Le druzisme prémoderne en Syrie : émergence du droit druze et des premières institutions religieuses

Abstract

The Epistles of the Druze Canon, written in the 5th/11th century, lay down the foun- dations for a new religious doctrine, and give a brief and sometimes ambiguous out- line of the moral, juridical and judicial precepts to which believers should submit henceforth, all previous legal doctrines (šarāʾiʿ) having been abrogated by the divine Will. Premodern Druze scholars, especially the Emir al-Sayyid (d. 884/1479) and his disciples, attempted to explain these canonical treatises with the aim of establishing legal and religious principles adapted to their rural milieu and posing rules designed to organise the community. Traditional Druze historiography considers the Emir al- Sayyid to be the only and greatest Druze reformer of all time, the “architect” of Druze renaissance in sum, and falsely attributes to him a collection of theological and legal writings (the “Great Exegeses”) which are scrupulously applied by religious people up to the present day. However, a critical examination of this unpublished corpus (dating from the latter part of the 9th/15th century) shows however that the Druze legal theory, as well as the first religious and judiciary Druze institutions emerged after the death of al-Sayyid.