As soon as we begin to know anything of the Druses they were living in a feudal state of society, as village communities under sheikhs, themselves generally subordinate to one or more amirs. In the time of the first crusades the main power was in the hands of the Arslan family, which, however, suffered so severely in wars with the Franks, that it was superseded by the Tnuhs, who, holding Beirut and nearly all the Phoenician coast, came into conflict with the sultans of Egypt. One of these latter, Malik Ashraf, about a.d. 1300, forced outward compliance with Sunni Islam on the Mountain, after defeating the Druses at Ain Sofar. Meanwhile, however, the Maan family, lately immigrant from N. Arabia, was growing in power, and throwing in its lot with the Osmanli invaders in the reign of Selim I., it was promoted to the supreme amirate about 1517. Fakr ud-Din Maan II. increased Druse dominion until it included all the N. Syrian region from the edge of the Antioch plain to Acre, with part of the eastern desert, dominated by his castle at Tadmor (Palmyra), and the important towns of Latakia, Tripoli, Beirut and Saida; and forming further ambitious designs, he intrigued with Christians and broke with the Turks. In 1614 the pasha of Damascus moved against him with a large force, and compelled him to fly from Syria. He sought the courts of Tuscany and Naples and tried to enlist Frank sympathies, inventing (probably) the curious myth, so often credited since, that the Druses are of crusading origin and owe their name to the counts of Dreux.[1] He landed again at Saida in 1619 and recovered his old position. But in 1633 Kuchuk Ahmed Pasha was sent against him with a large army, and succeeded in capturing him with his sons. The family was sent to Constantinople, and two years later strangled. The dynasty struggled on till the end of the century, amid civil war, in which the parties seem to have been divided by the earlier Arab factions of Kaisites (Qaisites) and Yemenites, the Maan belonging to the latter.
The Shehab family, originally Hira Arabs, which had governed Hauran under the early caliphs of Damascus, and thereafter held power in Hermon, intermarried with the Maan; and in the latter’s day of weakness sided with the Kaisi faction and obtained the supreme amirate of the Mountain. But it appears never to have professed the Druse creed, remaining Sunnite. Haidar Shehab, third of the line, inflicted a notable defeat on the pasha of Saida (capital of an Ottoman eyalet since 1688) and the Yemenite Druses at Ain Dara, near Zahleh, in 1711, and proceeded to consolidate Shehab power, breaking up the old feudal society and substituting for the sheikhs mukatajis (tax-contractors), who had penal jurisdiction. The Yemenite Druses thereupon emigrated in large numbers to the Hauran, and laid the foundation of Druse power there. The Turks recognized the status quo, and made terms with the Shehab amir in 1748; but his power was none too well secured against the opposition of the Kurdish Jumblat family, even though he was supported by the Talhuk, Abd al-Malik and Yezbeki families; and it appears that some members of the Shehab joined the Maronite faith in the middle of the 18th century, causing a suspicion of secret apostasy to fall on all the family.
It is said that the amir Beshir, who succeeded about 1786, was himself a crypto-Christian. This remarkable man, who ruled the Mountain for fifty-four years, maintained his power by taking the side of one rebel pasha after another, betraying each in turn, and cultivating relations with European admirals. His earliest ally was Ahmed “Jezzar,” who established himself in Acre in contumacious independence late in the 18th century. Beshir supported Jezzar against Napoleon in 1799 and earned the friendship of Sir Sidney Smith. Falling out with Jezzar, Beshir fled to Cairo in 1805, attached himself to Mehemet Ali, and returned to take up the reins. Once more chased out by the Turks, he was again in the Mountain in 1823, allied with Abdallah, on whom Jezzar’s mantle had ultimately fallen at Acre, and maintaining friendly relations with the “English Princess,” Lady Hester Stanhope. He now finally worsted the Jumblat. The invasion of Syria by Mehemet Ali in 1831 caused Beshir to desert Abdallah and throw in his lot with Ibrahim Pasha; but he was not cordially followed by the Druses in general, and had good excuse for revolt in 1839, and intrigue with the British admiral in 1840. Ibrahim, however, by his possession of Druse hostages, restrained the amir, and after the bombardment of Acre, the Turks called him to account for his record of rebellion and treachery. He fled to Malta on a British ship, but was induced to go to Constantinople, where he died in 1851.
