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most credulous among his blinded worshippers. The political changes which succeeded, sufficiently evinced that the unhappy monarch had undergone the process which all oriental sovereigns have reason to expect, and which most of them actually experience. Among these changes one of the most important was the abolition of the public, and suppression of the secret, rites connected with the worship of the murdered Khalif. The dispersion of the priests and devotees was a necessary consequence, and as Eastern revolutionists do nothing by halves, Hamza and his adherents who continued faithful, soon found themselves compelled to betake themselves to flight as the only means of safety, so that few months had elapsed before Egypt was completely cleared of every vestige of the obnoxious heresy.

At this point, a considerable chasm occurs in the history of the fanatics, which is only supplied-and that very imperfectly-by detached and confused traditionary anecdotes. The circumstances of their overthrow in Egypt might indeed lead us naturally to expect the absence of any continuous authentic record of their subsequent migrations. Persecuted, as they no doubt were, by the orthodox or less heretical believers, wherever they were found; hated at home, and suspected elsewhere, they were compelled to make their movements cautiously and in secret. The same circumstances would, of course, induce them to prefer the society of one another to that of the indifferent or persecuting multitude; a feeling strengthened probably in most of them, by the same spirit of fanatical enthusiasm which made them refuse to abandon their new faith. These facts, considered in connexion with the fragments of traditionary information already mentioned, give no small degree of probability to the opinion which identifies the Druses with the Egyptian refugees. Another circumstance, which adds to this probability, is the derivation of the name by which the sect is known, from the surname of Mohammed Ibn Is

mael. An etymology suggested and maintained by a native of Syria* no doubt on good authority. Whether the fugitives immediately organized a separate society, or whether they amalgamated with another race, at that time occupants of Mount Libanus, we have no historical means of ascertaining. There is so much confusion and obscurity about the statements of the Mohammedan historians in relation to this period, that they furnish no satisfactory results. The first mention which we find of the Druses, as an organized community, is in the Itinerarium of Benjamin of Tudela, who travelled to the East in the 12th century, while the Europeans had possession of the Holy Land, a circumstance which clearly disproves the assertion, that they were a Christian colony. It may be thought extraordinary, that a society so singular in its character and habits should have attracted so little attention during such a lapse of time, and still more, that a sect of proscribed and persecuted heretics should have been suffered to reside in the midst of Mussulmans unmolested, and for several centuries almost unknown. This phenomenon, however, is sufficiently explained by a reference to the history of the Ottoman Empire, and the date of the first Turkish conquests. Though Mohammedans in their religious faith and practice, the Turks are of an origin entirely diverse from that of the other Moslem nations. It is generally agreed, that the first Turks were a horde of migratory Tartars, who penetrated into Asia-Minor through the Persian territory, and it is by no means an improbable conjecture, that they picked up the religion of the Koran in the progress of their march. They had consequently, at first, none of the same deep-rooted prejudices, one way or the other, which at that time characterized the Arabs and their colonies, and if at the present day they are the strictest and most bigotted of all the Sonnis, it has arisen

* M. Mitchel, French dragoman at Saide.

in a great degree, from a spirit of political animosity towards the Persians, who are Shiahs. The invasion of Syria and the Holy Land, therefore, by the Ottomans, wrought a change in the character of the whole population. The strangers, feeling none of the instinctive prejudices cherished by their predecessors, and disregarding probably, the vague traditions respecting the origin and character of the Druses, suffered them to remain in quiet possession of their territories, and in fact, seem to have wholly overlooked them, till the Druses emboldened by this tolerant contempt, committed such depredations on the adjacent regions as effectually roused the attention of their masters. A series of petty wars between the Turkish soldiery and the mountaineers terminated at length in the subjection of the latter, near the end of the fifteenth century. They were not, however, exterminated or even expelled. The only important change which was made in their condition, was the substitution of a monarchial form of local government, for the somewhat republican system which prevailed before-the numerous Sheikhs or petty chieftains of the Druses, being united under a single Emir. They soon, however, renewed their depredations with different degrees of impunity and success, and their history from that period till 1770, so far as it is known, consists of little else than a succession of revolts and conflicts with the Turks. It was at one of these stormy periods, that the prince, before alluded to, who had fought with great success against the provincial Turkish troops, and raised the power of his nation to its highest pitch, fled to Italy to escape the more formidable preparations which the Sultan was making to destroy him. In the year last mentioned, the famous rebel Ali Bey having been expelled from Egypt, renewed his disorganizing measures in Syria, where he had taken refuge, and as the war between the Porte and Russia required nearly all the Turkish troops upon the Northern frontier, the Pasha of Tripoli was forced

to have recourse to the Druses for assistance. They accepted his proposals, but in order to render their aid more efficacious, he compelled the reigning Emir, Al Mansur, to resign, and appointed in his room the Emir Yusuf, a nephew of Al Mansur, who had made himself conspicuous as a military chieftain, in several of the petty wars, so common in the east. Under his command, they marched upon Ali Bey, who, meeting them with a few small pieces of artillery obtained from Russian ships, routed them entirely, and wasted a considerable portion of the Emir's territory. The loss sustained in property and men, was serious to the Druses, and though we know few authenticated facts, in relation to their subsequent condition, there is reason to believe that they have never since been possessed of any great degree of power. It would even appear, that the Turks have in latter times, directly interfered in the local government of Mount Libanus, by assuming the right of nominating the Emir or chief Lord. It is stated by Mr. Jowett, in his Christian Researches, that the present Emir is neither a Moslem nor a Druse, but a Christian, who only complies with the outward form of the Mohammedan religion, to secure himself from injury. It is probable, however, that this is a misconception arising from the illusive practice of external confor mity already mentioned as a characteristic of the nation in all ages. We have now given as full a view of the most probable opinions respecting the rise and progress of this people, as our means of information would permit. It remains to collect some of the scattered, and by no means perfectly consistent, statements which have been given in regard to their religion. The reader will recollect, that the educated Druses have always refused to impart information on this subject, and that what is known has been discovered by fraud or accident, or guessed out from the mystical jargon of their sacred books.

The Druses call their own religion Tawhîd, a word de

noting unity, or rather a relief in the doctrine of Unity. This term is of common use among the Mussulmans, who apply it to their own faith as contra-distinguished from Christianity on the one hand, and polytheism on the other.

It is by no means certain, whether this is the sense in which the Druses employ it as descriptive of their system. It may, indeed, have allusion to their notions respecting the metempsychosis and the kindred doctrine of successive in. carnations, and be intended to imply the Deity, though so frequently revealed in different forms, was, notwithstanding, one. But from some expressions which occur in their sacred writings, it seems more probable, that this appellative is founded on another peculiar dogma of their creed-to wit, that all the religious systems which have ever existed, however heterogeneousor contradictory, are sealed, consummated, and concentred, in the religion of the Druses. Their prophet Hamza, and the other authors of their sacred books, delight in representing the new system as a grand universal medium between all extremes, and at the same time as the topstone of some mighty edifice, which had been building from the beginning of the world. This doctrine runs through all their writings, and serves to explain more than one of their peculiarities. It is on this ground, that they are so completely tolerant, never offering any opposition, nor expressing a dislike to the doctrines or services of any other sect. It is on this ground too, that they wholly abstain from all attempts to convert or proselyte their neighbors, nay, peremptorily refuse to receive any other than a native Druse into their communion. These two peculiarities, which are wholly unparalleled in religious history, can only be occasioned by a belief, that their system is the sum and substance of all other creeds, and an expectation that it will at some future day be universal. If this supposition is correct, the Tawhid properly denotes the unity of all religions, rather than the unity of God,

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