ples of crime and horror, which penetrate all truths; that he is the chief priest of the true rewhere the doctrines that illustrate them ligion; and that he communicates mediately or immediately to other ministers, or to the faith

even

are concealed, and prepare the mind for any ful in general, though in different proportions, the • form of infatuation. The law of the Koran, knowledge and the favours which he receives proclaiming the unity of God, was but the from the Divinity direct, and of which he is the very category of the previous Persian aberra- only channel: that he alone has immediate access tions; and from this, our wider, survey, we to God, and acts as a mediator for the rest of the can immediately assent to the conclusion worshippers with the Supreme Being: to acdrawn by De Sacy from the narrower basis knowledge that Hamza is he to whom Hakem of the Mahommedan conversions, to the new faith which upheld the insane and detestable caliph Hakem-Biamr-illah as a vicegerent of

God.

will intrust his sword, in order to ensure the tri

umph of his religion, vanquish all his rivals, and distribute punishments rewards according to the merits of every individual: to recognise the other ministers of the faith, and the rank appertaining to each; to render to all the obedience and submission which are their due; to confess that all souls have been created by the Universal Intelligence; that the number of men is ever the same; and that souls pass successively into different bodies: that they rise by at

tachment to truth to a superior degree of excel

'In fact,' says De Sacy, there is no probability that Hamza would have even succeeded in establishing so insensate a creed, had he not found men's minds long prepare epared for such doctrines. But such was the corruption at that time which the fanatical partisans of Ali, and the intermixture of Greek with Persian philosophy, had introduced into the primitive simplici- lence, or debase themselves by neglecting or ty of Islamism, that Hamza had only to take a omitti omitting to meditate upon the dogmas of relisingle step, in order to gather round his infa-gion to practise the seven commandments which the creed of Hamza imposes on its followers, and which requires of them chiefly truth in speech, charity for their brethren, renuncia

mous divinity a crowd of stupid adorers, ever ready to become the plaything of whoever would take the trouble of misleading them.

-Introd. p. v.

tion of their former faith, and the most entire resignation and submission to the will of God: to confess that all preceding religions have been but types, more or less perfect, of the true religion; that all their ceremonial precepts are only allegories; and that the manifestation of the

The geographical position of Syria, we have seen, favoured this brutal ignorance; and the creed of the Druzes is thus summed up by the learned writer before us in the true religion necessitates the abrogation of all work we are considering, as he had previ- other creeds.'-Exposé, vol. i.

ously done it in his Mémoire on the Wor

ship of the Golden Calf.

III. THE HISTORY OF THE VARIOUS SECTS.
The Sects that preceded the Druzes are
given at great length and with much suc-
cinctness by Macrizi; the most prominent
among these sects are the Shiahs, or followers
of Ali
of Ali, who even in his lifetime began to
adopt the most exaggerated opinions con-

"When I saw the matter carried to an abominable excess.

• To recognise one sole God, without seeking to penetrate the nature of his being and attributes: to confess that he cannot be either conceived by the sense, or defined by speech: to believe that the Divinity has shown himself to mankind, at different times under a human form without participating in any of the weaknesses cerning him, for which that conscientious and imperfections of humanity: that he show. exemplar of discipline recompensed them by ed himself, at the beginning of the 5th century a prompt incremation, and recorded this of the Hegira, under the form of Hakem-Biamr- grateful remuneration by the celebrated verse, Allah: that this is the last of his manifestations, after which there is no other to expect: that Hakem disappeared, in the year 411 of the Hegira, to try the faith of his worshippers, to give scope to the apostacy of hypocrites, and of those who had embraced the true religion only from the hope of worldly and fleeting recompense: After the death of Ali, Abdallah, the son that shortly (dans peu) he will reappear, full of of Wahab, first taught that the Imamat was glory and majesty, to triumph over all his ene- left by Mahomed to Ali, as his successor, mies, extend his empire over all earth, and render his faithful adorers happy for ever; to and vicar of the apostle of God: that Ali believe that the UNIVERSAL INTELLIGENCE is the should return to earth after his decease: first of the creatures of God, the sole immediate that he had not been slain; that a particle production of his omnipotence: that it has show- of divinity resided in him; that he still ed itself on earth at the period of each of the lived; that he rode upon the clouds; that manifestations of the Divinity, and finally ap- the thunder was his voice, and the lightpeared in the time of Hakem under the form of

I lighted my fire, and I called upon Kanbar" (his freedman.)

