of the same century. In A. D. 1584, the Sultan Murad III. sent his general Ibrahim Pasha against them from Cairo. He attacked them with great address; penetrated into their mountains; took advantage of the discords between the Druzes and Christians; and succeeded in drawing from them a large tribute, which has been continued to the present day. He Up to the close of the same century, the connexion of the Maronites with the pope appears not to have been very close; although numbers of their young men, at least in that century, were brought to be educated at Rome, where a college was established for their support and instruction. In A. D. 1596 the pope sent the Pater Dandini as a legate to Mount Lebanon, who found the Maronites enthusiastic for the Romish church. In a synod held in his presence their ancient errors were again disclaimed, and the dogmas of Rome affirmed. Since that time they have stood in a closer relation to the Romish see; and at the present day are characterized by an almost unparalleled devotedness to its authority. Their patriarch, who styles himself "Patriarch of Antioch," is elected by themselves, but receives confirmation from Rome. resides in the convent of Kanôbîn, in the higher parts of the mountain southeast from Tripolis. But their ecclesiastical organization is entirely distinct from that of Rome; and they have also several 'usages not tolerated in the papal church in Europe. They have saints of their own, not elsewhere acknowledged by the Latins, and especially their patron saint, Mâr Mârôn. And every candidate for the priesthood, who is not already under a vow of celibacy, is permitted to marry before ordination; so that most of their parochial clergy are actually married men. The common people are very little instructed; but for a select number, and for those on training for the clerical office, there is a college established by the patriarch at 'Ain Warka in Kesrawân, which takes a high stand in the study of the Arabic language, and also affords instruction in Syriac, Latin, and Italian. The church books and service of the Maronites are still all in the language of the ancient Syrian church; from which this people derive their origin. Turning now to the Druzes, we find their origin, though less ' Dandini Voyage du Mont Liban, p. 4. 2 Niebuhr Reiseb. II. P. 425. remote, yet shrouded in a darkness which for a long time was still more impenetrable. Even the learned D'Herbelot, to whom oriental history is under such lasting obligations, and whose great work was first published in A. D. 1697, has nothing more to relate of this singular people, than the fable of their being descended from some of the French warriors who accompanied Godfrey of Bouillon in the first crusade. Later additions to the story have gone further, and specified a certain Marquis de Dreux as the progenitor of the race; and French vanity has been flattered at the readiness with which the absurd legend found entrance among the ignorant princes of an ignorant people, and thus strengthened (as was supposed) the bands of their attachment to the "great nation." But it was reserved for a French scholar in our own days to sweep away this cobweb of fable; and by explaining and laying open to the world the fountains of Arabic history, to remove also the darkness which so long has enveloped the nation of the Druzes. The illustrious De Sacy published in the last days of his long and learned career an elucidation of the origin and the religion of this people, drawn up many years before; and in respect to these two points, his work exhausts the subject. He had planned, indeed, another work, to embrace their subsequent history and the modifications which their religion has undergone during the lapse of eight centuries; but the hand of death interrupted him in the midst of these labours. The immediate origin of the Druzes and their religion has its date in the early part of the eleventh century. But the causes which prepared the way for this monstrous absurdity, go back nearly four centuries earlier, to the days of the companions and immediate successors of the false prophet. The first three Khalifs after Muhammed,-the sovereigns and Sovereign pontiffs of the Muhammedan faith,-were Abu Bekr, 'Omar, and Othman; and these were sustained by Ayeshah, the favourite wife of the prophet. But in the mean time a strong party favoured the claims of 'Aly, the cousin of Muhammed, who also had married Fatîmeh the daughter of the prophet; and on the death of Othman, 'Aly succeeded to the Khalifate, which he occupied during a short and troubled reign of four years. He was overthrown by Muawia, governor of Syria, the founder of the house of the Ommiades, who transferred the seat of empire from Mecca to Damascus; where it remained until the house of the Abissides, after several removes, established it at Bagdad. But the struggle which thus arose between the partisans of 'Aly and the adherents of the other Khalifs was not alone for power. It had reference also to important points of faith and doctrine; and these being more and more developed in the dreamy speculations of oriental mind and oriental philosophy, gave rise to numerous sects, one more extravagant and puerile in its dogmas than another. The great body of the followers of 'Aly bore the name of Shiites; and although overpowered and thwarted in respect to the Khalifate, yet they continued to venerate the descendants of 'Aly as the true Khalifs and Imams (or pontiffs) of the Muhammedan faith. The Muhammedans of Persia are to this day Shiites; and so too the Metâwileh scattered in Syria. They still hold to the twelve Imams, viz. 'Aly and his lineal descendants, as the true representatives and pontiffs of their religion.