The Druze are named after a preacher their own scriptures call a heretic
About a million people in the Levant follow the Druze faith, a secretive monotheism that teaches reincarnation and admits no converts. Its members call themselves the unitarians. The name outsiders use comes from ad-Darazī, an early preacher whom Druze texts denounce as insolent, hasty and narrow-minded.
The faith grew out of the Ismāʿīli branch of Shia Islam in the early eleventh century, but Druze do not regard themselves as Muslims. Their central scripture is the Epistles of Wisdom, and their theology absorbed influences from Christianity, Gnosticism, Neoplatonism, Zoroastrianism and Pythagorean thought. Core teachings are the oneness of God, the eternity of the soul and its rebirth, with strong emphasis on the mind and on truthfulness.
Secrecy runs through the community. Most practices are hidden from outsiders, conversion into the faith is not allowed, and marrying outside it is rare and discouraged. Even inside, a line divides the uqqāl, initiated believers entrusted with religious secrets, from the juhhāl, who concentrate on worldly life. The Druze honour many prophets, among them Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad, and hold Shuaib, whom they identify with the biblical Jethro, in particular esteem.
The founding years were turbulent. The movement first met in closed Sessions of Wisdom. Ad-Darazī clashed with the leader Hamza bin Ali, who objected to his extreme claims about God taking human form and to his calling himself the Sword of the Faith. When ad-Darazī's followers went public in 1016, riots broke out in Cairo, the movement was suspended for a year and he was expelled; he was killed in 1018. Other suggested sources for the name include an Arabic word for one who studies.
Estimates put the community at 800,000 to a million, concentrated in Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Jordan. The oldest and densest settlements are on Mount Lebanon and around Jabal al-Druze, the Mountain of the Druze, in southern Syria. Most Druze trace their ancestry to 12 Arab tribes that moved into Syria around the rise of Islam, and Arabic language and culture are central to their identity. Diaspora communities are largest in Venezuela and the United States.
Source: Druze
