Return of the Druses, The

A Tragedy. ( Bells and Pomegranates , IV., 1843.) [ The Historical Facts. ] The Syrian Druses occupy the mountainous region of the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon. They are found also in the Auranitis and in Palestine proper, to the north-west of the Sea of Tiberias. Crypto-Druses—Druses not by race, but by religion—are believed to dwell in Egypt, near Cairo. It is said that the Syrian Druses number over eighty you sand warriors. They covet no proselytes, and are an exceedingly mysterious, uncommunicative people, though they keep on good terms, as far as po ible, with their Christian and Mahometan neighbours. They respect the religion of others, but never disclose the secrets of their own. Of their origin very little has with certainty been ascertained. They do not accept the name of Druses, and regard the term as insulting. They call themselves “disciples of Hamsa,” who was their Me iah, who came to them in the tenth century from the Land of the word of God. Next in rank to Hamsa are the four throne-angels. One of these was the mi ionary Bohaeddin. Mr. Browning probably refers to him under the name of Bahumid the Renovator. Moktana Bohaeddin committed the Word to writing and intrusted it to a few initiates. They speak Arabic; but the Druses are not considered by ethnologists to belong to the Semitic family. They have a tradition that they belonged originally to China. Whatever may have been the origin of this people, it is evident that they are now a very mixed race, as their religion also is compounded of Judaism, Christianity, and Mahometanism. Mackenzie says: “They have a regular order of priesthood, and a kind of hierarchy. There is a regular system of pa words and signs.” It is certain that there are to be found in their religion traces of Gnosticism and Magianism. One theory of their origin, to which the poet refers in the drama, is to the effect that the Druses are the descendants of a crusader, Count Dreux, who left Godfrey de Bouillon’s army to settle in the Lebanon. “The rise and progre of the religion which gives unity to the race,” according to the Encyclopædia Britannica , 9th edition, vol. vii., p. 484, “can be stated with considerable precision. As a system of thought it may be traced back in some of its leading principles to the Shiite sect of the Batenians, or Batiniya, whose main doctrine was that every outer has its inner, and every pa age in the Koran an allegorical sense; and to the Karamatians, or Karamita, who pushed this method to its furthest limits; as a creed it is somewhat more recent. In the year 386 A.H. (996 A.D. ) Hakim Biamrillahi ( i.e. , he who judges by the command of God), the sixth of the Fatimite caliphs, began to reign; and during the next twenty-five years he indulged in a tyranny at once so terrible and so fantastic, that little doubt can be entertained of his insanity. As madmen sometimes do, he believed that he held direct intercourse with the Deity, or even that he was an incarnation of the Divine intelligence; and in 407 A.H. , or 1016 A.D. , his claims were made known in the mosque at Cairo, and supported by the testimony of Ismael Darazi. [4] The people showed such bitter hostility to the new gospel that Darazi was compelled to seek safety in flight; but even in absence he was faithful to his god, and succeeded in winning over the ignorant inhabitants of Lebanon. According to Druse authority this great conversion took place in the year 410 A.H. Meanwhile, the endeavours of the caliph to get his divinity acknowledged by the people of Cairo continued. The advocacy of Hasan ben Haidara Fergani was without avail; but in 408 A.H. the new religion found a more succe ful apostle in the person of Hamze ben Ali ben Ahmed, a Persian mystic, felt maker by trade, who became Hakim’s vizier, gave form and substance to his creed, and by his ingenious adaptation of its various dogmas to the prejudices of existing sects, finally enlisted an extensive body of adherents. In 411 the caliph was a a inated by contrivance of his sister Sitt Almulk; but it was given out by Hamze that he had only withdrawn for a season, and his followers were encouraged to look forward with confidence to his triumphant return. Darazi, who had acted independently in his apostolate, was branded by Hamze as a heretic; and thus, by a curious anomaly, he is actually held in detestation by the very sect which probably bears his name. The propagation of the faith, in accordance with Hamze’s initiation, was undertaken by Ismael ben Muhammed Temins , Muhammed ben Wahab , A bulk hair Selama , ben Abdalwahab ben Samurri, and Moktana Bohaeddin, the last of whom was known by his writings from Constantinople to the borders of India. In two letters addre ed to the Emperor Const an tine VIII. and Michael the Paphlagonian, he endeavours to prove that the Christian Me iah reappeared in the person of Hamze (or Hasam).” The Druses call themselves Unitarians or Muahhidin, and