— The adherents of the Khalifate, the orthodox Mussulmans so called, bear the name of Sunnites. Even during the lifetime of 'Aly, his followers began to entertain exaggerated notions in his behalf; which excited his indignation, so that he even caused some of those who held the most extravagant ideas respecting him, to be burned. The prevalent idea that the Khalif or Imam was the representative of God and his vicegerent on earth, appears early to have been perverted; and among a portion of the adherents of 'Aly, the Rafédhis so called, it assumed this form, viz. that a particle of the divinity actually resided in the Imams, the successors of 'Aly. The twelfth Imam of the Shiites they believe to be still alive; and that he will return at the end of the world, to reunite all the sects of the Mussulmans and all other nations into one faith.' Another sect among the Shiites, derived also from the Rafédhis, were the Isma'iliyeh,-Ismaelites or Ismaëlis,-which took its name from Isma'îl, the son of Jafar Sadik, the sixth Imam, about A. H. 148, or A. D. 766. This sect, during the two following centuries, spread far and wide in Syria and Egypt, and also in the 'D'Herbelot, Biblioth. Orient. arts. Imam, Mohammed Aboulkassem East. A branch of the same was the sect of the Karmats or Karmathians; which became prevalent and powerful near the close of the ninth century (A. D. 890); and in its struggles to maintain itself and to propagate its tenets by the sword, had well nigh overthrown the already declining empire of the Abassides.1 The result, if not the purpose of these various sects, was to propagate materialism, atheism, and immorality. They admitted the union of the divinity with 'Aly and his descendants; they believed in the doctrine of the transmigration of souls; they allegorized all the legal observances and precepts of the Korân, and dispensed with the performance of them in their literal sense; they permitted fornication, incest, and adultery, without reserve. They threw a veil in public over their dogmas and practices; and their emissaries, in attempting to make converts, proceeded with the utmost caution and duplicity, adapting themselves to the character of those whom they approached,-becoming literally "all things to all men." They unfolded their doctrines very gradually; only a small number of persons were admitted to the rank of adepts; as to the rest, their instruction ceased at different stages. The only thing rigorously exacted of all in order to be admitted to the number of the faithful, was a blind obedience to the chief of the sect and his delegates; and a readiness to consecrate all one's powers and property to his defence and the execution of his will. The germs of these wild dogmas, De Sacy is disposed to find in a still earlier age. The belief in the union of the Deity with the descendants of 'Aly, and also in the transmigration of souls, may not improbably have had its source in the creeds of interior Asia, the doctrines of Zoroaster and the Parsees. The system of allegorical interpretation arose perhaps after the introduction of the Greek philosophy, which speedily gave rise to dispute and skepticism among the teachers of Islam. Reasoning took the place of authority; and that which before had been believed without discussion on the word of the Korân, was now brought before the tribunal of human reason. As these two authorities were often at variance, and none were so hardy as openly to reject the Korân, they preferred to interpret its language in their own way; and as See Gibbon c. LII. Des Guignes, Hist. des Huns, Tom. II. * De Sacy p. xxxv. in this they were subject to no rule, it was easy to find in the words of the Korân whatever they were interested to discover there. Thus the way was open, to lead their disciples to reject all idea of revelation and divine authority, and plunge them into atheism and the greatest immorality. Such were the chief sects of Muhammedanism prevalent in Egypt and Syria, in opposition to the orthodox faith of Islam, during the third and fourth centuries of the Hejra, corresponding nearly to the ninth and tenth of the Christian era. There were also many subdivisions and minor forms of sectarianism; but they may all be referred back to their original source in the veneration of 'Aly as the true successor of the false prophet. And I may remark, in passing, that we find a striking example of the tenacity of prejudice, and its hold upon the stereotype nature of the oriental mind, in the fact, that those sects are still extant in a greater or less degree in northern Syria; after the lapse of more than nine centuries, and after all the storms and revolutions of war and opinion which have swept over those regions. The Shiites are recognized in the Metâwileh scattered in various parts. The Isma'iliyeh, bearing still the same name, are at present a comparatively feeble race in the mountains west of Hamah, the descendants of the warlike tribes so formidable to the crusaders under the name of the Assassins. The Karmathians reappear in the Nusairîyeh, inhabiting the mountains north of Lebanon. Both they and the Isma'iliyeh have a secret religion; but conform externally to the faith of those around them, whether Mussulmans or Christians.2 De Sacy expresses very decidedly the opinion, formed after an examination of the whole subject, that the Nusairîyeh and Karmathians are identical, entertaining the same dogmas, and permitting the same immoralities.3 The renown of the house of the Abassides lingered long in its decay. The later princes of this race held the reins of empire with a feeble hand; the various countries under their sway were torn with dissensions and bloody wars; and one province after another was wrested from the Khalifs by revolted governors or new heret 1 Burckhardt's Travels in the Holy Land, p. 151 sq. De Sacy p. clxxxiii. |