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Certainly you will know one day, yes, certainly you will know one day, ah, if ye were instructed in a sure knowledge.

secret, and certainly-so far as the veil of mystery may be supposed to have been drawn aside by this translation of their books-very unprofitable. "The Druses designate themselves by the name "You have had a multitude of benefits heaped of Unitarians. They are called Dorouy or Duz- upon you, in such abundance, that none of those zeyyeh. They are the disciples of Hamza, son of who have preceded you have ever received the Ali; and honor with divine worship Hakem-biamr-like; neither have any of the people that have Allah, Caliph of Egypt, of the family of ObaidAllah Mahdi.”

ABRIDGED LIFE OF HAKEM.

been before you in past ages, neither the companions of the flight of Mohammed, nor those who received him hospitably in Medina, ever attained to a more exalted degree of prosperity.

"It is not on account of your merit or good works, O men and women, that the vicegerent of God has bestowed upon you these benefits; but from his kindness, goodness, tenderness and pity for you; and in order to prove you, that he might know who among you are given to good works.

"Our lord Hakem, whose name be glorified, was the son of Ishmael of the race of Ali, son of Abu-Talib, and his mother was of the race of Fatima, the daughter of Mohammed. He was born at "As to the exterior precious benefits which ye Cairo, in the year 375 of the Hegira. His father have received from him, they are talents heaped declared him his successor in the year 383. He up of gold and silver, horses of the greatest price, ascended the throne in the year 386, and reigned all sorts of cattle and a multitude of other gifts, as 25 years. He disappeared on the night of the pensions, fiefs, lands, and an infinity of temporal 27th of the month Shoual, in the year 411. The goods. Besides, he has raised you all, generally time of his sojourn in this world, from his birth and individually, to the most sublime honors and to his disappearing, was thirty-six years and seven ranks, that ye might walk in the paths of intelligent months. He wrote a Venerable Charter, and sus-beings. He has honored you with the quality of pended it in the mosques. He then disappeared. We expect his return in a short time, if it please him. He will reign over all the earth, throughout all ages. Those whom he has invited to the profession of his unity and have not obeyed, that is, the men of all other sects and religions, will be subjected to him, put in irons, and laid under an annual tribute; but as for the Unitarians, they will reign with him throughout all ages."

Copy of the Charter which was found suspended in the mosques, at the time of the disappearance of

our lord the Imam Hakem.

"In the name of God the pitying and merciful. "The future recompenses are destined to those who rouse themselves from the slumbers of the thoughtless, and retire from the folly of the senseless; to him, whose faith is firm and sincere, and who hastens to return to the Most High God; and to him, who is his vicegerent and witness to mortals, his vicar upon earth, to whom he has confided the care of his creatures, the prince of the believers.

Emirs, and decorated you with the most eminent titles. He has extended your power on earth, to the east and to the west, in the plains and in the mountains, by sea and by land. You have been made kings and sultans. You have received tribute. By the aid of the vicegerent of God, you have been put in full liberty. All hostile and factious parties have come to submit themselves to you.

"As to the interior gifts which you have received from him, of this number is the intercourse which you have externally seemed to have with him; intercourse, which constitutes your glory in this world, and the hope of your happiness in eternity.* Another of his internal benefits, is the having revived the laws of Islamism and of the faith, which are in the eyes of God the true religion.†

"It is thus that you have been raised since his time, in honor and purity, above all other sects: he has distinguished you from the adorers of idols; he has separated them from you, in frustrating their hopes and desires: he has overturned their churches and their schools of religion, although they had subsisted for a long course of ages: the partisans of these sects, tolerated among Mussulmans, have been subjected to you, by good will or force; they have entered in crowds into the religion of God.

