Palestine]
III. SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CONDITIONS
(1) Religious
(i) Mohammedans
Generally speaking, the indigenous population of Syria and Palestine is Sunni Moslem; and Jerusalem is regarded by orthodox Moslems as the holiest city after Mecca and Medina. The fellahin are more religious than the Beduins, though the latter were particularly influenced by the Wahabite movement. There are in Syria a certain number of Shia sects, and of religious communities who came into existence during the first centuries of Mohammedan activity. To this latter class belong the Metawalis, who range from Lebanon as far as Homs; the Ismailites, or Assassins, who first appeared in Mesopotamia in the tenth century and are now to be met with in the Nusairiya mountains in the north of Syria; and the Druses.
The Druses number 55,000 in Hauran, 50,000 in the Lebanon (where they are to the Maronites as 2 is to 7), and about 45,000 in Hasbeya, Raheyra, and Homs The Druses of Hauran are the most representative of their sect. They are secret Unitarians (Muwahhidin), believing in successive reincarnations of the One God; these reincarnations include Jesus, but not Mohammed. The last incarnation was Hakim, the sixth Fatimite Caliph, who founded the sect in A.D. 996. Hakim will reappear in the world to make his religion supreme. The Druses believe in metempsychosis; they consider prayer to be an impertinent interference with the Creator, but are not fatalists. Polygamy and the use of wine and tobacco are forbidden. Truth in words is enjoined as a commandment, but only between Druses.
