Druzism

The Druze faith arose in Fatimid Cairo in 1017–1018, when the Ismaili preacher Hamza ibn Ali began to teach a doctrine of the unity of God under the patronage of the caliph al-Hakim. It holds that God deals with the world through emanations, with a Cosmic Mind among them, and that the soul is eternal.

The faith keeps no clergy; only a few initiates are admitted to its secrets, and since 1046 it has been closed to converts. The Druze settled in Mount Lebanon and southern Syria. In 1305 the Mamluks defeated them at Keserwan and forced them to outward Sunni conformity, and Ottoman expeditions such as that of 1585 attacked them.