"O men, the threatenings, the exhortations, the promises, which till now have been made to you by your sovereign chief, the Imam of your age, the successor of your prophets, the witness of your Creator, the vicar of him who will render witness against you for the crimes which cause your perdition, in short, all the counsels and warnings which * "This intercourse between Hakem and his subhave been lavished upon you, are more than suf-jects, and all the actions of his humanity, are, accordficient for those who have heard with submission ing to the doctrine of Hamza, merely appearances and docility, who have entered into the right way, designed to veil his divinity and incomprehensible who have resisted their passions for the salvation nature." (Note by De Sacy: p. 373.) of their souls, and who have preferred the future life to this present world. But, all this notwithstanding, you are still plunged in the torrent of ignorance, and wandering in the desert of error: you amuse yourselves unceasingly, till surprised by that day with which you have been threatened.

"But you have hated knowledge and wisdom: you have despised his benefits, and cast them behind your back: you have preferred the good of

+"That is to say, according to the doctrine of the Druses, all the precepts of the literal and the allehave their true explication only in the Unitarian regorical doctrine, that is of Islamism and the faith, ligion." (Note by De Sacy.)

"These adorers of idols are the Jews and the Christians." (Note by De Sacy.)

this world, as did before you the children of Israel in the time of Moses (upon whom be peace!) The vicegerent of God was unwilling to compel you against your choice: he has shut the door of his preaching he has caused you to be taught wisdom: out of his palace he has opened a school of science, where were to be had all instruction concerning religion, the jurisprudence of the Alcoran upon things permitted or forbidden, decisions and judgments conformably to the books of the ancients and the books of Abraham and Moses. (May the favors of God repose on all of them!) He has given you paper and pensions, ink and pens, in order that you might attain to that which might render you happy, opening your eyes and delivering you from your foolishness.

profitable and useful to those, to whom he shall grant grace to observe its contents!

"Anathema, anathema to whomsoever shall not copy it, and shall not read it to the penitents in a low chapel.*

"Anathema, anathema to whomsoever shall have the opportunity of copying it, and shall neglect to do so. Praise be to God alone."

The oath, by which the initiated Druses are admitted, is given by the baron De Sacy, according to the following translation:

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Form of engagement to the vicegerent of this age I put my confidence in our lord Hakem, th sole, the one, the eternal, exempt from all associations, and all number.

"The blessed and Most High God hath saidIf my servants ask you concerning me, tell them that I am near; and that I hear the prayers of those who call upon me.' Up, then, O men! If you keep yourself in these desert and uncultivated mind and body, in full liberty and acting by an "Such a one, son of such a one, being of sound places, your eyes will trace the commencement obedience perfectly voluntary, without violence or of that route, which was taken by the Emir of the constraint, does, by the present act of submission, to believers at the moment when he was conceal-which he binds his soul and body, confess and declare ed. Assemble yourselves, therefore, with your children: purify your hearts: render your intentions pure before God, the Lord of the universe: be sincerely converted to him: avail yourselves of the most powerful mediation with him, that He may pardon you, and grant you the return of his vicegerent. But take good heed that none of you inquire into the course taken by the Emir of the faithful (on whom be the peace of God!) or endeavor to learn what has become of him. Cease not to reiterate your prayers, all of you together, at the entering of the way, saying, 'Behold our abiding place! and, when the moment of mercy is come for you, the vicegerent of God, satisfied with your conduct, will, of his own choice and free will, appear at your head-He will show himself in the midst of you.

that he renounces all sects, professions, religions, and creeds, and acknowledges no other obedience than that to our lord Hakem (whose name be glorified !) obedience which consists in serving and adoring him-that he will serve none other with him, past, present, or to come-that he gives over his soul, his body, his goods, his children, and all that he possesses, to our lord Hakem (whose name be glorified!)-that he submits to his disposal of him, without opposing him in any thing, or disapproving any thing in his works, whether he bestow pleasure or pain. If he renounces the religion of our lord Hakem, (whose name be glorified!) to which he has submitted by this writing, and to which he has bound his soul by this authentic declaration, or if he reveals it to others, or if he disobeys any of its commandments, he shall no longer have any part with the Creator who is adored: he shall be deprived of the advantages which he might have received from the ministers [of the religion of the Unity,] and he shall merit the chastisements of God most high (whose name be "Care shall be taken for the security of those glorified!) Whosoever confesses, that he has not religious persons, who shall observe what is writ-in heaven any God worthy of adoration, nor on ten in this document; and none shall be hindered earth any Imam existing other than our lord Hafrom copying and reading it. May God render it kem (whose name be glorified!) is in the number of the happy Unitarians.

