number, undoubtedly genuine, have found their way to Europe. A copy of the J>ook of the Testimonies to the Mysteries of tie Unity, consisting of seventy treatises in four folio volumes, was found in the house of the chief Ockal at Bakhlin, and presented in 1700 to Louis XIV. by Nusralla Ibn Gilda, a Syrian doctor. Other manuscripts are to be found at Home in the Vatican, at Oxford in the Bodleian, at Vienna, at Leyden, at Upsala, and at Munich ; and I)r Porter got possession of the seven standard works of Druse theology while at Damascus. The Munich collection was presented to the king of Bavaria by Clot- bey, the chief physician in the Egyptian army during its occupation of Syria ; and for a number of the other manu scripts we are indebted to the elder Niebuhr. A history of the Druse nationality by the emir Haider Shehaab is
quoted by Urquhart.
From an early period, the internal organization of the Druses lias been constructed after a patriarcho-feudal type, -which, as usual, has placed a large amount of arbitrary power in the hands of the chiefs or sheiks, and given rise to an endless succession of petty feuds and confederations between the various clans or families. Into the picturesque confusion of the resulting history, complicated as it is by Turkish encroachments and intrigue, it would be useless to enter ; and the curiosity of the reader may easily be gratified by turning to Colonel Churchill s interesting, if somewhat diffuse and desultory, volumes. The following, however, may be mentioned as among the most important of the clans, which at one period or other have acquired an influential position in the Lebanon : The Tnoohs or Tanuchs, now extinct, who had their seat at Abeigli or Obeah, in the Shahaar, a short distance to the S. of the Bahr Bej T rout ; the Talhook family, originally the Beni Hazamm, one branch of which has its principal residence at Heittat, and the other at Allaye, about nine and ten miles respectively S.E. of Beyrout ; the Abdelmeliks with their seat at Ebtater, about four miles E. of Heittat ; the Cadis of Bisoor, nearly two miles to S. of Heittat, an offshoot of the Tnoohs ; the house of Raslan with its seat at Shwyfat, seven miles S. of Beyrout ; Aminadins, now settled at Abeigh, remarkable for their attention to religion ; the house of Jumblatt or Djembelat with its splendid mansion at, Muc- tara on the eastern bank of the Nahr-el-Awleh, the Abu-Nekads, formerly the feudal lords of Deir-el-Kamar ; tho house of Abu- Harmoosh, the Amads, and the Eids.
The Druses first attained to pre-eminence in the Lebanon under the presidency of the Arab family of the Tnoohs, which had adopted the doctrines of Hamze. For a long time they continued to be tolerated as serviceable allies by the orthodox Mahometans, and the Tnoohs even obtained possession of Beyrout ; but about 1300, after Malek Ashraf had expelled the Christians from Syria, he turned his attention to the Lebanon and ordered the Druses to erect mosques throughout their territory. They refused, and prepared to defend themselves ; but their forces were defeated at Ain-Sofar, about halfway between Beyrout and the Bekaa. A long period of peace ensued, and while acknowledging the supremacy of the Sultan of Egypt, the Druses attained considerable importance. An impetus was given to their religion by the emir Jemaladin Said Ab- dallah Tnooh (d. 1480), whose shrine at Abeigh is still visited by pious pilgrims.
On the defeat of the Egyptian sultan by the Ottoman invader Selim I., in 1517, the Druses were obliged to submit to the new dynasty, which bestowed the chief power in the Lebanon on Faka- radin-Maan, a member of a Mohametan family originally known as the Beni-Rabua, who had immigrated from the Nahrain about 1145. The family of the Tnoohs which had already been destroyed by internal feuds, was thrown into the shade and never recovered its position. In the early part of the 17th century, the interest of European nations was excited in the fate of the emir Fakaradin Maan II., who on the failure of his plans sought refuge for a time with the grand duke of Tuscany and the king of Naples, but ultimately perished by the bow-string in the city of the sultans. His family died out in the beginning of the 18th century, and the position of Grand Emir was bestowed on a member of the house of Shehaab, originally a branch of the Beni Koreish of Mecca. In 1713 the emir Haider Shehaab, having routed the Turkish forces at Aindara with the assistance of the sheiks of the Cadis, Abu- Nekads, Abl-el-Meliks, and Talhooks, immediately afterwards divided the whole of the southern Lebanon into territorial dis tricts, and bestowed the administration on the chiefs to whom he had been principally indebted. Each mncaatagce thus created had full power of taxation and punishment over the district en trusted to him by his macnata or contract ; and the system thus instituted continued in force till its abolition by Fuad Pasha in 1860. The events of the next hundred years full as those years were of revolutions and counter-revolutions in which the Druses had ample share belong rather to the general history of tho Lebanon than to the special history of the Druses. The latter part of the period is occupied by the life of the emir Beshir Shehaab, undoubtedly one of the most remarkable men who ever fought and intrigued in Syria. In 1799, along with many of the Druses, he accepted the advances of Sir Sidney Smith, and swore perpetual hostility against the French, who were, however, soon after driven