| The Druze faith in its present form came into being at the beginning of the eleventh century A.D. Although its headquarters were in Cairo, this faith thrived in Lebanon and Israel.;The Druze struggled for their religious autonomy, and have been noted for their resistance to foreign rule, this together with their minority status was the cause of their many wars against Turkish and later French domination.;The Druze had been denied the status of a separate religious community. The Ottoman government refused to grant them such privilege, and the Druze in Palestine were not recognized as a religious community, and did not enjoy the status of a - millet - although their co-religionists in Lebanon were so considered and in 1890 were granted the right to, maintain local judicial organs to deal with problems of inheritance, marriage and personal status.;In 1922 the British Mandatory recognized the religious communities in existence during the Ottoman period, they did not grant judicial autonomy to the Druze.;In the nineteenth century some Druze from Lebanon and Syria started to settle in the Americas, Australia and West Africa. In the Middle East there are an estimated 500,000 to 600,000 adherents, and in the Diaspora about 70,000.;In 1957 the Israeli government recognized the Druze as an autonomous community, and initiated the drafting of a law establishing Druze judiciary organs. In 1961 the Druze religious council adopted the law of personal status of the Druze community in Lebanon of 1948. This is the finest modern family law enacted at any time in the Middle Eastern Arab countries. It embodies the reaching of reforms in matters of marriage, divorce and succession. It is a synthesis of many sources of law, religious and secular, local and foreign (Egyptian and French legislation), but undoubtedly one of its most important sources of inspiration is ancient Druze religious law. From this source it derived provisions suited to the modern nuclear family, such as prohibition of polygamy, the principle of representation, in succession and absolute freedom of testation, all these are in striking contrast to the accepted Muslim - shari - norm.;The deeply rooted Druze legal system has developed in the autonomated Druze community in Lebanon. This example is followed by Israeli Druze. In 1962 the Israeli government passed the law of Druze Religious court in Israel, prior to which Druze had to use Muslim Court law. For the first time in the history of International Law, a country has embraced a law passed in an enemy country. Israel has applied the Druze Matrimony law passed by the Lebanese Parliament in 1948. |
