Druze

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The Druze ( Arabic دروز, DMG Durūz andالموحدون, DMG al-muwaḥḥidūn 'Confessors of the Unity of God') are an Arabic-speaking religious community in the Middle East that emerged in Egypt in the early 11th century as a split from the Ismaili Shia . Members of this community now live mainly in Syria (approx. 700,000), Lebanon (approx. 280,000, i.e. around 4.5% of the population), in Israel (125,300, i.e. 1.6% of the population in 2004) and in very low number also in Jordan .

The Druze is officially mostly called Madhhab at- Tawhīd ( Arabic مذهب التوحيد, DMG maḏhab at-tauḥīd  'teaching direction of divine unity').

Druze in the Jordanian village of Umm el-Quttein on the border with Syria

history

The founder of the Druze doctrine was Hamza ibn Ali ibn Ahmad , a Persian missionary from Eastern Iran who was active in the Fatimid Daʿwa at the beginning of the 11th century . He claimed in 1017, the era of theقائم, DMG Qāʾim ( eschatological ruler) had dawned and the ruling Fatimid caliph al-Ḥākim was God. He also taught the abrogation of the Koranic revelation and its Ismaili interpretation; Instead of both, the mere confession of God's uniqueness ( Arabic توحيد, DMG tauḥīd ), which makes all acts of worship superfluous. In his letters, written between 1017 and 1020, Hamza developed a new theology - a compilation of Ismaili, Neoplatonic and extreme Shiite ideas and terms. Hamza sent his own missionaries to the various Ismaili communities in Egypt and Syria. One of his missionaries, a young Turk from Bukhara, who was nicknamed ad-Darzī (Persian “tailor”), developed such a lively missionary activity in Cairo that the new teaching there after him asالدرزية, DMG ad-Darzīya became known; their followers were calledدروز, DMG Durūz 'Drusen'.

The caliph himself tolerated the activities of the Druze missionaries. His disappearance in February 1021 during one of his nocturnal rides reinforced the Druze in their belief in his divinity. While Hamza fell silent, his deputy al-Muqtanā extended the Daʿwa also to Ismaili communities outside the Fatimid Empire, to Iraq and Iran, the Hejaz , Yemen, Bahrain and India. The collection of the “Epistles of Wisdom” ( Arabic رسائل الحكمة, DMG rasāʾil al-ḥikma ), which is still the most important sacred scripture of the Druze today. In the Fatimid Empire, the Druze had to operate in secret, because al-Ḥākim's successor az-Zāhir (r. 1021-1036) forbade the Druze doctrine in edicts and had their followers persecuted. Internal disputes ultimately led to the Druze Daʿwa being discontinued as early as 1034.

The Druze now closed off from the outside and withdrew to more remote mountain areas, such as the Chouf area in the Lebanon Mountains. The Druze moralist ʿAbdallāh at-Tanūchī (1417-79) appeared here in the 15th century, the Druze with the honorable epithetالسيد الأمير, DMG as-Sayyid al-Amīr is called 'Lord Prince'. He wrote a basic comment on theرسائل الحكمة, DMG rasāʾil al-ḥikma and created a system of moral rules calledآداب السيد الأمير, DMG ādāb as-Sayyid al-Amīr is known and is still considered an elementary code of Druze lifestyle.

Flag of the Druze State

A Druze emirate was founded in Lebanon in the early 16th century and was ruled by the Maʿn dynasty until 1697. There were at times political alliances with the Maronite Christians living there, but these have given way to open hostility since the Ottoman Empire and again since the Lebanese civil war.

In the 1920s, the French mandate administration established the Druze state ( Djébel druze ), an autonomous state in the Hauran area in southwest Syria , in order to split up the Syrian resistance to colonial rule. After Druze like Sultan Pasha al-Atrasch had taken the lead in the Damascus uprising in 1925-27 , the Jebel ad-Duruz was reintegrated into the rest of Syria ( see also: History of Syria ). The Druze offered armed resistance. To break this, the French massacred the Druze and Kurds. They displayed the bodies in the Damascus marketplace.

Teaching

Symbol of the Druze
Flag of the Druze

Although the Druze belief is strongly influenced by the Ismaili tradition, the differences are so great (e.g. due to the admixture of Platonism and Neoplatonism , migration of souls ) that one has to speak of an independent religion and not of a branch of Islam. The Druze have an allegorical interpretation of the Koran with their own doctrine.