"The servant of the empire of the prince of the believers (on whom be the peace of God!) wrote this in the year 411.

"May God be propitious to Mohammed, the prince of apostles, the seal of prophets !

"That is, he has destroyed the monastery named Deir-alkasr." (Note by De Sacy-page 374, referring to page 79.)

This passage has an illusion to a curious piece of history respecting the disappearance of Hakem; who, according to the account of some, died a violent death-some pretending that his sister caused him to be murdered.-(Chrestomathie, II. 87.) De Sacy, in his note on this passage, observes, that these desert places refer to a part of the city of Cairo, situated to the south-east, and the Mount Mokattam. "It was hither," he remarks, "that Hakem used to go out for his evening walks; and, the night when he perished, he had gone out this way, and reached the Mount Mokattam, where he was killed. The next morning, the principal officers of the palace, with a numerous train, went out by the same route to seek for the Caliph, whose body was found in a well near Holwan."-Note by De Sacy, Chrestomathie Arabe—vol II. p. 376.

the erat of the servant of our lord (whose name be glorified!) and of his slave Hamza, son of Ali, son of Ahmet, the director of those who are obedient, and the avenger of those who adore many

"Written in such a month, of such a year of

"It seems probable to me, that this piece was to be read only by those who were initiated into the doctrine of Hamza; and it is doubtless with this view, that the promise is given of watching over the security of those who conform to the orders made to them. It is in this view, also, that the reading of this document is commanded to be in some retired and subterranean place, which should serve as a chapel for the assembling of the initiated." Note by De Sacy, p. 377.

"The era of the Druses, or of Hamza, begins with the year 408 of the Hegira; that is, about A. D. 1016."-Note by De Sacy-p. 379.

Gods, and of apostates by the sword of our lord (whose name be glorified!) and by the force of his sole power."

The Christian reader will discern, in the midst of this unintelligible jargon, various traces of Judaism, Christianity, and Mohammedanism. The general scope of the system, supposing these documents to exhibit it truly, would seem to be pure Deism. The doctrine, however, of incarnate Deity, and the expectation of a second advent of the head of the Druse religion, are points of resemblance to the New Testament, peculiarly striking. That the Druses are not to inquire into the time of this second advent, is analogous to the feeling which the Jews at present have concerning their Messiah; and the belief that all nations are to be subject to Hakem may be a corruption, either of the secular expectations of the Jews, or of the spiritual hopes of Christians. In respect to the practical or experimental part of this religion, while much is said of acknowledging undeserved favors, while human merit seems to be disclaimed, and an illusion is even made to the idea of mediation; it is nevertheless impossible not to see, that the exhortations to piety all proceed on the idea that man has the power in himself to become pious. However far Moham-| medans, Druses, Deists, or the propagators of any other false religion, may extract matter from the Old or the New Testament, yet they all drop the doctrine of man's corruption by the fall-both the fact, and all its train of inevitable consequences. These documents form an additional proof of the tendency of mankind to corrupt pure revelation, and to fabricate a religion of their own; while the barrier of secrecy, with which they endeavor to surround it, is but a stratagem of the arch enemy to preclude the detection and overthrow of their

errors.

A curious additional circumstance shall here be quoted from the writings of the Jesuit missionaries, which, if correct, seems to prove that the Druses are not exempt from the reproach of idolatry.

"There are only two of their villages, which have the honor (speaking their language) of possessing the statue of their great legislator.

"His statue, according to their law, must be of gold or of silver. They enclose it in a wooden case, and exhibit it only on the day of their grand ceremonies; when they address their vows to it, to obtain the object of their desires. They imagine that they are speaking to God himself, so great is their veneration for this idol. The only two villages where it is preserved are called Bagelin and Fredis."-Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses-Vol. I. pp. 371, 372.