His successor, Beshir al-Kassim, openly joined the Maronites, and instigating these against the malcontents of his own people, brought enmities, which had been growing for a century, to a head, and initiated a devastating internecine warfare which was to continue for twenty years. The state of the Lebanon went from bad to worse, and at last, in January 1842, the Turkish government appointed Omar Pasha as administrator of the Druses and Maronites, with a council of four chiefs from each party; but the pasha, attempting to effect a disarming, was besieged in November in the castle of Beit ed-Din by the Druses under Shibli el-Arrian. At the instigation of the European powers he was recalled in December, and the Druses and Maronites were placed under separate kaimakams (governors), who, it was stipulated, were not to be of the family of Shehab. Disturbances again broke out in 1845, the native mukatajis refusing to obey the kaimakams. The Maronites flew to arms, but with the assistance of the Turks their opponents carried the day. A superficial pacification effected by Shekib Effendi, the Ottoman commissioner, lasted only till his departure; and the Porte was obliged to despatch a force of 12,000 men to the Lebanon. Forty of the chiefs were seized, the people was nominally disarmed, and in 1846 a new constitution was inaugurated, by which the kaimakam was to be assisted by two Druses, two Maronites, four Greeks, two Turks and one Metawali. All, however, was in vain: the conflict was continued through 1858, 1859 and 1860; and the disturbance culminated in the famous Damascus massacre (see [Syria]). The European powers now determined to interfere; and, by a protocol of the 3rd of May 1860, it was decided that the Lebanon should be occupied by a force of 20,000 men, of whom half were to be French. A body of troops was accordingly landed on the 16th of August under General Beaufort d’Hautpoul; and Fuad Pasha, who had been appointed Turkish commissioner with full powers, proceeded to bring the leaders of the massacres to justice. The French occupation continued till the 5th of June 1861, and the French and English squadrons cruised on the coast for several months after. In accordance with the recommendation of the European powers the Porte determined to appoint a Christian governor not belonging to the district, and independent of the pasha of Beirut, to hold office for three years. The choice fell on Daud Pasha, an Armenian Catholic, who was installed on the 4th of July. In spite of many difficulties, and especially the ambitious conduct of the Maronite Jussuf Karam, he succeeded in restoring order; and by the formation of a military force from the inhabitants of the Lebanon he rendered unnecessary the presence of the Turkish soldiery.
The privileged province of Lebanon (q.v.) was finally constituted by the Organic Statute of the 6th of September 1864, and the subsequent history of the Lebanon Druses is one of gradual withdrawal from the jurisdiction of that state, in which they see their ancient independence irretrievably compromised, and their religion subordinated to Christian supremacy. Many now emigrate, when occasion offers, to America.
