[PDF] Allah has spoken to us: we must keep silent. In the folds of secrecy

View - Download Allah has spoken to us: we must keep silent. In the folds of secrecy

Previous PDF

Next PDF

secrecy, theHoly

BookoftheDruze

Éléonore

Armaneta,b

a

Aix-Marseille

This articleexplores thecultural dynamicsof bondand separateness created aroundthe Bookof Wisdom( kitâbəl-hikma), theDruze Holy Book. TheText, unrevealableto Druzenon-believers orforeigners, is shrouded ina collectivepact to'keep quiet'. Iassert thatthis alliance aims toprotect Druzeintimacy ratherthan highlighttheir separateness fromothers. Itis rootedin theDruze premisethat meaning isboth corporealand feminine,that itpertains toan ineffable interiority.I therebydistance myselffrom anthropological analyses thatconsider theso-called Druzesecret aroundthe Book as staticcontent solelyrelated tolanguage. KEYWORDS

Secrecy;

sacredtext;body; word;

Druze;Israel

Affiliated withthe mainmonotheistic religions,Judaism, Islam,and Christianity,which are basedon theRevealed Books,the Druzeare commonlyreferred toas 'peoples ofthe Book'(ahl al-kitâb). However,their relationto theHoly Bookis imbuedwith aunique concept ofthe sacredScriptur eand thedivinethatreflects thematricentr icorientation of theirculture. Farfrom Hebrewand Christiantraditions wherethe writtenText isto be readand spoken,the Bookof Wisdom( kitâbəl-hikma) isconsidered inits corporeality, it isto bewrapped andsheltered fromthe outsider.Present inevery Druzehome, the Druze believethat itaddresses 'the understandingof theveiled '(əl-'aqəl l-bâtin): the words itcontains drawfrom thecorporeal basisof language.Underst andingis therefore not basedon intellectual knowledge('iləm) fromwhich itis elusive,but ratheron inter- iority andheart-knowle dge(ma'rifa). In aprevious article(Armanet 2003), Ifocused onthe caretaken inwrapping -and the physical reverentialliturgy displayedaround -the Book;I describedthe Bookas anemi- nently feminine,maternal object.I alsoperceived itsText asa genesicword addressedto one's intimatesenses andwhich shouldbe handledlike anewborn. Thisarticle focuseson the culturaldynamics ofbond andseparateness createdaround theBook inthe Druze community ofIsrael. Itis basedon empirical materialcollected amongthe Druzeof Northern Galilee.Ethnographic fieldwork,conducted inArabic 1 through participant observation, wassponsored bythe Fondsvoor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek(Flanders, Belgium). Theresearch aimedto understandhow sucha centripetalgroup managesto relate toa secularised, individualistic,andconsumeris m-orientedenvironmentwithout CONTACT resorting tohostility. Itshowed thatDruze intimacyis founded onmotherly practicesof wrapping (tasattor), nurturing,veiling, andpreventin gintrusion ,linkingthebody andthe sacred. Thisoutlined anovel hermeneuticalapproach forthe anthropological studyof the region, centringon thecollective livedexperience ofa monotheism disseminated atthe heart ofdaily life,where sacredpraxis isbased oncontiguity andrestraint (sutra) rather thanon sacrifice. In thisarticle, Ido notrelate thecontents ofthe DruzeScriptur esas theyare tobe left unsaid (kitmâns-sirr,ofkatama, lit.to hide,to withhold)to theDruze layperson( jâhil) and foreigner( shar'î). Asidefrom beingunnecessarily intrusive, suchan approachwould in anycase bepointle ssconsidering theintenseoralityof Druzeculture. Instead,and here lies thenovelty ofmy approach,I considerthe Bookof theDruze [throughthe unsaidas regards itshandling, onthe onehand, andthe wordsit arouses,on theother hand].My analysis isrooted inthe meaningfulrelationsh ipsI builtwith theDruzecommunityas I went frombeing considereda foreignguest (dêfé), toa relative,and lateron toan adoptive granddaughter (bint). Iclaim herea responsible epistemology, literallyanepistemology‘in response", loyalto myadoption bythe Druze. I describethe Bookof theDruze asa Text‘swallowed"by thegroup. Givenits statusas a ‘source oflife "(sirr), itinspires analliance tomaintain a‘sense ofsecrecy "(kitmâns-sirr) within thegroup, bothfrom Druzelaypeople (juhhâl) andfrom foreigners.In thisregard, I distancemyself froma number ofanthropol ogicalstudieswrittenon theDruze commu- nity. 2 Most ofthese focuson theso-called Druzesecret, understoodas staticcontent per- taining tothe categoryof language.Held aroundthe Bookof Wisdom,this ‘secret"is, for some, theproduct ofa ‘border culture"(Oppenheimer1977, 232)that definesthe group.It is recommendedasa measuretaken onlyand systematically inthe presenceof thenon- Druze tofurther distancethemselves fromthem (Bouron1930, 161-163; 259-260; Chabry andChabry 1984; Layish1985). Suchpositions areinherited froman Orientalist intellectual tradition,fascinated bythe secretnature ofthe Druzereligion, andmotivat ed by thedesire tomake theScriptures public(Silvestre DeSacy 1838; Guys1863a,1863b; Hitti1928,57-74;Makarem1974; Bryer1975a,1975b,1976). Boththeological andhistori- cal, thistradition attemptsto describethe Bookof Wisdomas acanon, thefirst sixbooks being themost frequentlyused. The111 Epistles( rasâ'il) theycontain werewritten in Egypt inthe 11thcentury withthe establishment ofDruze orthodoxy:these constitute the correspondencebetween themain dignitariesof theDruze movement -described as theProphets withinthe collective-and theirmissionaries (Rivoal2000, 22). I suggestthat themeaning ofthe Druzesense ofsecrecy asdeveloped inscholarship on the Druzeis biasedbecause ofa misunderstandingof theterm sirr,translated as‘secret", whereas theword isdefined inArabic as‘the innermostpart, theorigin, theprinciple ofa thing"(Rivoal2000, 323),the placewhere Allahis seated(Kamada 1983, 8).Since theword ‘secret"etymologicallymeansthatwhichhasbeenseparated (fromthe Latinverb secernere: to separate),the senseof theineffable generatedby theBook istherefore mistakenly 2

