Lebanese Druze
Ethnoreligious group in Lebanon / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Lebanese Druze (Arabic: دروز لبنان, romanized: durūz lubnān) are an ethnoreligious group[1] constituting about 5.2 percent[2] of the population of Lebanon. They follow the Druze faith, which is an esoteric Abrahamic religion originating from the Near East, and self identify as unitarians (Arabic: موحدين, romanized: muwaḥḥidīn).[3]
Languages | |
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Vernacular: Lebanese Arabic | |
Religion | |
Druze |
There are estimated to be less than 1 million Druze worldwide.[4] The Druze, who refer to themselves as al-Muwahhideen, or "believers in one God," are concentrated in the rural, mountainous areas east and south of Beirut.[2] Lebanon has the world's second largest Druze population, after Syria.
Under the Lebanese political division (Parliament of Lebanon Seat Allocation) the Druze community is designated as one of the five Lebanese Muslim communities in Lebanon (Sunni, Shia, Druze, Alawi, and Ismaili), even though the Druze are no longer considered Muslim.[5][6][7] Lebanon's constitution was intended to guarantee political representation for each of the nation's ethno-religious groups.[8]
Wadi al-Taym is generally considered the "birthplace of the Druze faith".[9] The Maronite Catholics and the Druze founded modern Lebanon in the early eighteenth century, through the ruling and social system known as the "Maronite-Druze dualism" in Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate.[10] Under the terms of an unwritten agreement known as the National Pact between the various political and religious leaders of Lebanon, the Chief of the General Staff must be a Druze.[11]