The doctrine of the transmigration of souls also contradicts the principles of Islam. According to the Druze doctrine, a person's soul immediately migrates to a newborn person (but not to animals or other beings) upon death. On the way from person to person, the soul strives for perfection; after attaining it, she enters into a union with al-Ḥākim.

The Druze believe in reincarnation and in other parallel worlds . The circumstances of a person's birth, their parents and the birth background are predetermined and decided by God or a higher being alone. Correspondingly, missionary work or conversion are not permitted. These are viewed as a refusal of God's will, or as a case of a lower intelligence - man - trying to "teach" a higher intelligence - God. In the words of the Druze: “A enveloped man must not instruct the enveloped man. Only God can decide that ”. There is a reason why God divided people into different religions. This reason is not something man should be concerned with. Rather, man should be concerned with the purification of his soul in order to reach a higher level of existence. On the way to this goal and through many reincarnations, man can get many roles and experience different situations. It is therefore fundamental for Druze to accept other religions as they are, since they have a similar role in the structure that is ignored by humans.

Mission and conversion of people of different faiths are not pursued by the Druze, nor can one convert to Druze voluntarily. Outsiders were only accepted at the time the religion was founded. Today only Druse is who is a child of Druze parents. The doctrine of the Druze allows only a precisely fixed number of their members in all worlds, so that their number of members must remain constant. "Surplus" Druze would then be born in "China".

The Druze believe that they have always existed under different names for millions of years. Al-Ḥākim counts as the last manifestation of God in a long line. The Druze worship the grave of Jitro in Hittin . The death of the caliph in 1021 is understood by his Druze followers as a transition into a state of secrecy, from which he will return after 1000 years to take control of the world. This would have been - due to the somewhat different Islamic calendar - 1990 or 1991 modern calendar.

The believers are translated into “ignorant” ( Arabic جهال, DMG ǧuhhāl , Sg.جاهل, DMG ǧāhil ) and initiates ( Arabic عقال, DMG ʿuqqāl , Sg.عاقل, DMG ʿāqil 'understanding'). The latter, both men and women, are the guardians and keepers of religion and its secrets, unknown to the ignorant. Both this structure and isolation from outsiders due to persecution mean that the practices and details of the Druze religion are not known outside the community. Druze can therefore also be viewed as a secret religion.

The initiates (also known as the "religious") can be recognized by the fact that they always wear white headgear with black robes. There are usually no mosques in the Druze areas; most women do not wear a headscarf.

Position of Islamic scholars towards the Druze

Within Islamic scholarship there are different views as to whether the Druze are Muslim or not. One of the most famous Sunni - Hanbali scholars, Ibn Taymiyya , issued two fatwas (legal opinions) dealing with this issue. In one of them, the Druze is only a sub-item, as it deals primarily with the Alawites . Nevertheless this fatwa is similar in its statement to the other fatwa in which Ibn Taymiyya deals separately and exclusively with the Druze.

In the first fatwa, he begins to call the Druze an Ismaili sect. Muhammad ibn Ismail would have abrogated the Sharia , which is why the Druze rejected the Islamic duties. The Druze also belonged to the Qarmatians ( Arabic وهم من القرامطة الباطنية, DMG wa-hum mina l-qarāmiṭat al-bāṭinīya ), which is intended to underline their heretical orientation. The Druze doctrine is even more complex than that of the philosophers and magicians and youكفر, DMG kufr 'unbelief' even greater than that of Jews , Christians or Arab idol worshipers ( Arabic مشركون العرب, DMG mušrikūn al-ʿarab ). Ibn Taymiyya said in his second fatwa, anyone who has doubts about their unbelief is just like them an unbeliever. They did not belong to the Ahl al-Kitab , but were apostates . Therefore one should not eat their food, one should not marry their wives, one should not sleep in their houses, one should not run around with them and one should not have to kill their scholars.

A similar view was held by the legal scholar Ibn ʿĀbidīn (1783–1836), who declared Druze as well as Ismailis and Alawis to be infidels who should be fought and killed. The legal opinion of the Azhar scholars expressed in several reports is based on the legal opinion of Ibn ʿĀbidīn . Deviating from this position, there were brief demands around 1959 at Azhar University to accept Druze and Ismailites into the Islamic community.