Volney has intimated, that the Druses have, at different times, imposed upon the missionaries in the Levant, by a profession of Christianity. It is almost superfluous to observe, that the statements of an avowed enemy of the gospel are to be received with extreme reserve. The following extract from that traveller, so far as it may demonstrate the facility of temper of the Druses, is worthy of attention; but cannot be regarded as a faithful account of the proceedings of the missionaries:

"When they go among the Turks, they affect the external appearance of the Mussulman; they

enter the mosques, and perform the ablutions and prayers. Or are they among the Marsonites, they follow them to church, and take the holy-water like them. Many of them, importuned by the missionaries have received baptism; then, solicited by the Turks, they have allowed themselves to be circumcised; and have finished by dying, neither Christians nor Mussulmans."-Volney's Travels in Syria—Chap. 22. Section 3.

It will, however, be proper to hear what the Romish missionaries themselves relate concerning the reception which their labors have had among the Druses. They speak without reserve of their total want of success; and even seem to regard the conversion of this people as a hopeless experiment. With the following extract, the account of the Druses shall conclude.

"We often perform a mission to the Catholics who are in their country; and we have as often the pain of seeing that this nation is very far from the kingdom of God. It is true that they love the Christians, and do not love the Turks. It is true, likewise, that they prefer calling themselves Christians rather than Turks, although they wear the green turban. They even receive us kindly and joyfully into their houses.

Notwithstanding these favorable dispositions, their inviolable attachment for their religion, which is a frightful compound of Christian and Mohammedan ceremonies, and still more, their obstinacy in refusing instruction, give just reason to fear that this nation will persist in shutting its eyes to the light of the gospel."-Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses: Vol. I. pp. 372, 373.

ANSARI.

THE Ansari are a people residing in the mountainous parts near Antioch, and in other places of Northern Syria. The origin of this sect, marvellous and seini-fabulous, is thus given by Assemann, translated from the Syriac of Bar-Hebræus:

"Whereas many desire to know the origin of the Nazarei, receive the following account from us. In the year of the Greeks 1202,* there appeared an old man in the region Akula [this is Cupha, a city of Arabia, as Bar-Hebræus elsewhere notices,] in a village which the inhabitants call Nazaria. This old man having the appearance of a person given to severe fasts, great poverty, and strict devotion, many of the natives of that place followed him; out of whom having chosen twelve, according to the number of the apostles, he commanded them to preach a new doctrine to the people. The governor of the place, hearing of this, commanded to apprehend him ; and, having cast him into a dungeon in his own house, swore that on the following morning he would have him crucified. On the same night, the governor, going to bed half intoxicated with wine, placed the key of the dungeon under his pillow a maid of the household, perceiving this, when he was fast asleep withdrew the key; and, pitying this old man, given to fasting and prayer,

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opened the dungeon, set him at liberty, and then restored the key to its former place: the governor, going in the morning to the dungeon, and opening it with the same key, and finding no person, imagined the culprit to have been miraculously removed; and as the maid, through fear, kept silence as to what she had done, the report spread abroad that the old man had escaped from the prison while the doors were shut. A short time after, having found two of his disciples in a distant country, he contrived to persuade them that he had been delivered by angels from the prison, and conveyed to a desert place. He then wrote a book of his religion, and gave it to them with an order to promulgate it, and invite men to receive his new doctrines. These doctrines were of the following nature:- I, such an one, commonly believed to be the son of Othman of the town Nazaria, saw Christ, who is Jesus, who also is the word, and the director, and Achmed the son of Mohammed the son of Hanaphia of the sons of Ali; the same also is the Angel Gabriel: and he said to me, thou art the reader: thou art the truth.Thou art the camel, that retainest anger against the infidels. Thou art the heifer, bearing the yoke of the believers. Thou art the spirit. Thou art John the son of Zacharias. Preach therefore to men, that they kneel four times in their prayers; twice before sunrise, twice after sunset, toward Jerusalem, saying each time these three verses, God is sublime above all, God is high above all, God is the greatest of all. On the second and sixth festival, let no man do any work: let them fast two days every year: let them abstain from the Mohammedan ablution: let them not drink strong drink; but of wine as much as they please. Let them not eat the flesh of wild beasts.' Having delivered these ridiculous doctrines, he went to Palestine, where he infected the simple and rustic people with the same teaching: then departing, he hid himself; nor is his place known to this day."-Assemanni Bib. Orient. Vol. II. pp. 319, 320.

