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most credulous among his blinded worshippers. The polítical changes which succeeded, sufficiently evinced that the unhappy monarch had undergone the process which all oriental sovereigns have reason to expect, and which most of them actually experience. Among these changes one of the most important was the abolition of the public, and suppression of the secret, rites connected with the worship of the murdered Khalif. The dispersion of the priests and devotees was a necessary consequence, and as Eastern revolutionists do nothing by halves, Hamza and his adherents who continued faithful, soon found themselves compelled to betake themselves to flight as the only means of safety, so that few months had elapsed before Egypt was completely cleared of every vestige of the obnoxious heresy.

At this point, a considerable chasm occurs in the history of the fanatics, which is only supplied-and that very imperfectly-by detached and confused traditionary anecdotes. The circumstances of their overthrow in Egypt might indeed lead us naturally to expect the absence of any continuous authentic record of their subsequent migrations. Persecuted, as they no doubt were, by the orthodox or less heretical believers, wherever they were found; hated at home, and suspected elsewhere, they were compelled to make their movements cautiously and in secret. The same circumstances would, of course, induce them to prefer the society of one another to that of the indifferent or persecuting multitude; a feeling strengthened probably in most of them, by the same spirit of fanatical enthusiasm which made them refuse to abandon their new faith. These facts, considered in connexion with the fragments of traditionary information already mentioned, give no small degree of probability to the opinion which identifies the Druses with the Egyptian refugees. Another circumstance, which adds to this probability, is the derivation of the name by which the sect is known, from the surname of Mohammed Ibn Is

hammed Ibn Ismail El Durzi, and Hamza Ibn Ali. The former, who also bore the name of Darar, is supposed to have been an emigrant from Persia, whence he imported into Egypt the mystical jargon of the Sufis, who, then as now, prevailed extensively in the former country. He is considered the founder of Ismailis, a sect still existing in the west of Asia, and is said by modern writers to have given name to the Druses of Syria themselves. Hamza was the coadjutor and successor of El Durzi, and is regarded by the Druses as the prophet or apostle of their faith. Under the influence of these two men, the impiety and madness of the Khalif reached its acme. In the year of the Hegira 408, he went so far as to deify himself, declaring that he was God incarnate, and forbidding the use of the customary phrase God be propitious to him, on account of its obvious impropriety when applied to God himself. In the same spirit, he changed his surname Biamrillah, (by the appointment or command of God,) into Bidhâtihi, (by his own essential nature,) and in short laid claim without reserve, limitation, or exception, to the honors of the Most High. By degrees, the confused and incoherent doctrines connected with and flowing from this absurd apotheosis, were reduced by Hamza into something like a systematic. form and clothed in the mysterious garb of an unintelligible jargon. The doctrine of the metempsychosis, which was already common to many of the Shiahs, was set forth in prominent relief, the true believer being taught to trace the transmigrations of certain high intelligences immediately subordinate to Hakem or the Deity, though almost all the prophets recorded in the scriptures, to the person of Hamza and some five or six of his devoted satellites. The ceremonies of the new religion were performed with great solemnity, the Faithful being frequently assembled to receive instruction in the doctrines of their creed and moral exhortations from the Da'is or public teachers. And it may be remarked as a

singular feature in the system, that its privileges were extended to both sexes, particular provision being made for the instruction of the women, and some sacred writings still preserved being specially addressed to them. But besides these assemblies, which had necessarily something of a public character, there were secret meetings held, of a more mysterious nature, to which none could gain access but by passing through certain initiatory rites. The initiated too were divided into various ranks, each successive gradation enjoying its own privileges and maintaining its own order, holding for that purpose separate meetings, and performing diverse acts. At these nocturnal meetings, the tradition of the East affirms, that the decencies of life were scandalously outraged, a promiscuous and incestuous communion of the sexes being not only allowed, but enjoined as a religious duty. How far these imputations may be explained away as the results of malignant prejudice, or of vulgar credulity excited by the mystery which shrouded these assemblies, it is by no means easy to determine. Suffice it to say, that