Todays situation

Druze in Lebanon

The only country where the Druze play a major political role is Lebanon . After Shiites , Maronites , Sunnis and Greek Orthodox , the Druze are the fifth or sixth largest religious community (roughly on a par with the believers in the Greek Catholic Church ) in the country. The center of the minority is the Chouf Mountains, in southern Lebanon they live with Christians ( see also: Walid Jumblat ). Although small in number, the Druze minority and its Progressive Socialist Party had one of the most powerful militias during the Lebanese Civil War .

Art. 9 of the Constitution gives the Druze in Lebanon the right to self-administration and their own personal status legislation. They have their own jurisdiction, at the head of which is the "Supreme Druze Court of Appeal" ( Arabic المحكمة الاستئنافية الدرزية العليا, DMG al-maḥkamat al-istiʾnāfīyat ad-Durzīyat al-ʿulyā ). The so-called Druze acts as the highest religious authority of the Druze vis-à-vis the stateشيخ العقل, DMG šaiḫ al-ʿaql ' Master of the Intellect'. Sometimes this office is held by two people.

Druze in Syria

Next to the Jebel ad-Duruz ( Arabic جبل الدروز, DMG ǧabal ad-Durūz ) and the settlement center as-Suwaida , Druze live on the eastern slope of the Hermon Mountains ( Hebrew הר חרמון, AHL har Ḥermon , Arabic جبل الشيخ, DMG ǧabal aš-šaiḫ ) in villages at an altitude of 1000 to 1500 meters. As the minority of Alawites reached the Druze by an above-average proportion of military conscripts in the armed forces of Syria to some political influence, according to the power of the Baath Party in 1963 was for. B. Shibli al-Aysami briefly party leader and Syrian vice-president, Sultan al-Atrash's son Mansur also held a post in the party leadership. After power struggles within the Ba'ath party and a failed coup attempt by Druze major Salim Hatum, the Druze were booted out by the Alawite military in 1966 and ousted from power.

During the civil war in Syria in 2015, the Druze were increasingly threatened by Islamist rebels. Right from the start of the war, they had only partially hoped for autonomy and therefore joined the rebellion, while others sided with Assad, the supposed protector of the minorities. The rebellion lost its attractiveness with the increasing influence of radical Islamists; IS even managed to gain a foothold in the Suweida area. In the spring of 2018, the Assad regime "evacuated" more IS fighters there.

Druze in Israel

Druze temple (called Arabic حلوة, DMG ḫalwa  'Klause') in Daliat al-Karmel

The Israeli Druze live in 18 villages between Acre in the west and Safed in the east, plus the Druze in four villages on the Golan Heights annexed by Israel . The largest Druze settlement in Israel is ( Hebrew דאליית אל-כרמל, Arabic دالية الكرمل) Dāliyat al-Karmal with over 13,000 Druze inhabitants.

As Israeli citizens, Druze in Israel are loyal to the Israeli government. Besides the Jews, they are the only ethnic group in Israel who, with a few exceptions, regularly serves in the Israeli army ; many of them belong to special forces. The Druze were recognized as an independent religious community in Israel in 1957. They see themselves as Arabs , but (in Israel) not as Muslims .

The spiritual leader ( Qādī ) of the Israeli Druze has been Muwaffak Tarif since 1993 . He took over this position from his grandfather Amin Tarif .

Unlike the Druze in the Israeli heartland, who are loyal to the State of Israel, their fellow believers in the Israeli-occupied Golan feel they belong to Syria . These live in a few villages in the North Golan below the Hermon , but did not leave their country during the Israeli conquest in 1967, unlike the Sunnis of the city of Quneitra or the villages further south, which no longer exist. Similar to the annexation of East Jerusalem , the Druze were offered Israeli citizenship after the annexation of the Golan. Only about ten percent of the Druze on the Golan accepted this offer. In the course of the civil war in Syria , however, interest in Israeli citizenship is growing, especially among young Druze on the Golan.

Druze in Europe

At the end of the 19th century, the first Druze left their home in the Middle East. Apart from a few emigrants at the beginning of the 20th century, the Druze did not settle in Europe and Germany until the 1970s.