Meanwhile, the Hauran, the old seat of the Shehab family and Hermon Druses, had been steadily receiving a Druse influx, since the day of Ain Dara (see above). Towards the close of the 18th century some 600 families left Lebanon for the Hauran, in discontent with the rule of the Shehab dynasty, and their place and property were taken by 1500 families driven out of Jebel Ansarieh by Topal Ali in 1811. The Hauran Druses increased by the middle of the 19th century to 7000 souls. They had successfully resisted Ibrahim, the Egyptian, in 1839 in the Lija, and asserted complete independence of the Turks, living under a theocratic government directed by the chief Akil in Suweda. A great effort, made by Kibrisli Pasha in 1852 to subdue the Hauran, came to nothing. In 1879 the population numbered 20,000, and by a murderous raid attracted the attention of Midhat Pasha, then vali of the province of Syria. After experiencing one disaster he defeated their forces and imposed a kaimakam, at first drawn from the Talhuks, but subsequently chosen from the Atrash family of Kunawat. But the Druses still refused to pay taxes, to serve in the Ottoman army, or to recognize the kaimakam, and maintained their contumacy under the lead of the Jumblat, till 1896; when, as the result of a military expedition under Tahir Pasha and a great defeat at Ijun, a compromise was arrived at, under which the Druses agreed to pay taxes, but to serve in their own territory only as a frontier guard. The government was put into the hands of a mutessarif resident at Sheikh Saad, under whom are kaimakams at Suweda and Salkhad. Since that epoch there has been comparative peace between the Druses and the government, largely because the latter, having learned wisdom, leaves the people very much to itself, maintaining only a small garrison of regular troops, and enlisting Druse police for service in Jebel Druz itself. The Druses are allowed to carry on their feuds with the Bedouins of the E. Desert as they will, so long as they do not disturb western districts. With the recent opening out of the W. Hauran by railway, the Druse sheikhs are beginning to acquire commercial ambitions, and to desire peace.
The Hauran Druses are a vigorous, independent folk, with a well-deserved reputation for courage, very astute, and hospitable to Europeans, especially the British, with whom they have an old tradition of friendship. But, like most persecuted but semi-independent peoples, they are both cruel, and, by our standards, treacherous. They are a handsome race, the women being often beautiful. The latter no longer carry the head-horn which used to support the veil dropped over the face out of doors. But their dress is still black with the exception of red slippers, and the veil is never abandoned, not even, it is said, during sleep. An English lady, who has been much among them, states that the Druse women of the Hauran never unveiled before her. The men wear a tarbush with white roll, a black under-robe with white girdle, a short loose jacket, and when necessary an aba or parti-coloured cloak over all. They go habitually armed with scimitar and half-moon axe, besides gun or rifle.
Polygamy is forbidden. Marriage retains certain traces of the original system of capture; but Druse women enjoy much consideration, and are comparatively well educated, dignified and free in their bearing in spite of their close veiling. As has been stated above, they join the men in religious functions. Divorce is easy and can be initiated by the woman; but remarriage of the pair can only be effected by the good offices of a proxy (as in Moslem societies, after a third divorce). Burial takes place in family mausoleums, walled up after each interment; but Akils are buried in their own houses. The body is laid on its side, with its face to the south (Mecca).
Education is widely spread, and there is a considerable religious literature, much of which is known in Europe. A copy of the Book of the Testimonies to the Mysteries of the Unity, consisting of seventy treatises in four folio volumes, was found in the house of the chief Akil at Bakhlin, and presented in 1700 to Louis XIV. by Nusralla ibn Gilda, a Syrian doctor. Other manuscripts are to be found at Rome in the Vatican, at Oxford in the Bodleian, at Vienna, at Leiden, at Upsala and at Munich; and Dr J. L. Porter got possession of seven standard works of Druse theology while at Damascus. The Munich collection was presented to the king of Bavaria by Clot Bey, the chief physician in the Egyptian army during its occupation of Syria; and for a number of the other manuscripts we are indebted to the elder Niebuhr. A history of the Druse nation by the amir Haidar Shehab is quoted by Urquhart.
Bibliography.—Adler, “Druze Catechism,” in Museum Cuficum Borgianum (1782); Silvestre de Sacy, Exposé de la religion des Druses (1838); Ph. Wolff, Reise in das gelobte Land, and Die Drusen und ihre Vorläufer (1842); C. H. Churchill, Ten Years’ Residence in Mount Lebanon (3 vols., 1853); G. W. Chasseaud, The Druzes of the Lebanon (1855); E. G. Ray, Voyage dans le Haouran, exécuté pendant les années 1857 et 1858; C. H. Churchill, The Druzes and Maronites under the Turkish Rule from 1840 to 1860 (London, 1862); H. Guys, Le Théogonie des Druses (1863), and La Nation Druse (1864); M. von Oppenheim, Vom Mittelmeer, &c. (1899); Gertrude L. Bell, The Desert and the Sown (1907).