefs
God
The Druze conception of the deity is declared by them to be one of strict and uncompromising unity. The main Druze doctrine states that God is both transcendent and immanent, in which he is above all attributes, but at the same time, he is present.[142]
In their desire to maintain a rigid confession of unity, they stripped from God all attributes (tanzīh). In God, there are no attributes distinct from his essence. He is wise, mighty, and just, not by wisdom, might, and justice, but by his own essence. God is "the whole of existence", rather than "above existence" or on his throne, which would make him "limited". There is neither "how", "when", nor "where" about him; he is incomprehensible.[143]
In this dogma, they are similar to the semi-philosophical, semi-religious body which flourished under Al-Ma'mun and was known by the name of Mu'tazila and the fraternal order of the Brethren of Purity (Ikhwan al-Ṣafa).[99]
Unlike the Mu'tazila, and similar to some branches of Sufism, the Druze believe in the concept of Tajalli (meaning "theophany").[143] Tajalli is often misunderstood by scholars and writers and is usually confused with the concept of incarnation.
The Druze strictly avoid iconography, but use five colors ("Five Limits" خمس حدود khams ḥudūd) as a religious symbol:[171][172] green, red, yellow, blue, and white. The five limits were listed by Ismail at-Tamimi (d. 1030) in the Epistle of the Candle (risalat ash-sham'a) as:
Each of the colors representing the five limits pertains to a metaphysical power called ḥadd, literally "a limit", as in the distinctions that separate humans from animals, or the powers that make humans the animalistic body. Each ḥadd is color-coded in the following manner:
The mind generates qualia and gives consciousness.[174] The soul embodies the mind and is responsible for transmigration and the character of oneself. The word, which is the atom of language, communicates qualia between humans and represents the platonic forms in the sensible world. The Sābiq and Tālī is the ability to perceive and learn from the past and plan for the future and predict it.
The colors can be arranged in vertically descending stripes (as a flag), or a five-pointed star.[175] The stripes are a diagrammatic cut of the spheres in neoplatonic philosophy, while the five-pointed star embodies the golden ratio, phi, as a symbol of temperance and a life of moderation.
Druze and other religions
Relationship with Muslims
The Druze faith is often classified as a branch of Isma'ilism; although according to various scholars Druze faith "diverge substantially from Islam, both Sunni and Shia".[204][205] Even though the faith originally developed out of Ismaili Islam, most Druze do not identify as Muslims,[206][207][208][209][210][211] and they do not accept the five pillars of Islam.[47] Historian David R. W. Bryer defines the Druzes as ghulat of Isma'ilism, since they exaggerated the cult of the caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah and considered him divine; he also defines the Druzes as a religion that deviated from Islam.[212] He also added that as a result of this deviation, the Druze faith "seems as different from Islam as Islam is from Christianity or Christianity is from Judaism".[213]
Historically the relationship between the Druze and Muslims has been characterized by intense persecution.[110][214][215][216] The Druze have frequently experienced persecution by different Muslim regimes such as the Shia Fatimid Caliphate,[54][89] Mamluk,[99] Sunni Ottoman Empire,[217][106] and Egypt Eyalet.[218][219] The persecution of the Druze included massacres, demolishing Druze prayer houses and holy places, and forced conversion to Islam.[220] Those acts of persecution were meant to eradicate the whole community according to the Druze narrative.[221] Most recently, the Syrian Civil War, which began in 2011, saw persecution of the Druze at the hands of Islamic extremists.[222][223]
Since Druze emerged from Islam and share certain beliefs with Islam, its position of whether it is a separate religion or a sect of Islam is sometimes controversial among Muslim scholars.[224] Druze are not considered Muslims by those belonging to orthodox Islamic schools of thought.[225][226][227][228][229] Ibn Taymiyya, a prominent Muslim scholar muhaddith, dismissed the Druze as non-Muslims,[230] and his fatwa cited that Druze: "Are not at the level of ′Ahl al-Kitāb (People of the Book) nor mushrikin (polytheists). Rather, they are from the most deviant kuffār (Infidel) ... Their women can be taken as slaves and their property can be seized ... they are to be killed whenever they are found and cursed as they described ... It is obligatory to kill their scholars and religious figures so that they do not misguide others",[100] which in that setting would have legitimized violence against them as apostates.[231][232] The Ottoman Empire often relied on Ibn Taymiyya’s religious ruling to justify their persecution of Druze.[233] In contrast, according to Ibn Abidin, whose work Radd al-Muhtar 'ala al-Durr al-Mukhtar is still considered the authoritative text of Hanafi fiqh today,[234] the Druze are neither Muslims nor apostates.[235]
In 1959, in an ecumenical move driven by Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser's effort to broaden his political appeal after the establishment of the United Arab Republic between Egypt and Syria in 1958,[236] the Islamic scholar Mahmud Shaltut at Al Azhar University in Cairo classified the Druze as Muslims,[237] even though most Druze no longer consider themselves Muslim.[238][239] The fatwa declares that the Druze are Muslims because they recite the twofold Shahada, and believe in the Qur'an and monotheism and do not oppose Islam in word or deed.[240] This fatwa was not accepted by all in the Islamic world, many dissenting scholars have argued the Druze recite the Shahada as a form of taqiya; a precautionary dissimulation or denial of religious belief and practice in the face of persecution. Some sects of Islam, including all Shia denominations, don't recognize the religious authority of Al Azhar University, those that do sometimes challenge the religious legitimacy of Shaltut's fatwa because it was issued for political reasons, as Gamal Abdel Nasser saw it as a tool to spread his appeal and influence across the entire Arab world.[241][242]
In 2012, due to a drift towards Salafism in Al-Azhar, and the ascension of the Muslim Brotherhood into Egyptian political leadership, the dean of the Faculty of Islamic Studies at Al-Azhar issued a fatwa strongly opposed to the 1959 fatwa.[243]