Hamza, the son of Ahmed: that by its ministry ning his whip; and that he should come it is that all other creatures have been produced: to execute justice upon earth. From that Hamza alone possesses the knowledge of Abdallah also arose the belief of a settled

119669

but a device to favour any subsequent leader who could muster strength, in an enterprise against his sovereign. The

any

succession of Imams; by some held to be hommed-ben-Ismael, the Karmate, was seven in number, by others, twelve. At the end of the first century of the Hegira the sect of Djahm denied attribute and action to the Deity: and soon after, name, we have seen, was assumed at the Motazalis insisted that he was not the length by him whom historians call El creator of evil, that he was not to be be- Darazi; who first asserted the divinity of held of men in a future state, that the Hakem-Biamr-Allah, and composed under human body would not suffer in the tomb, this caliph's sanction a volume in proof of that the Koran had a beginning and was the statement, and containing his abhorcreated; with various other heresies. The rent doctrines. It was read in the mosque Keramites, after Hegira 200, asserted on the of Cairo, the people rose against the aucontrary, not only the divine attributes, thor, and El Macin reports that he was but also a tangible body and face, for the slain by a Turk at the side, and in the Deity. The Karmathians followed; over- chariot, of Hakem. But the silence of ran Bagdad and Syria, Egypt, and the the Druzi books on this point renders more Hegiaz. All these, and the last sect espe- probable the allegations of other histocially, made numerous proselytes, for they rians, that the caliph, unable to protect allegorized the Koran into a mystic sys- his favourite, assisted his flight to the tem, and instituted, we should rather say mountains of Syria; where, amply supresuscitated, the doctrine of an internal plied with money by Hakem, he purchassense, discarding all outward observances ed the belief of the rude peasantry of the of the sacred law. valley of Teimallah, near Damascus, and

When the Khalif Mamoun procured of the territory of Pareas. translations of the Greek philosophy into Hamza, the son of Ahmed, succeeded Arabic, about Heg. 210, the sects we have Mahommed-ben-Ismael at Cairo, between noticed seized and studied these novel 405 and 408 of the Hegira. He was works with an avidity which soon proved warmly welcomed by Hakem, and sought fatal to the reigning power: and the to persuade the Christians that this caliph Fatimite caliphs, masters of Egypt, car- was the true Messiah. The caliph disconried (358, Heg.) their arms into Syria tiued, in his ministry, the prayers in the with the doctrines of the Ismaelians, of mosques, the Friday observances of the whom the Druzes recognise seven imams, Ramadhan, and the two festivals, of the concealed, from the persecutions of the end of the fast and of sacrifices; he Abassides. The last of the seven, Abdal- also discontinued the sacred present of a lah the father of Mehdi, and son of Mai- curtain for the Kaaba, and for many years, moun, though professing the Shiah faith, the pilgrimage to Mecca. Hamza is the was, in fact, a materialist; as were the Kar- great apostle of the Druzi faith, which mates at bottom; and the Ismaelians, flourished at Tyre, Sidon, in the mounthe stems of this last sect, differ little or tains of Beyroot, and the vicinity of these nothing from the Nosairis, according to places; but he has been unjustly charged the Syriac chronicle of Abulphuraj, who by El Macin with the introduction of in this work applies to the latter all that licentious doctrines, which, according to his Arabian chronicle reports of the Kar- De Sacy, were infused into his system, and mates. The Druzi books prove further but too early, by some of his own Daïs the identity, or close approximation at least, or teachers, from the practices of the

Karmates and Batenis.

IV. PECULIAR TENETS OF THE DRUZES.

of the Nosairis and Ismaelians; in the dispensation with the literal for the allegorical sense of the law, the doctrines of transmigration and of the divinity of Ali, From the two sources just pointed out and in permitting the most horrible licen- it is more than probable that some, and possibly a material, difference exists in the creed, or at least the practices, of the Druzes; those of the mountains and interior having been converted by Mahommedben-Israel Darazi, and those of the coast

tiousness; while Hamza himself admits that several of the chief Karmates were true Unitarians, worshippers of God and of Hakem.

Our limits render it impossible, as it is following the more decent system of Ham. needless, to follow the course of the dif-za. We do not find this distinction noticferent sects. We would only observe, ed by the writers on the subject, Christian with De Sacy, that the pretended con- or Moslem, but it is scarcely to be expectealment and future reappearance of Ma-ed from either, and still less in the sacred books of the Druzes, which contain the found by Adler in the Borgian library conrefined system, that of Hamza, but which firmed this account. We ourselves agree do, however, incidentally narrate dif-with Burckhardt (Travels in Syria), that ferences and heresies that in all likelihood the mystery is little likely to be disclos. sprang partially from the above source: ed, in its native country at least; by the and to this cause also we may attribute neighbouring tribes, from ignorance; by the discrepancies of history and rumour the Druzes, from secrecy.

in reference to that isolated race of mys tics, whose very bend of religion is se

crecy.

