CHAPTER XV.
SYRIA.
THE DRUZES, AND THE WARS OF LEBANON.
1835-1842.
We now enter upon a period of some special difficulty in the prosecution of the missionary work.

Turkey, Egypt, and several great European powers, conflicting for secular objects, brought the Druzes into very singular and as it proved unfortunate, relations to the mission.
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.

They have ever taken great pains to conceal their tenets, which seem to be compounded from Mohammedanism and Paganism, and it is only a portion of themselves that know what the tenets are.