Volume 1

Faiths of man : a cyclopædia of religions / by Major-General J. G. R. Forlong.

  • Forlong, James George Roche, -1904.
Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Faiths of man : a cyclopædia of religions / by Major-General J. G. R. Forlong. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    (‘ esoteric ’ sects) of the 8th and 9th centuries, whose teachings owed much to the Zoroastrians, Sabians, and Manicheans . . . They hold the Greeks and Chinese in honour, apparently because their system is partly based on Platonism, and partly on the Bactrian Buddhism, which is connected with Platonism. The Druze doctrine as to Christ is Gnostic, regarding the ‘eternal Christ’ as a true deity, but Jesus as the ‘ Rival ’ or enemy of Hamzah. The true Christ was not crucified, they say, but the body of Jesus was stolen and hidden after his crucifixion, by the true Christ, in order to prepare men for his religion. The being who has created the Universe is the ‘ Rival, answering exactly to the Demiurge (people-maker) of Gnostics.” The Druzes believe also in “ Incarnations ” or “ Emanations of the soul of the Universe, like Hindus or Gnostiks. Five emanations came in humility, and four in glory; and one more—Hamzah with Hakim in gl0Vy—is expected, when Gog and Magog will be slain, and the millennium will follow. [This is an ordinary Moslem belief as to the last days, and the Christology is also Moslem.—Ed.] Druzes neither fast nor pray. They do not drink wine, or eat pork, or smoke. They believe in Free Will, and reject Moslem Fatalism. They have no objection to joining in the rites and customs of their neighbours—whether Christian or Moslem. They take part in Moslem prayers and ablutions, and also sprinkle themselves with holy water in Christian churches, and make vov7s to the vmoden statue of Elijah in the Latin monastery on Carmel. They will even call themselves Moslems, Jews, or Christians, according to the belief of those whom they address (see Mrs Reichhardt’s “ Life Among Druses,” Asiatic Quarterly Review, January 1892). Yet the Druz hold the seven commandments of Hamzah: (1) Truthful speech among themselves : (2) Care of the brethren : (3) Renunciation of all other°religions : (4) Separation from heretics : (5) Confession of the unity of God in all ages: (6) Resignation to his will: (7) Obedience to his commands. They are taught that God is an ineffable, passion- less, incomprehensible, and indefinable infinity, who has manifested himself in the ten incarnations. Hakim was “ God’s final appeal to man, the door kept open for 26 years, and then forever closed. He will “reappear at the end of time” to rule over a world of Druzes. Hamzah is the “ impersonated intelligence,” or supreme ’Akil of God— “ a power or archangel ruling over all things in heaven and earth. Under him are four archangels—the soul, the Logos, and the Right and Left Wings, represented by Ed Darazi and three others. Under these are angels or spirits of various rank. The ’Akils on earth are some 10 to 20 per cent, of the Druzes. The rest are Jalnl or “ ignorant.