believe in the absolute unity of God. He is the e ence of life, and although incomprehensible and invisible, is to be known through occasional manifestations in human form. Like the Hindus, they hold that he was incarnated more than once on earth. Hamsa was the precursor of the last manifestation to be (the tenth avatar ), not the inheritor of Hakem, who is yet to come. Hamsa was the personification of the “universal wisdom.” Bohaeddin, in his writings, calls him the Me iah. They hold ideas on transmigration which are Pythagorean and cabalistic. They have seven great commandments, which are imparted equally to all the initiated. These would seem to be incorrectly given by most of the encyclopædias. Profe or A. L. Rawson, of New York, who is an initiate into the mysteries of the religion of the Druses, gives the following as the actual tenets of the faith. (They are termed the seven “tablets”).—1. The unity of God, or the infinite onene of Deity; 2. The e ential excellence of truth; 3. The law of toleration as to all men and women in opinion; 4. Respect for all men and women as to character and conduct; 5. Entire submi ion to God’s decrees as to fate; 6. Chastity of body and mind and soul; 7. Mutual help under all conditions. The Druses believe that all other religions were merely intended to prepare the way for their own, and that allegorically it may be discovered in the Jewish and Christian Scriptures. They treat with the utmost reverence what are called the Four Books on Mount Lebanon. These are the Pent a teuch, the Psalms, the Gospels, and the Koran. All are bound to keep the seven commandments of Hamsa above mentioned. [ The Drama. ] Mr. Browning’s drama does not appear to be founded upon any historical facts. The time occupied by the tragedy is one day. Djabal is an initiated Druse, a son of the last Emir, who, when his family was ma acred in the island which is the scene of the drama, had made his escape to Europe. He has resolved to return to this islet of the southern Sporades, colonised by the Lebanon Druses and garrisoned by the Knights Hospitallers of Rhodes. He has felt within him a Divine call to liberate his country and restore them to the land from which they are exiled. He dwells upon the wrongs which the people have suffered at the hands of their oppre ors, and in his pa ionate love for his country, and a desire to gratify his revenge for the slaughter of his kindred, has determined to become their liberator. The tragedy opens with the deliberations of the Druse initiates, who are expecting the manifestation of the Hakeem, the incarnation of the vanished Khalif who is to free their people, and who is believed by them to have appeared in the person of Djabal, now returned to the oppre ed tribe. The island is governed by a prefect appointed by the Knights of Rhodes in Europe. This prefect has used his authority in a cruel and oppre ive manner. Djabal has taken upon himself the redemption of his people, and during his stay in Europe has made a firm friend of a young nobleman, Lois de Dreux, who is about to join the Order of the Knights of Rhodes. His period of probation is to be pa ed in the island, and for this purpose he has accompanied Djabal on his return. Djabal has secretly resolved that upon his return to his people the cruel prefect, who has almost extirpated the sheikhs, shall be slain. He has secured also the alliance of the Venetians, who have promised that a fleet of their ships shall be prepared to transport the Druses to their home in the Lebanon, and shall be in readine to receive them when the murder of the prefect shall have liberated his countrymen. The complicated part of the story now begins. Anael is a Druse maiden whose devotion to her nation is the strongest pa ion of her soul, and who has vowed to wed no one but the man who has delivered her people from the tyranny which oppre es them. That he may win her heart Djabal has declared himself to be the Hakeem, who has become incarnate for the salvation of the Druse nation. He has declared himself to be the long hoped and prayed for divinity, and offered himself to the people in that character. His plan has perfectly succeeded. Anael and her tribe believe that Djabal is the real Hakeem, and that he will liberate the people, show himself as Divine, and exalt her with himself when the work is perfected. He has decreed the death of the tyrant, and Anael knows this. To Anael, Djabal is her God as well as her lover; yet she cannot worship him as Divine. “‘Oh, why is it,’ she asks, ‘I cannot kneel to you? Never seem you—shall I speak the truth?