To show the difficulties that surround the subject, notwithstanding Adler's information, the Maronites denied the state

The most prominent imputation against ment to Niebuhr, and treated it as a Mathem is that of incestuous intercourse, hommedan calumny against the Druzes. and the most dubious, the worship of the Volney and De Tott were equally igno. golden calf. The latter indeed has been rant of the fact: and though we know positively affirmed and as positively de- from the catechism of that race that they nied, by their followers, and by their ene- have a concealed form or image, as the mies. It rests in doubt therefore: De Account of Aleppo asserts, we cannot Sacy himself is inclined, both in his think with De Sacy that the point is de. Mémoire and Exposé, to disbelieve the termined thereby; especially as the constatement; but we shall enable our read-clusion attained by this great scholar ers to determine for themselves, by a care- seems to us wholly opposite to the eviful comparison of all the facts-first addu- dence adduced and adducible. The pascing the evidence given in the Mémoires sage quoted by Adler is simply this:

referred to, the reports of various writers,

and the catechism of the Druzi initiates.

From the sacred books of this sect, and various fragments, catechisms, and expositions extant, the Baron de Sacy suspect ed that the practice of the Druzes had materially altered on several points, though some of the works assuming to be those of the founders of their faith were obvi ously of a far later date, and upheld tenets not found in their recognised code at present. The worship of the calf (or bull) is one of these.

"When we are satisfied that he who comes

before us as a brother is really one of us, we conduct him to our retreat, and discover to him the

concealed secret, which is Hamza, and which we keep shut up."

The evidence of Eichorn adds to the doubt, for he distinctly affirms that they have the figure of a calf, the symbol of their God, whom apparently they call as suits them (pro arbitrio) sometimes Hakem and sometimes Hamza: Adler declares they never confound the two: and

In Niebuhr's travels we find that the De Sacy concludes that the "concealed Mahommedans charge the Druzes with secret" is simply the books of Hamza, or this idolatry, and, in consequence, honour else that these are read at the opening of them with the courteous appellation of the mystic chest.

Abdulidjel (ministers of the devil); and Mariti, in his Histoire de Fakreddin,* the missionary memoir on the city of (the great Druzi chief and conqueror, who Aleppo, an old French work, asserts that lived about A. D. 1600, and whose descendthey preserve the statue of their legislator ants maintained the succession, though or divinity. Father Nasi, a jesuit mis- under Turkish supremacy, till about 150 sionary, in his account of the state of the years since, when it fell to the House of Mahommedan religion, in 1684, speaks of Shahab, who still retain it ;) Mariti affirmthe Druzi creed, but makes no mention of ed the Druzi religion to resemble the tethe calf. Pococke, who had heard of the nets of the Sadducees and Samaritans, as calf, suspected the statement, and imagin- it denied the resurrection of souls, admited the image must be phallic, as in Egypt ted the metempsychosis, and adored the and India. But that the idol, or image, golden calf: a number of which were, it was not what Pococke conceived, but in reality a calf, was at length determined by Adler, who saw one of them in the ca* Some idea of the accuracy and extent of a work binet of Cardinal Borgia; and while striv- reviewed in the Critical Sketches of this No., the ing to learn to what tribe it appertained, Tavole Chronologiche e Sincrone della Storia Fiorenwas told by the Maronites of Lebanon that tina, may be formed by a reference to this indivithe Druzes worshipped a calf covered with dual. "1613. L'emir de Drusi Faccardin, sovrano di una parte di Soria cacciato dai suoi stati, viene mystic characters, whose meaning was a Firenze per implorare la protezione del Granknown only to the initiated. The MS. duca."

:

seems, found in the ruins of their chapels, | conclusion of the ceremonies, which are overthrown by the great earthquake of trifling and finish by a collation of dried 1759. He also says that they entertain fruits: that when this is done, the aspirthe same opinion nearly as Spinoza, of the ants of both sexes retire, and the spirideity, who is everywhere; in heaven, tuals continue the sitting, alone, and with earth, fire, water, men, animals, vegeta- closed doors. What passes afterwards is bles, &c. We have already traced this uncertain; but there is something of the creed as Persian. The same writer states golden calf, of reading the sacred books, that God may, according to the Druzes, and of a cabalistic explanation of these

be worshipped under any form whatever,
but that of the golden calf is to be prefer-
red, because Aaron received divine wor-
ship first under that form.

