Table of Contents

Page

Two Facsimile Pages from Druze Manuscripts

Foreword (by Editor of the Studies)

III

Preface (by Author)

V

CHAPTER I

A UNIQUE AND SECRET SECT

Two Historical Fossils—Relation to World Events—Minor Episodes—Other Secret Sects—Special Interest of this Study

1-4

CHAPTER II

SOCIAL AND HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT

Feudal Organization—Part Played during the Crusades—The Druze Power at its Height—Banu-Shihāb, the Last Feudal Chiefs—Druzes and Christians Grouped in Political Rather than Religious Parties—The Civil War of 1860

5-9

CHAPTER III

RACIAL ORIGINS

Number and Distribution—Religious and Racial Boundaries Coterminous—Silence of Historians—Travelers’ and Scholars’ Accounts—Criticism of the Arabian Theory—Diverse Hypotheses—Supposed Relationship with the French and British and with Freemasonry—Other Theories

10-17

CHAPTER IV

THE PERSIAN ORIGIN OF THE DRUZES

The Persian Nucleus at Wādi-al-Taym—The Founders of Druzism All Persian—The Testimony of Religious Vocabulary—Names of Feudal Families—Persian Tribes Transplanted into Syria

18-23

CHAPTER V

DRUZE THEOLOGY AND ITS SOURCES

I. THE PROBLEM WITH ITS DIFFICULTIES

Various Hypotheses—Period of Concealment—Manuscripts—The Historical Setting

24-26

II. THE ḤĀKIM-GOD

Whimsical Character of al-Ḥākim—His Deification—Al-Ḥakīm as the Messiah—A Series of Divine Incarnations—The Disappearance and Triumphal Return of al-Ḥākim—Indo-Iranian Influences—Unitarians

16-34

III. FIVE DIVINE MINISTERS AND THREE INFERIOR ONES

The Process of Emanation—The Neo-Platonic Source—Inferior Ministers

34-37

p. VIII

Page

IV. THE PROPHETIC SUCCESSION

Seven Major Prophets—Seven a Sacred Number—Excellence of Druze System—Adam—Jesus

37-39

V. THE INNER MEANING

The Bāṭiniyyah—The Muḥammadan Law Abrogated—The Mystic Element—Sheikhs

40-43

CHAPTER VI

DOGMAS AND PRECEPTS

I. TRANSMIGRATION OF SOULS

Method of Operation—Earlier Moslem Sects Believing in Transmigration—Relation to China

44-47

II. PREDESTINATION AND DISSIMULATION

Shī‘ite Contribution

47-48

III. THE CULT OF THE CALF

The Fact—Its Interpretation

49

IV. SEVEN PRECEPTS OF ḤAMZAH

Eight Dogmas—Ḥamzah's Precepts—Sources and Operation

50-51

CHAPTER VII

FOLKLORE

Animism and Saint Worship—Charges of Licentious Practices—Ḥamzites versus Darazites—Family Organization—Summary and Conclusion

52-54

APPENDICES

CONTAINING EXTRACTS FROM THE DRUZE SACRED WRITINGS

APPENDIX A—COVENANT OF INDUCTION INTO THE RELIGION OF THE RULER OF THE AGE

57

APPENDIX B—AL-ḤAKIM'S ORDINANCE PROHIBITING THE USE OF WINE

59

APPENDIX C—EXCERPT FROM THE CHARTER FOUND POSTED ON THE WALLS OF THE MOSQUES ON THE OCCASION OF THE DISAPPEARANCE OF OUR LORD AL-IMAM AL-ḤAKIM

61

APPENDIX D—EXCERPT FROM THE EPISTLE ENTITLED AL-QUSṬANṬĪNIYYAH ADDRESSED BY BAHĀ’-AL-DĪN TO THE BYZANTINE EMPEROR CONSTANTINE

64

APPENDIX E—EXCERPT FROM BAHĀ’-AL-DĪN'S EPISTLE ENTITLED CHRISTIANITY

68

APPENDIX F—EXHORTATIONS AND PRAYERS BY AL-SAYYID ‘ABDULLĀH AL -TANŪKHI

71

Index

75

Map

81