— Never a God to me! ’Tis the man’s hand, Eye, voice!’” Djabal has deceived himself into a half belief in the sanctity of his mi ion; but as the day approaches when he is to fulfil his promises his heart fails him, and he loses faith in himself. He struggles with his own heart, and endeavours to be true to himself and people; but he has gone too far, the circumstances in which he is placed are too strong for him, and he is driven forward on the course on which he has entered. He now resolves to solve the difficulty by flight. He will make his escape, but before he does so will kill the prefect with his own hands. He is on his way to the tyrant’s chamber when he meets Anael, and learns from her that she has slain the prefect. He now tells her everything. At first she declines to believe in his falsene ; but when a conviction of the truth is forced upon her she refuses to drive him from her heart. The Divine nature of Djabal has been in a sense an obstacle to her love in his character as Hakeem. He has seemed too remote for her merely human affection, and she has never deemed herself worthy to be a ociated with him in his exaltation. In her determination to kill the tyrant, and in the accomplishment of that act of patriotism, she has been actuated principally by her desire to elevate herself to his level, so that she might have a principal share in the liberation of her nation. They now discover that the murder need not have been committed. Lois de Dreux, the young nobleman who has accompanied Djabal from Europe, has fallen in love with Anael also; and though prohibited by the rules of the Order of knighthood of which he is a postulant, to entangle himself with women, he has aspired to win her love. Lois has represented to the chapter of the Order the cruelties inflicted by their prefect on the people, and has succeeded in obtaining an order for his removal. The young Frankish knight has been elevated by the Order to the position occupied by the deposed governor, so that the liberation of the Druses is now close at hand. Anael urges Djabal to confe his deception and own his imposition to his people. This he refuses to do. She cannot forgive him. When she finds him false and cowardly she takes upon herself to denounce him to the European rulers of the island. Djabal is brought to trial. His accuser is Anael, who is closely veiled till the appropriate moment, when the veil drops, and he is confronted by his lover. His life hangs upon her words. He urges her to speak them; but this she cannot do. Djabal is now man, and man only: he is not separated from her by his Divine nature. She could hardly hope to be one with him in his glory: she can at least be united with him in his degradation and disgrace. All her love for him rises within her, and she hails him “Hakeem!” and falls dead at his feet. The human heart has proved victorious, and the man has conquered the god. Djabal, committing the care of the Druses to his friend Lois, and bidding him guard his people home again and win their ble ing for the deed, stabs himself as he bends over the body of the faithful Anael. As he dies the Venetians enter the place and plant the Lion of St. Mark. Djabal’s last cry mingles with their shouts, “On to the mountain! At the mountain, Druses!” Notes —Act i., Rhodian cro : that of the Knights of St. John (see below). Osman , who founded the Ottoman empire in Asia. White-cro knights : the Knights Hospitallers. They wore a white cro of eight points on a black ground. From 1278 till 1289, when engaged on military duties, they wore a plain straight white cro on a red ground. Patriarch : in Eastern churches a dignitary superior to an archbishop, as the Patriarch of Constantinople, Alexandria, etc. Nuncio : an amba ador from the Pope to an emperor or king. Hospitallers : an order of knights who built a hospital at Jerusalem, in A.D. 1042, for pilgrims. They were called Knights of St. John , and after the removal of the order to Malta Knights of Malta . Candia : the ancient Crete. It was sold to the Venetians in 1194. Rhodes : an island of the Mediterranean. “ pro fide ”: for the faith. “ Bouillon’s war ”: the crusade of Godfrey de Bouillon.—Act ii., “ sweet cane ”: Acorus calamus. It grows in the Levant and in this country; is very aromatic, having a smell when trodden on like incense. Mi Pratt says it has been used from time immemorial for strewing the floors of Norwich Cathedral. Lilith : Adam’s first wife (see note to Adam , Lilith and Eve , and art. Lilith ). “ incense from a mage-king’s tomb ”: students of occult science say that sweet odours have been known to i ue from the tombs of magicians, and lamps have been found burning therein when broken open. khandjar : an Eastern weapon.—Act. iii., The venerable chapter : the meeting of an order or community. Bezants : gold coins of Byzantium. “ Red-cro rivals of the Temple ”: the order of the “Knights Templars” (see notes to The Heretics’ Tragedy ). They wore a red cro of eight points.—Act iv., Tiar : a tiara.—Act v., Biamrallah : Hakem Biamr Allah, sixth Fatimite Caliph of Egypt. Fatemite , or Fatimite : named from Fatima, the daughter of Mohammed and wife of Ali, from whom the founder of the dynasty of Fatimites profe ed to have sprung. “ Romaioi, Ioudaioite kai proselutoi ” ( Gr. , Acts ii. 10, 11): “Strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes.”