even allowing all that ought to be allowed in such a case, the acknowledged character of the men who prompted and regulated these proceedings, is by no means such as to justify the expectation of unspotted purity in any of their acts, particularly those performed in secret, and under the influence of blind fanaticism. In the meantime, the mad monarch continued to enjoy his arrogated honors, and to preside over the rites of his false religion with insane compla cency. He was not, however, long permitted to continue the exhibition of this impious farce. In spite of his magnificent pretensions to perfection and omnipotence, a successful attempt was made to cut short his wild career, and the deluded wretch was slain with his vicegerent and prophet, by the emissaries of a party created by the influence and arts of his own sister. This catastrophe may be added to the many proofs which history affords of the utter impossi

mael. An etymology suggested and maintained by a native of Syria* no doubt on good authority. Whether the fugitives immediately organized a separate society, or whether they amalgamated with another race, at that time occupants of Mount Libanus, we have no historical means of ascer taining. There is so much confusion and obscurity about the statements of the Mohammedan historians in relation to this period, that they furnish no satisfactory results. The first mention which we find of the Druses, as an organized community, is in the Itinerarium of Benjamin of Tudela, who travelled to the East in the 12th century, while the Europeans had possession of the Holy Land, a circumstance which clearly disproves the assertion, that they were a Christian colony. It may be thought extraordinary, that a society so singular in its character and habits should have attracted so little attention during such a lapse of time, and still more, that a sect of proscribed and persecuted heretics should have been suffered to reside in the midst of Mussulmans unmolested, and for several centuries almost unknown. This phenomenon, however, is sufficiently explained by a reference to the history of the Ottoman Empire, and the date of the first Turkish conquests. Though Mohammedans in their religious faith and practice, the Turks are of an origin entirely diverse from that of the other Moslem nations. It is generally agreed, that the first Turks were a horde of migratory Tartars, who penetrated into Asia-Minor through the Persian territory, and it is by no means an improbable conjecture, that they picked up the religion of the Koran in the progress of their march. They had consequently, at first, none of the same deep-rooted prejudices, one way or the other, which at that time characterized the Arabs and their colonies, and if at the present day they are the strictest and most bigotted of all the Sonnis, it has arisen

* M. Mitchel, French dragoman at Saide.

in a great degree, from a spirit of political animosity towards the Persians, who are Shiahs. The invasion of Syria and the Holy Land, therefore, by the Ottomans, wrought a change in the character of the whole population. The strangers, feeling none of the instinctive prejudices cherished by their predecessors, and disregarding probably, the vague traditions respecting the origin and character of the Druses, suffered them to remain in quiet possession of their territories, and in fact, seem to have wholly overlooked them, till the Druses emboldened by this tolerant contempt, committed such depredations on the adjacent regions as effectually roused the attention of their masters. A series of petty wars between the Turkish soldiery and the mountaineers terminated at length in the subjection of the latter, near the end of the fifteenth century. They were not, however, exterminated or even expelled. The only important change which was made in their condition, was the substitution of a monarchial form of local government, for the somewhat republican system which prevailed before-the numerous Sheikhs or petty chieftains of the Druses, being united under a single Emir. They soon, however, renewed their depredations with different degrees of impunity and success, and their history from that period till 1770, so far as it is known, consists of little else than a succession of revolts and conflicts with the Turks. It was at one of these stormy periods, that the prince, before alluded to, who had fought with great success against the provincial Turkish troops, and raised the power of his nation to its highest pitch, fled to Italy to escape the more formidable preparations which the Sultan was making to destroy him. In the year last mentioned, the famous rebel Ali Bey having been expelled from Egypt, renewed his disorganizing measures in Syria, where he had taken refuge, and as the war between the Porte and Russia required nearly all the Turkish troops upon the Northern frontier, the Pasha of Tripoli was forced

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