Assemann then proceeds to give various reasons, why the persons formerly called Assassini are the same with these Nazaraci, or Ansari.He says that they were originally Mohammedans, and afterwards became semi-christians. He adds, also, that the Druses bitterly persecute them, as a people loose in morals and hostile to their sect. The account given in the Encyclopædia Britannica, under the word Assassins, partly accords with the above; referring the origin of that sect to a Sheik vulgarly called, in Europe, the Old Man of the Mountain. The following accounts from the Jesuit missionaries, from Niebuhr, and from Burckhardt, may probably be considered as throwing a little additional light upon the obscure and melancholy picture before us.

The Jesuit missionaries observe

which the Assassins profess and that professed in the present day by the Kesbins and the Nassariens.

"These two nations, the Kesbins and the Nassariens, ought to be regarded as making one and the same nation.

"They have different names, from the different countries which they inhabit. Those among them who inhabit the mountains are called Kesbins, because their country is called Kesbie: the others, who occupy the plains, are called Nassariens, that is to say, bad Christians ;* a character which belongs to both of them, for they have made for themselves a religion which is a monstrous compound of Mohammedanism and Christianity, and which gives them an extravagant idea of our holy mysteries.

"The doctors of their sect are called Sheiks. These doctors amuse them with their foolish imaginations: for example-they teach them that God has been incarnate several times-that he has been incarnate, not only in Jesus Christ, but also in Abraham, Moses, and other persons celebrated in the Old Testament. They even attribute the same honor to Mohammed; an absurdity into which even the Turks have never fallen.

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They have borrowed from Christianity the communion but the mode in which they practise it is perfectly fanatical; for they celebrate it with wine and a morsel of meat. They admit only men to this communion, excluding women and children. It is in their secret assemblies, that the men observe this practice among themselves.

"They celebrate some of our festivals; for example those of Christmas, the Circumcision, Epiphany, Palm Sunday, Easter, and some of our Apostles' and Saints' days.

"When they are at their prayers, they turn themselves toward the sun; which has led some to say that they adore the sun: but, on this point, they are not agreed.

"I omit various other of their customs, as being only so many extravagancies. They are, however, strongly attached to them; persuaded as they are, that their religion is not less good than that of the Maronites, because they have some practices in common with them.

"Several of our missionaries have used their

utmost efforts to gain some of them; but as they

"At the present day we are not acquainted here with any people bearing the name of Assassins; yet it is possible that the Kesbins, a nation which inhabits the mountains two days' distant from Tripoli, and the Nassariens, another nation which is established in the plain toward the sea, may be *This etymology, which seems so plausible, rethe successors of the Assassins. These two na-ceives no countenance from Assemann, who, if it tions inhabit the same country, and, what is more, had been correct, was too good an Oriental scholar there is much resemblance between the religion not to have discovered it.

only obstinately hear their own wicked doctors, and will follow no other opinions than those in which they were brought up, our missionaries, despairing of their conversion, have been obliged often to shake off the dust of their feet against them."-Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses: Vol. I. pp. 361-364.

Niebuhr has given, with a minuteness, which it would scarcely be compatible with the nature of this work to copy, a view of the mystical doctrines of the Ansari. The following short concluding paragraph is quoted, as exhibiting a striking and painful illustration of the words of the apostle Their foolish heart was darkened. Rom. i. 21.

ISMAYLY.

THE situation and character of another sect in Syria, named Ishmaelites, or Ismayly, will be learnt from the following extracts.

