Consequently, the 16th and 17th centuries were to witness a succession of armed Druze rebellions against the Ottomans, countered by repeated Ottoman punitive expeditions against the Chouf, in which the Druze population of the area was severely depleted and many villages destroyed.

The situation was unstable: the Maronites lived in the large towns, but these were often surrounded by Druze villages living as perioikoi.

The Druze took advantage of this and began burning Maronite villages.

The Druze began a military campaign that included the burning of villages and massacres, while Maronite irregulars retaliated with attacks of their own.

In a number of villages in the Galilee ( e. g. Maghār ), especially but not only among the Druze, the qāf is actually pronounced qāf as in Classical Arabic and other previous semitic languages of the area.

The handful of Kuweikat villages ( mostly elderly ) who had stayed put when the village fell were subsequently expelled to the neighbouring Druze village of Abu Sinan.

The Druze village refused to give most of the Kuweikat villages shelter.

It was destroyed in 1888 during a series of feuds between rival villages in the area, and again in 1925, during the Druze revolt.

Despite French attempts to maintain control by encouraging sectarian divisions and isolating urban and rural areas, the revolt spread from the countryside and united Syrian Druze, Sunnis, Shiites, Allawis, and Christians.

Perhaps inspired by the contemporary Turkish War of Independence ( 1919-1921 ), similarly, the Great Revolt for Syrian Independence began in the countryside of Jabal al-Druze, led by Sultan al-Atrash, as a Druze uprising ; the movement was adopted by a group of Syrian nationalists led by Dr Abd al-Rahman Shahbandar and spread to the States of Aleppo, Damascus.

In July 1860, conflict between the Druze and Maronites of Mount Lebanon spread to Damascus, and local Druze attacked the Christian quarter, killing over 3, 000 persons.

On February 22, 1987 in what became known as the “ War of the Flag ”, a brutal militia battle spread throughout western Beirut between the Druze PSP and Amal.

It was during the period of Crusader rule in Syria ( 1099 – 1291 ) that the Druze first emerged into the full light of history in the Gharb region of the Chouf Mountains.

The latter title has since been usurped by the Hawran region, which since the middle of the 19th century has proven a haven of refuge to Druze emigrants from Lebanon and has become the headquarters of Druze power.

Many Yemenite Druzes thereupon immigrated to the Hawran region and thus laid the foundation of Druze power there.

The rebellion was led by al-Atrash family in an aim to gain independence, but ended in brutal suppression of the Druze, significant depopulation of the Hauran region and execution of the Druze leaders in 1910.

The Shia Fatimids conquered the region in the 10th century ; a breakaway sect, venerating the Fatimid caliph al-Hakim, formed the Druze religion, centred in and to north of, Galilee.

It was an autonomous Druze region of the Ottoman empire.

The Ottomans attempted to create peace by dividing Mt Lebanon into a Christian district and a Druze district, but this would merely create geographic powerbases for the warring parties, and it plunged the region back into civil conflict which included not only the sectarian warfare but a Maronite revolt against the Feudal class, which ended in 1858 with the overthrow of the old feudal system of taxes and levies.

The French accepted the Druze as having established control and the Maronites were reduced to a semi-autonomous region around Mt Lebanon, without even direct control over Beirut itself.

Southwest of the Hawran lies the high volcanic region of the Jabal al-Druze range ( renamed Jabal al Arab ), home of the country's Druze population.

The Mount Lebanon administrative region emerged in a time of rise of nationalism after the civil war of 1860: France intervened on behalf of the local Christian population and Britain on behalf of the Druze after the 1860 massacres, when 10, 000 Christians were killed in clashes with the Druze.

Jabal al-Druze (, Mountain of the Druze ), officially Jabal al-Arab ( Arabic: جبل العرب, Mountain of the Arabs ) is an elevated volcanic region in southern Syria, in the As-Suwayda Governorate.

Most of the inhabitants of this region are Arab Druze, and there are also small Arab Christian communities.

Druze who came to the region during the 1860 conflict between themselves and the Maronites began calling it Qal ' at Namrud ‎ ( Nimrod ).

By mid-1985 Amal was also in conflict with the Druze Progressive Socialist Party ( PSP ) militia led by Walid Jumblatt in the Chouf region.

The desert's remarkable landscape was formed by lava flows from the volcanic region of the Jebel Druze in southern Syria.

Sajur (; ) is a Druze town ( local council ) in the Galilee region of northern Israel, with an area of 3, 000 dunams ( 3 km² ).

The Druze (, plural دروز, durūz, druzim ) are a monotheistic religious community, found primarily in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan, which emerged during the 11th century from Ismailism school of Shia Islam.

The Unitarian Druze movement, which existed in the Fatimid Caliphate, acknowledged az-Zahir as the Caliph, but followed Hamzah as its Imam.

This was the result of a power struggle inside of the Fatimid empire in which the Druze were viewed with suspicion because of their refusal to recognize the new Caliph, Ali az-Zahir, as their Imam.

The Ma ' ans chose for their abode the Chouf District in south-western Lebanon ( southern Mount Lebanon Governorate ), overlooking the maritime plain between Beirut and Sidon, and made their headquarters in Baaqlin, which is still a leading Druze village.

This arrangement was to provide the cornerstone for the privileged status which ultimately came to be enjoyed by the whole of Mount Lebanon in Ottoman Syria, Druze and Christian areas alike.

The Hauran rebellion was a violent Druze uprising against Ottoman authority in the Syrian province, which erupted in 1909.

Druze are known for their loyalty to the countries they reside in, though they have a strong community feeling, in which they identify themselves as related even across borders of countries.

The French expanded the borders of Mount Lebanon, which was mostly populated by Maronites and Druze, to include more Muslims.

He would reform taxes and attempt to break the feudal system, in order to undercut rivals, the most important of which was also named Bashir: Bashir Jumblatt, whose wealth and feudal backers equaled or exceeded Bashir II – and who had increasing support in the Druze community.

Another destabilizing factor was France's support for the Maronite Christians against the Druze which in turn led the British to back the Druze, exacerbating religious and economic tensions between the two communities.

The remainder of the 19th century saw a relative period of stability, as Islamic, Druze and Maronite groups focused on economic and cultural development which saw the founding of the American University of Beirut and a flowering of literary and political activity associated with the attempts to liberalize the Ottoman Empire.

Consequently, the demographics of Lebanon were profoundly altered, as the territory added contained people who were predominantly Muslim or Druze: Lebanese Christians, of which the Maronites were the largest subgrouping, now constituted barely more than 50 % of the population, while Sunni Muslims in Lebanon saw their numbers increase eightfold, Shi ' ite Muslims fourfold.

* 1021: the ruling Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah disappears suddenly, possibly assassinated by his own sister Sitt al-Mulk, which leads to the open persecution of the Druze by Ismaili Shia ; the Druze proclaimed that Al-Hakim went into hiding ( ghayba ), whereupon he would return as the Mahdi savior.

However, he was later considered a renegade and is usually described by the Druze as following the traits of satan, which is arrogance.

The stronghold of the PSP / PLA laid in the Jabal Barouk area within the Shouf, which they turned into a semi-autonomous canton in the early 1980s, known unofficially as the ‘ Druze Mountain ’ ( Arabic: Jabal al-Duruz ).

" In contrast to the Christian and Bedouin minorities of the Druze Mountains, the Alawite territory was home to sizeable Sunni and Christian groups, most of which occupied the capital, Latakia.