Blessed Evening, Loves 😊

I Pray All Is Well With Everyone…And Your Hearts And Minds Are Full Of Love, Joy, And Compassion…For All Your Brothers And Sisters In Spirit. And All Of Mankind Are Brothers And Sisters In Spirit – No Matter The Color Of Our Skin, Or What Believe In. Cuz We All Emanate From And Return To The One Living God – The “Great I AM”! Therefore, Let Us…In The Meantime And In Between Time As We Live Our Lives…Radiate The Love And Light Of Our “Mighty I AM Presence”; By Expressing Those Higher Qualities As Often As Possible – In Our Thoughts And Actions; And Striving Every Day Of Our Lives To Be The Love…That God Intended! Cuz It Matters! Amen…

Give Thanks And Praises For Love And Life…

And Y’all Be Love…

“The Druzes of Syria and the Samaritans of Palestine are two unique communities not to be found elsewhere in the whole world. Like social fossils in an alien environment, these two peoples have survived for hundreds of years in that land rightly described as a “Babel of tongues” and a “museum of nationalities.”

The Samaritans are the remnants of the tribes from Assyria and Persia who were transplanted by Sargon some seven hundred years before Christ, to take the place of the “ten tribes” who were carried into captivity. They figured in the life of Christ as is illustrated by the case of the “Samaritan woman” and the story of the “good Samaritan.” Today they are represented by about one hundred and eighty people who intermarry among themselves and are becoming rapidly extinct. Their habitat is modern Nāblus (biblical Shechem), and their religion is ancient Judaism mixed with pagan survivals.

The Druzes have no such clear record to show regarding their origin as a people and as a sect. Their ethnographical origins, no less than their ritual practices and religious beliefs, are shrouded in mystery. Appearing for the first time on the pages of history at Wādi-al-Taym near Mount Hermon in anti-Lebanon, as professors of the divinity of the sixth Fāṭimite Caliph in Cairo (996-1020 A.D.), the Druzes have lived their semi-independent lives secluded in their mountain fastnesses of Lebanon, unmindful of the progress of the world around them, and almost entirely forgotten by the outside world.

The few occasions throughout their history in which the Druzes attracted international attention were first at the time of the Crusades, when they were entrusted by the Moslems with the military task of guarding the maritime plain against the Franks. They then fought under the banner of Islam and took part in the attacks against the garrisons of Belfort (Qal‘at al-Shaqīf), and of Montfort (Qal‘at Qurayn) in Galilee. Secondly, in the early seventeenth century when their great leader, Fakhr-al-Dīn II (1585-1635), under whom the Druze power reached its zenith, appeared as a refugee from the Sultan of Turkey in the court of the Medicis at Florence. Thirdly, when as a result of their civil wars in 1860 with their Christian neighbors to the north – the Maronites – the French landed a contingent of troops to quell the disturbance which resulted in giving the Lebanon a complete autonomy recognized by the great Powers of Europe. And fourthly, in connection with the recent armed uprising against the French mandate in Syria. In the local history of Syria and Lebanon, the Druzes have always figured as a compact and warlike community contriving to enjoy in the fastnesses of their mountain a comparative degree of security and independence.

…The Druze people constitute one of the two leading secret sects found only in Syria, the other being the Nuṣayriyyah, inhabiting the mountains north of Tripoli. The Ismā‘īliyyah of the Ḥimṣ and Ḥamāh district, another secret sect, are descended from the Assassins, who for two centuries or so struck awe and terror into the hearts of the Crusaders and are represented today by a few other sectarians in Persia and India. The Yezīdis, so-called devil worshipers, practice their hidden rites in the out-of-the-way hills between Antioch and Aleppo, and have coreligionists in Kurdistan and Armenia.

But of all these sects, Druzism is perhaps the most interesting and important. It is still a living force. Its followers form to the present day a vigorous and flourishing community in Lebanon. Its learned system has not changed since it was first inaugurated in the early part of the eleventh century. The Islam of the Near East has changed and adapted itself to the requirements of the varying conditions. The Christianity of the Near East has changed. But the Druze system has been and still is the same.

…A study of Druzism is especially valuable and interesting … because of its historic connection with Christianity and Oriental Christian sects. In its rise and development from Moslem soil, Druzism held close relationship to Christianity and became heir to a number of Zoroastrian and Judaeo-Christian sects, as well as to a body of Hellenistic and Persian philosophies. Many of those sects and schools of thought have since disappeared, but Druzism is still with us; and, through its medium, their ideas have survived to the present day. The religious and philosophical concepts of many Shī‘ite Moslem, and a few semi-Christian sects have been preserved to us through Druzism, though the original sects and their votaries have long become extinct.”

Origins of the Druze People and Religion, by Philip K. Hitti, 1924