an ancient Aramaic version (Targum). They keep the Sabbath very strictly, but do not use phylacteries, fringes, or the written 'inscriptions on the lintel' (mezuzoth). Their language is a dialect of Palestinian Aramaic, and their writing is an archaic alphabet derived from the Old Hebrew. For the ordinary purposes of everyday life, however, they use the Arabic language. Their present High Priest is Isaac the son of Amram, who succeeded his cousin Jacob in 1914. The Samaritan community consisted in 1922 of 132 persons in Nablus, 13 in Tulkeram, and 12 in Jaffa. The distinctive feature of the Samaritan dress is a red silk turban wound round the fez.
For general information on the Samaritans, see J. A. Montgomery, The Samaritans, Philadelphia, 1907. For their Liturgy, see A. E. Cowley, The Samaritan Liturgy, Oxford, 1909.
§ 17. Druses and Metawileh.
The Druses.—The Druses, of whom 7,000 inhabit Palestine, principally Galilee and Phoenicia, are both a race and a religion. Their original home is the Lebanon, over which, for centuries, they disputed authority with the Maronites. After the events of 1860, however, the Druses migrated in large numbers to the Jebel Hauran, which now contains a greater Druse population than the Lebanon itself.
The Druse faith is secret not only to the world at large, but to the majority of the Druse themselves, who are divided into initiated (ʾuqal, 'intelligent') and uninitiated (juhal, 'ignorant'). It is a chaotic mixture of Islam, Christianity, and yet older elements, and it regards both the Gospel and the Quran as inspired books, although it gives to them a peculiar interpretation. The word 'Druse' is commonly derived from one Ismaʾil Darazi, the first missionary to the Druses; though others derive it from the Arabic darasa (those who read the book), or darisa (those in possession of Truth) or durs (the clever or initiated). The Druses believe in the divinity of the mad Fatimite Khalif
