DRUS E, DRUZE, DERUZ, or DOROUZ, a politico-religious sect of Mohammedan origin, but deemed by orthodox Moslems heretical. El-Hakim Biamr-Allah, the sixth Fatimite Caliph of Egypt, a cruel and fanatical man, who lived in the 11th century, proclaimed himself an incarnation of God, and estab lished a secret society. When walking in the vicinity of Cairo, his capital, he disappeared from his subjects' view, the most natural explanation being that he was assassinated and his body hidden somewhere. His followers believed in his return to this earth to reign over it, and propagated their faith in the adjacent lands. Two of the most notable mission aries were the Persian messengers, Ham zah and Mohammed ben Ismail ed Derazi. The latter proclaimed the Druse tenets with such zeal in Lebanon that the con verts to belief in El-Hakim were called not Hakimites but Druses. The Druses believe in the unity of God, who they think was manifest in the person of sev eral individuals, the last of them Hakim.
They believe in the constant existence of five superior spiritual ministers, the greatest of them being Hamzah and Jesus, and hold the transmigration of souls. They are divided into the 'Okkal or Initiated, and the Juhhal, or Ignorant. Their day of worship is Thursday. Ethnologically they are Arabs who came from the E. parts of Syria and settled in Lebanon and Antilebanon in the 11th century. Their territory on the Lebanon is S. of the Maronites. They extend thence to the Hauran and to Damascus. In 1860 they attacked the Maronites, about 12,000 of whom they cruelly mas sacred, not sparing even women or male children in their fury. The arrival of Turkish and French troops, in August and September, 1860, and the execution of 167 Druses, restored at least the semblance of tranquillity.