back to Egypt without his assistance ; and in 1 823 Ids co-operation, though only supported by the half-hearted acqui escence of most of the sheiks, was of the greatest service to the cause of Ibrahim Pasha against the Turks. Not long after the restoration of the authority of the Porte, which in spite of their emir had been considerably furthered by the Druse sheiks, the peaceful relations which from time immemorial had existed between the Druses and the Maronites gradually gave place to the bitterest hostility. Under the patronage of the next emir, Beshir el Kassim (himself a proselyte to their religion), and instigated by their patriarch and priest, the Maronites began to assert their independ ence of the Druse sheiks under whose feudal authority they were placed. Civil war broke out in 1841, and raged for three years. In January 1842 the Turkish Government appointed Omar Pasha as administrator of the Druses and Maronites, with a council of four chiefs from each party ; but the pasha attempting to effect a disarming, was in November besieged in the castle of Beit-ed-din by the Druses under Shibli-el-Arnan. At the instigation of the European powers he was recalled in December, and the Druses and Maronites were placed under separate kaimakams or governors. Disturbances again broke out in 1845 : the Maronites flew to arms, but with the assistance of the Turks their opponents carried tin- day. A superficial pacification effected by Shekib Effendi, the Ottoman commissioner, lasted only till his departure ; and the Porte was obliged to dispatch a force of 12,000 men to the Lebanon. Forty of the sheiks were seized and the people nominally disarmed; and in 1846 a new constitution was inaugurated by which the kaima- kam was to be assisted by two Druses, two Maronites, four Greeks, two Turks, and one Metuali. All, however, was in vain : the con flict was continued through 1858, 1859, and 18(50 ; the Druses plundered and massacred, and the Turkish soldiers looked on or even assisted in the bloody work. At Damascus even the Christians were slain in thousands, and the remnant was only saved by Abd- el-Kader s magnanimous protection. The European powers now determined to interfere ; and by a protocol of the 3d of May it was decided that the Lebanon should be occupied by a force of 20,000 men, of whom the half were to be French A body of troops was accordingly landed on the 16th of August under General Beaufort d Hautpoul ; and Fnad Pasha, who had been appointed Turkish commissioner with full powers, proceeded to bring the leaders of the massacres to justice. An international commission met at Beyrout on the 5th October ; but the Turks connived at the escape of culprits, the members could not come to agreement, and the proceedings were practically stultified. The French occupation continued till 5th June 1861, and the French and English squadrons cruised on the coast for several months after. In accordance with the recommendation of the European powers the Porte determined to appoint a Christian governor not belonging to the district, and in dependent of the pasha of Beyrout, to hold office for three years. The choice fell on Daud Pasha, a Catholic Armenian, who was installed on 4th of July. In spite of many difficulties, and especially the ambitious conduct of the Maronite Jussuf Karam, he succeeded in restoring order ; and by the formation of a military force from the inhabitants of the Lebanon he rendered unnecessary the presence of the Turkish soldiery. He was reappointcd for five years at the close of his first term ; and his administration seems to have effected a permanent pacification.
Literature:—Adlcr. " Druse Catechism," in Museum Cuficum Ptorginnvm, 1782; Eichhorn s edition and version of the same in Repertorium fiir bibl. und morgenl. Lit.; Venture, Historical Memoir on the Proses," appended to Memoir* of Karon de Totte, London, 1786; ,1. G. Worbs, Ocschic.hte itnd Peschreibung des Landes der Drusen in Syrien, Gorl.1799; Silvestre de Sary, Expose de la Religion des Druses, 1828 still one of the chief authorities on its subject, with which may be compared the same author s contributions to the Me moires de rinstitut Rnyal, 1818 und the Memoires de I Academie. des Inscriptions, 1831, 1832 ; Hammer PiiT fi- stall, in Journal Asiatique, 1837; Jos. M. Miiller on the Munich MSS. in Gel. Anz d. ton. bayr. Akad. i: Wissenschaf en, 1842 ; Ph. Wolff, Reise in das geloble Land, and Die Drusen tind ifire Vorlanfer,1S4 2; Churchill, 7>n Years Residence in Mount Lebanon, 3 vols., 1853 ; A. G. Hoffmann s article on the religion, in ITerzog a Real-Encyklopadie ; Chasgeaud, Ttte Druses of th . Lebanon. 1855; Cyril Graham, " Kxplor. of the Desert East of the Hauran," in Jonrn. of Roy. Geog. ,<?or. 1858 with which compare his paper in Cambridge, Essays, 1858; Urquhart, The Lebanon 2 vols., 1860; 1 etermann, Reiien im Orient, 1860; K G. Key, Voyage dans I Haouran execute pendant les anne es 1857 et 1858 ; Earl of Carnarvon. Reeolltctions of the. Druses of the Lebanon, 1860; Wildenbruch. Kin Wick avf den Lebanon, I860; Churchill, The Druses and Maronites under the Turkish Rule from 1840 to I860 London, 1862; H. Guys, La Theogonie des Druses, traduile de I Arabe, 1863; and Ln Nation Druse, 1864 ; G. d Alaux, " Le Liban ct l>aud Pasha," in Revue des Deux Mondct, July 1865 and May 1866.
1616), a learned Protestant divine, distinguished specially as an Orientalist and exegete, was born at Oudenarde, in
Flanders, on the 28th June 1550. Being designed for the