Druze as a genetic refuge

A medium-blonde Druze child in the Syrian mountains around 1996

Analyzes of the mitochondrial DNA of Druze residents (311 households in 20 villages in inaccessible mountainous areas in Israel) by a team of Israeli and American scientists support oral records that claim that the Druze initially consisted of many different tribes. In the studied population there are about 150 different types of mitochondrial DNA, which according to the authors, a " genetic refuge" ( genetic refugium group) and an insight into the population diversity of the Middle East allow several millennia ago.

literature

  • Général Andrea: La révolte Druze et l'Insurrection de Damas. 1925-1926 . Bibliothèque historique . Payot, Paris 1937.
  • Paul-Jacques Callebaut: Les mystérieux Druzes du Mont-Liban . La Renaissance du livre, Tournai 2000, ISBN 2-8046-0333-4 .
  • Kais M. Firro: The Druzes in the Jewish State. A brief history . Social, economic and political studies of the Middle East and Asia Vol. 64. Brill, Leiden et al. 1999, ISBN 90-04-11251-0 .
  • Abbas El-Halabi: Les Druzes. Vivre avec l'avenir . 2nd edition. Editions Dar an-Nahar, Beyrouth 2005, ISBN 9953-74-042-9 .
  • Jad Hatem : Dieu en guise d'Homme dans le Druzisme . Librairie de l'Orient, Paris 2006, ISBN 2-84161-302-X .
  • Georges Dagher, Isabelle Rivoal: Les Maîtres du Secret. Ordre mondain et ordre religieux dans la Communauté Druze en Israël . Recherches d'histoire et de sciences sociales. Vol. 88. Éditions de l'École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris 2000, ISBN 2-7132-1338-X .
  • Fuad Khoury: Being a Druze . Druze Heritage Foundation, London 2004, ISBN 1-904850-00-6 .
  • Peggy Klein: The Druze in Israel . Diss. University of Hanover. Tectum, Marburg 2001, ISBN 3-8288-8305-2 . ( GoogleBooks )
  • Louis Périllier: Les Druzes . Courants universels. Editions Publisud, Paris 1986, ISBN 2-86600-252-0 .
  • Bernadette Schenk: Trends and Developments in the Modern Druze Community of Lebanon. Attempts at a historical, political and religious assessment . Islamic studies. Vol. 245. Schwarz, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-87997-298-2 .
  • Werner Schmucker: Crisis and renewal in the Lebanese Druze. Studies on the minority problem in Islam. Vol. 3. Oriental seminar of the university, Bonn 1979, ISBN 3-447-02058-X .
  • Sehabeddin Tekindag: Duruz . In: Encyclopaedia of Islam . Vol. 2. Leiden 1991, p. 631, ISBN 90-04-07026-5 .
  • Philipp Wolff : The Druze and their predecessors. Vogel, Leipzig 1845

Web links

Commons : Druze  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Statistical abstract of Israel - Population by religion. 2010
  2. ↑ See Heinz Halm : The Schia . Darmstadt 1988. pp. 220f.
  3. ↑ See Halm 1988, 222.
  4. ↑ See Kais M. Firro: Art. Al-Tanūkhī, Djamāl al-Dīn ʿAbdallāh in The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition Vol. X, p. 192b.
  5. ↑ Peggy Klein: The Druze in Israel . Tectum, Marburg 2001, ISBN 3-8288-8305-2 .
  6. ↑ Ibn Taymiyya: fatwā šaiḫ al-islām ibn Taimīya fī d-Durūz wa-n-Nuṣairīya. Retrieved June 3, 2016 (Arabic).
  7. ↑ Naseef Naeem : Approved for launch. zenithonline.de, 2013
  8. ↑ Rainer Brunner: Islamic Ecumenism in the 20th Century. The Azhar and Shiism between Rapprochement and Restraint. Brill, Leiden 2004, p. 240
  9. ↑ See Schenk 97f.
  10. ↑ Civil war: Syria's Druze get caught between the fronts spiegel.de, June 17, 2015
  11. ^ New wave of terrorism from IS in Syria , NZZ, July 26, 2018
  12. ↑ Israel's Druze conscientious objectors , Aljazeera, January 8, 2014
  13. ↑ Samy S. Swayd: Historical Dictionary of the Druzes. Rowman & Littlefield, Washington 2006, p. 98, ISBN 978-0810853324
  14. ↑ Liran I. Shlush, Doron M. Behar, Guennady Yudkovsky, Alan Templeton, Yarin Hadid Fuad base, Michael Hammer, Shalev Itzkovitz, Karl Skoreck: The Druze - A Population Genetic retreat of the Near East. In: PLoS ONE. May 7, 2008.