Many Muslims from other parts of the empire came to study Ismaili doctrine and law at al-Azhar and Dar al-Hikma. Al-Azhar became the more public face, providing public lectures on Ismaili law, while Dar al-Hikma focused more on the esoteric teachings for elite initiates. Both of these activities fall under dawa, which means an invitation to come to Allah.
Two of the Iranian elite who came to study dawa in Cairo were Hamza and his close associate ad-Darazi. Hamza was very evangelical about Ismailism and probably influenced Caliph al-Hakim’s increasing suppression of Sunnis. Under Hamza’s influence, ad-Darazi also became very evangelical and ambitious.
Ad-Darazi was appointed to lead a military expedition against a rebellious group in Lebanon. (Because who better to lead an army than an esoteric preacher? Right?) The rebellion in Lebanon was probably a reaction against the strict sectarianism of Fatimid Ismailis. The movement was called “Unity” and it stressed uniting the monotheistic religions in one faith. The Unity followers were part of a large extended clan who considered themselves ancient Midianites descended from Moses’s father-in-law Jethro.
Ad-Darazi lost the battle and was captured. In captivity, he converted to the beliefs of the Unity movement, now also called “the Movement that Defeated Ad-Darazi.” He brought the same evangelical zeal to the Unity beliefs, then brought its gospel home to Cairo. His associates in Cairo, including Hamza, seem to have accepted his beliefs as well.
Darazi now competed with Hamza for leadership of the Dawa. Perhaps in order to gain favor with the mad caliph, he declared that al-Hakim was the new Incarnation of God, a status handed down from Jesus and Ali. For one intense year, the original Unity beliefs and the new fanatical faith in al-Hakim were taken back and forth from Cairo to Lebanon until they began to blend. When ad-Darazi preached his theology in public, there were riots in Cairo. In 1018, he was executed by Caliph al-Hakim.
Darazi left his name to the new theology, Darazites (perhaps short for “the Movement that Defeated Darazi”), eventually shortened to “Druze,” but he won no friends. The Druze consider Hamza their founder, not Darazi. Reports differ on Caliph Hakim’s view of all this. Some say that Hakim wanted no part of divine claims, while others believe the claims fit right in with Hakim’s insanity. The Druze believe that in 1017, he had appointed Hamza to be Imam of the Unity movement. In 1021, when the Caliph disappeared in the desert, Hamza appointed a new Dawa chief and retreated into Lebanon, to live among the people who had previously captured ad-Darazi. Hamza apparently wrote the Druze scriptures.
The Druze call themselves Unitarians, al Muwahhidun; “Druze” is a derogatory nickname, the way “Christian” was at the start too. It’s hard to know just what they believe. They may believe that either or both Hakim and Hamza were “occulted” or “sublimated” instead of dying, and will come again. They did not accept the next Caliphs as Imams, so they essentially seceded from Egypt. Hamza’s successor at the Dawa stayed in touch with Hamza and also continued to develop the theology of the “Divine Call.” Eventually he too went into hiding, and in 1043 scholars at al-Azhar and al-Hikma declared their theology heretical.
The Druze leader (maybe still Hamza’s successor) declared the faith closed. Suddenly, one of the most evangelical movements became the least evangelical. You cannot convert to the Druze faith; you can only be born into it. The first duty of a Druze is to survive long enough to pass on his faith to sons, so they developed a code of secrecy and lying to outsiders. Pretty much all of the Muslim rulers after this persecuted them if they possibly could. The Druze withdrew to a mountain in Lebanon and created a fortress culture, eventually impressing the Crusaders by their fanatical devotion.
- A Short History of the Ismailis by Farhad Daftary