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Maszyad (situate between Aleppo and Tripoli, but nearer to Tripoli) is remarkable from being the chief seat of the religious sect called Ismayly. Inquiries have often been made concerning the religious doctrines of this sect, as well as of those of the Anzeyrys and Druses. Not only European travellers and Europeans resident in Syria, but many natives of influence, have endeavored to penetrate the mysteries of these idolators, without success; and several causes combine to make it probable that their doctrines will long remain unknown. The principal reason is, that few indivi"The soul of a devotee among the Ansari can duals among them become acquainted with the enter Paradise, after it has passed through a most important and secret tenets of their faith; the small number of bodies; but the soul of another generality contenting themselves with the obsermust have passed through eighty. The souls of vance of some exterior practices, while the arcainfidels must pass through five frightful degrees-na are possessed by the select few. It will be Fesgh, Nesgh, Mesgh, Wegsch, and Resgh; and after that, must remain in the world as sheep, till the return of Sochra, that is Fatima. Who could believe that the founders of such religions could possibly find followers ?"-Niebuhr, Vol. II. pp. 360, 361.

Burckhardt, in 1812, on his journey from Aleppo to Damascus, rested a night at Shennyn, a village of the Ansari, a little north of Tripoli. He thus speaks of them

them to the heaviest exactions, and might even be followed by their total expulsion or extirpation. Christians and Jews are tolerated, because Mohammed and his immediate successors granted them protection, and because the Turks acknowledged Christ and the prophets; but there is no instance whatever of Pagans being tolerated."— Burckhardt's Travels in Syria: pp. 151, 152.

asked, perhaps, whether their religious books would not unveil the mystery. It is true that all the different sects possess books, which they regard as sacred; but they are intelligible only to the initiated. Another difficulty arises from the extreme caution of the Ismaylys upon this subject. Whenever they are obliged to visit any part of the country under the Turkish government they assume the character of Mussulmans; being well aware, that if they should be detected in the practice of any rite contrary to the Turkish religion, their hypocrisy, in affecting to follow the lat"As our hosts appeared to be good natured ter, would no longer be tolerated: and their being people, I entered, after supper, into conversation once clearly known to be Pagans, which they are with them, with a view to obtain some informa-only suspected to be at present, would expose tion upon their religious tenets; but they were extremely reserved on this head. I had heard that the Anzeyrys maintained, from time to time, some communication with the East Indies; and that there was a temple there belonging to their sect, to which they occasionally sent messengers. In the course of our conversation, I said that I knew there were some Anzeyrys in the East Indies; they were greatly amazed at this, and inquired how I had obtained my information; and their countenances seemed to indicate that there was some truth in my assertion. They are divided into different sects, of which nothing is known except the names, viz: Kelbye, Shamsye, and Mokladjye. They entertain the curious belief, that the soul ought to quit the dying person's body by the mouth; and they are extremely cautious against any accident, which they imagine may prevent it from taking that road; for this reason, whenever the government of Ladakie or Tripoli condemns an Anzeyry to death, his relations offer considerable sums, that he may be empalled instead of hanged. I can vouch for the truth of this belief, which proves at least that they have some idea of a future state. It appears that there are Anzeyrys in Anatolia and at Constantinople. Some years since a great man of this sect died in the mountain of Antioch; and the water, with which his corpse had been washed was carefully put into bottles and sent to Constantinople and Asia Minor."-Burckhardt's Travels in Syria:

P. 156

Niebuhr, so copious in his accounts of other sects, is, upon this, extremely concise. He observes

"Concerning the religion of the Ishmælites, I have learnt nothing certain. The Mohammedans and the Oriental Christians relate of them things incredible. The number of the Ishmælites is not great. They live principally at Killis, a town between Shugr and Hama; also in Gebel Kalbie, a mountain not far from Latachia between Aleppo and Antioch. They are called Keftun, from the name of a village in this country."

Speaking of the Metawali, Ansari, and Ishmælites, Niebuhr adds

"These nations, taken on the whole, are in general so weak that they can scarcely resist the Turkish Pachas. The Druses, on the contrary, are masters of the chief part of Mount Lebanon, and consequently more powerful."-Niebuhr, Vol. II. pp. 361, 362.

The notice taken of this sect, by the Jesuit missionaries is also exceedingly brief: they write

"The Ishmaelites inhabit a small territory

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