The Druze in the Middle East: Their Faith,
Leadership, Identity, and Status

Nissim Dana
Portland, OR: Sussex Academic Press, 2003. 227 pages.

In A History of the Druze, Kais Firro suggests that the proliferation of works
on the Druze over the last twenty years has resulted from this community’s
prominent role in the Lebanese civil war. While such circumstances are, of
course, regrettable, any notice taken of this small, secretive, and often over-
looked society is welcome. Nissim Dana, a lecturer in academic religions
and cultures of peoples in the Middle East at Bar-Ilan University and former
minister of religious affairs in Israel, would no doubt explain his interest and
clear warmth for his subject in different terms, as the personal letter included
from Labib Abu Rukn, judge of the Druze Court of Haifa, attests. It is this

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affection, however, which may be at the heart of some of this extremely
uneven investigation’s shortcomings. 

The author has chosen to divide his work into four parts, each dealing
with the history, sociocultural make-up, sacred topography, and the laws
governing the Druze in their respective states, most notably in Israel (to
which a third of the text is devoted) – a most pronounced focus. The book is
rounded out with an appendix of the “Arabic Original of the Laws of
Personal Status in Lebanon and Israel” and an abbreviated version for Syria,
which is a welcome addition for those who read Arabic. 

The deification of a historically based instance of the human form is at
the core of Druze cosmology, and “the belief in the revelation of God (kashf)
is considered the most important fundamental principle of the Druze faith”
(p. 15): a revelation in the form of the “6th Egyptian Fatimid Khalif, al-
Hakim bi-Amr Allah,” which has not since been reproduced (p. 3). Initial
proselytizing upon al-Hakim’s disappearance was undertaken by Hamza ibn
‘Ali, who “is granted senior status as the connecting link between divinity
and humanity…[he who is] the Wonder of the Revelation (hujjat al-kashf),
the Messiah of Time (masih al-zaman), who has cancelled the religions, who
battled Satan, and more” (p. 15). The preaching “focussed on the belief – to
which al-Hakim gave his consent, at least silently – that he was the Creator
himself, who was revealed to his believers in a human being” (p. 3). 

The fundamental precepts of the faith, as detailed by the author in part 1,
do not preclude a typological analysis of the Druze faith; rather, they are the
basis of its uniqueness. In effect, God has made His revelation to the Druze
and it is incumbent upon them to act as its vassal and guard its message
while awaiting His (al-Hakim’s) return. In this respect, a deep-seated aver-
sion to proselytizing or missionary activity arose after the early community
was established, with the result that the gates of faith are now considered
closed to outsiders. Though much of its cosmology is at odds with Jewish,
Christian, and Islamic orthodoxy, its tenets of the soul’s transmigration (tana-
sukh al-arwah), the End of Days, and the coming of God’s judgment are
familiar and thereby make it plain that its central organizing force is the
proclamation of “oneness” (din al-tawhid) (p. 60). 

The quotidian ecology and life cycle are thoroughly covered, giving the
reader a sense of the rhythm of the community’s life. The ceremonies and
rituals that mark the members’ births, marriages, and deaths, as well as the
challenges that its distinctive identity faces from individualism and the pow-
erful lures of assimilation, urbanization, and youthful “innovations,” are all
described in depth. Dama’s work is particularly useful in its overview of the

122 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 23:2



Druze’s religio-cultural institutions and judiciary canon or epistles (rasa’il),
most notably their codification of the faith’s tenets and the commentaries on
them. For this, the book may be commended.

The study of the cross-fertilization of monotheistic faiths is often a neg-
lected approach to the study of religion. Dana’s contribution sheds light on
the Islamic, Christian, and Judaic echoes within the Druze faith. (He oddly
omits any mention of the Ismailis or the Alawis.) However, the question as
to whose faith the Druze most resembles seems, at times, to nag at the writer.
Several times, he tries to pull the Druze away from Islam but is confronted
and contradicted by the mingling that is so apparent in any lived faith in the
region. Second, the question of Druze identity is an intricate one. While
advancing an ethno-religious basis for it, often expressed elsewhere as
“Druze particularism,” Dana makes problematic statements. For example,
while it is true that “no Druze concentration was established on a national-
ist ideological basis; [and that] it merely formed owing to chance circum-
stances” (p. 107), this ignores their clear geographical concentration in
Lebanon and Syria as well as their proximity to the Israeli Druze. 

Moreover, to suggest that “Druze history is composed of a string of con-
frontations between Druze believers and those of the Muslim faith, who con-
stitute the overwhelming population of the Arab nation” (p. 109) is contra-
dicted by the author himself and ignores the entire nineteenth and twentieth
centuries. Almost all confrontations have been with the Maronites (at times
ambivalently Arab), Ottomans, and French colonialists. Dana’s attempt to
drag the Druze out of the Arab nation –  which Firro adamantly refuses to do
– overlooks one of its basic tenets: the Arabic language.

Historians of the Middle East will take serious exception to Dana’s sum-
mary of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, most notably as it
applies to Syria and Lebanon. Though it is not the book’s main focus, the
blatant blunders (Lieutenant Carbillet, not Carbier; Israeli “compromise” in
the Golan?!) and significant omissions seriously undermine the author’s
credibility. The author would have done well to revise or edit out this dis-
countable part of the book. Those interested in a history of this unique peo-
ple and their momentous role in the Levant would do well to look elsewhere.
However, his account of the Druze’s life cycle, community organization, and
faith cannot be disregarded, as it provides an insightful commentary and
overview of a particularist faith’s orthodoxy and orthopraxy.

Sean Monaghan
Graduate Student, Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations

University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada

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