He goes on to observe that the idols
are shown only to adepts, on Friday nights,
in the chapels, which are called the "re-

from traditional authorities. M. de Paradis observes, however, that the calf is erroneously supposed to be adored; but is brought forward only as an emblem of the existing religions, which are to be destroyed by their legislator shortly: and that the sacred books, which declare

treats of solitude," and where the adepts against idolatry, speak of the calves and
repair at a certain hour of the night, to buffaloes in declaiming against infidels ;
hear the maxims of their religion read and i. e. Jews, Christians, and Mahommedans.
expounded, to worship the calf, and dis-
tribute fruits and slight confections to the
assembly.

Palm, in 1790, published the details obtained by Norburg from the Maronite patriarchal vicar, Germain Conti, who came over about that time to Europe to solicit aid for his flock. From these details it appears that the idol is symbolic of Hakem, and about the size of a large dog; that there are at least thirty of them in ex. istence, in different chapels; and that the age of initiation for men, is at forty, for women, at fifty.

This last, De Sacy observes, is certainly correct, and he quotes the words of the sacred books, which charge the calf as the enemy of Hakem, and declare it to be Eblis, or Satan. Hamza, and Bohaeddin, his coadjutor, repeatedly speak of the worship of calves and buffaloes as symbolical of false religions, opposed to Unitarianism, which we conceive to have been the real mystery of all antiquity; and its mystery of mysteries, to have been the doctrine of the negative existence, and diffusion, of Deity throughout matter- already described in this article.

The Abbé Ventura de Paradis, who acted as interpreter to the French army, found a MS. of the Druzi catechism in Syria, half burnt; but comparing it with written in the 9th year of Hamza, con

one in the royal library at Paris-No.
1580-he supplied the defects; and it
was actually published in English in the
year 1786; but we have not been able to
obtain a sight of the work. Petit de la
Croix also is said to have made a French

translation of the Druzi religious books;
but it never has been known or published,
we believe, and the fact rests on the sin-
gle authority of M. Worbs, who wrote the
Histoire et Description du Pays de Druzes
en Syrie, 1799.

M. de Paradis doubted the actual ado-
ration of the calf (of which, as De Sacy
observes, Hamza makes no mention in his
writings ;) but he states that there are
two degrees; the aspirants; and the spi-
rituals, or initiated: that the latter have
chiefs, who are the depositories of the
sacred books; that assemblies are held
every Friday evening; that women are
admitted to the same degrees as men, but
are kept separate from them there; that
aspirants attend also, and remain till the

A letter contained in the Recueil des Druzes (No. 1583 of the Royal Library) and supposed by De Sacy to have been tains the following passages:

"Our Lord, Hakem, in the assemblies of his mercy (i. e. Unitarianism) showed us a coffer of silver, wherein was a golden figure, emblem of his humanity after his disappearance: that we might bow down before his majesty, his grandeur, the sublimity of his nature; which

has nothing in common with his fellow-creatures, and of which we, as Unitarians, are the defenders. He became subsequently angry with men, the Unitarians excepted, and shut the door of his doctrines and put an end to his mercies. He would receive nothing more from them; he disappeared from them through the cavern, and has entered into the wall which the men of this century call the trench (sedd) of Iskander, until the time it shall please him to manifest himself, when he shall rise against polytheists and rebels, and slay them with the sword or by fire, exterminating their souls and bodies."

Again, variously extracted from the same:

• This wall Alexander the Great is reputed by

the Orientals to have built against the incursions of Gog and Magog.

"Whoever shall reveal any tittle of these We further know that the Arabs premysteries, let him die publicly, in the presence served traditionally the worship of the Unitarians." "Nor shall he receive any Kharuf, or golden calf, for some centuries

and shall be ever rejected and accursed." "Let a traitor, after the Hegira; nor is the name wholly the mysteries be carefully concealed under a unknown even now, though rare and obwall. It is permitted to none but the imam to scure. The author of the letter, supposed read them, and this in a secret place, in presence to be Sekkin by De Sacy, speaks of the

It is further ordained that any one whatsoever, into whose hands the book shall ever, by any chance, fall, shall be inexorably cut in pieces by all who hold the kem, in 398 of the Hegira, in order to true faith. A doctrine which, if our oral distinguish Jews and Christians from others, compelled them to wear, the first

information is correct, would be rigorous- billets, the second crosses of wood, bearly enforced against any infidel; as the believer who neglects it would be himself amenable to the same punishment from his brethren. This is evidently a relic of the Assassin tenets.

Boha-eddin; its injunction of mystery, caliph, we know that secret assemblies of though they declare the time for it pass the Unitarians and initiated Ismaelians ed; from in fact numerous passages of were held twice or thrice a week in the the document, which are most strongly palace of the Fatimites, where the calf