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Updated: June 5, 2025
Of the twenty-seven members in the native church at Beirut, up to the close of 1849, ten were from the Greek Church, four were Greek Catholics, four Maronites, five Armenians, three Druzes, and one a Jacobite Syrian; showing how men of different sects may be made one in Christ Jesus.
The political and religious events then occurring were intimately connected. The conquest of Syria by Mohammed Ali, was the apparent cause of the religious movement among the Druzes already described.
In the evening, several leading Druzes came from Andara, the highest habitable part of Lebanon, professing to act in the name of their whole village, and earnestly requesting the mission to open schools, build a church, and baptize them all forthwith. The missionary preached to them till a late hour, and they promised to come again after a few days.
They had always professed Mohammedanism hypocritically, to escape the oppressions which Christians suffered under Moslem rule; but now the Christians fared better than the Moslems, in that they were not liable to be drafted into the army, to which as Moslems the Druzes were exposed.
This they were not ready to do. Mr. Gobat retired, in a spirit of catholicity. Neither did Mr. Nicholayson prosecute his mission, being disheartened, it may be, by the civil war which shortly arose between the Maronites and Druzes. His intervention was unfortunate, and I find it referred to, thirty years afterwards, by a venerable member of the mission, as a warning against similar intrusions.
The Druzes early had the advantage, and the Maronite part of the village was speedily in flames, and more than three hundred and fifty Maronites were obliged to take refuge in a strong palace belonging to one of the Shehab Emirs.
The Druzes are found chiefly on the mountains of Lebanon, and in the country called the Hauran, south of Damascus, and number sixty or seventy thousand souls. The sect originated with Hakem, a Caliph of Egypt, but derived its name from El Drusi, a zealous disciple of the Caliph. They believe Hakem to be the tenth, last, and most important incarnation of God, and render him divine honors.
'But what of the Sheykh Yûsuf? I exclaimed, reminding him. 'Ah, to be sure! rejoined the Governor with a slight frown. 'Of what religion is he? 'I suppose a Druze. 'And the people who attacked him so unmercifully? 'Are Druzes too. 'Ah, then, it is all in the family, as the saying goes.
In their revolt against Ibrahim Pasha in 1838, he was aided by the Christians, and when the Druzes were defeated in a battle near this place, their sacred place was entered, and several chests of books, setting forth their tenets, were scattered through the land. The Christians paid dearly for their trespass.
From Jerusalem the party made a leisurely tour through Syria, visiting Caesarea, Acre, Nazareth, Sayda, where Lady Hester was entertained by her future enemy, the Emir Beshyr, prince of the Druzes, and on September 1, 1812, arrived at Damascus, where a lengthened stay was made.
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