Druze religiousdoctrines, jurisdiction, andthepoliticalinclusion ofthe groupin surrounding societieshave beenthe

subject ofmajor comprehensive research.See(1)on theDruze religion,cf. SilvestreDe Sacy( 1838); Bryer( 1975a,

1975b,1976); Makarem( 1974); Azzi( 1992); Obeid( 2006); Hatem( 2006); Firro( 2011); (2)on theDruze andtheir insertion

within NationStates, cf.Chabry andChabry (1984); Hazran( 2014); (3)on theDruze andtheir relationship toIsrael, cf.Ben-

Dor (1973,1979,1982); Firro( 1999); Rivoal( 2000,2001,2002); Nisan( 2010); Weiner-Levy(2009); and(4) onthe Druze

jurisdiction, cf.Layish (1976,1978,1982). the spoken Book be consideredinthislight.In deed, injunction to intra-community interactions.Itis poreal andfeminine,an secrecy corpocentricact (Mahmud 2012;
as 'secret' its We the initiatory, suchastheIslamic dition (Baumann1998),or define meaningasmysticum, highly valuedpresenceand telling' to

1976;Jamin1977;

These public orcustomarysecrecythat edge it than arefinedactrooted power shared knowledgeis gr

1997,125).Asaresult,

and price ofthe'not-known'(LeBreton1997, 120).
To contextualise this articlebyfocusingonDruzemenand women'severydaysensuallanguage,marked by attitudesdeveloped around theBook gious explain leadsto a fearofimpoverishmentand the desireto speech. A briefpresentationoftheDruzecommunity With anofficialcountofonemillionand ahalfmembersworldwide,theDruzecommunity has itis divided betweenSyria(350000),Lebanon(400

000),Jordan(25000),andIsrael(118000).

In Scholarship regardingthe ethnicorigins ofthe Druzecontains innumerable specu- lations (Hitti1928,10-17; Abu-Izzeddin1984,1-14; Betts1988,35-36), themost common theorybeing thatthe Druzedescend fromthe Crusaders.The community, however, claimspure Arabancestry. Historically, theDruze settledinFatimidEgypt in the 11thcentury, inrespons eto religiousPreachinginitiatedin Cairo.Developed atthe end ofCaliph al-H âkim bi-'Amr Allâh reign(996 -1021), theyhail froma sectarian Ismaili movement.Their faithstems fromthe beliefthat al-H

âkim wasthe tenthand

penultimate manifestationofAllah onearth. Theirleader, H amza Ibn'Alî, orchestrated the diffusionof theDruze religionduring al-H

âkim's lifetime.As thePreachin gadvocat ed

universal proselytism,the movement's principlesrapidly spreadthroughout theMuslim world-Syria, Lebanon,Palestine, Turkey,Bahrain, Iraqand Persia,Yemen, andIndia. Al-H âkim disappearedin 1021,plunging thecommunity intothe messianicexpectation of hisreturn. WhenH amza withdrewfrom publiclife thatsame year,he predictedthat the Muslimswould heavilypersecute thenewly formedDruze communityto testits faith. TheDruze, fleeingpersecution inEgypt (1021-1026), foundrefuge inthe Syrian-

Lebanese mountains.

The Druzeconsider theorientalist theorythat theirreligion (dîn) emergedduring the

11th centuryas incorrectand insteadhold thattheir faithis thebasis forthe threemono-

theisms. Ever-present,thisfaith wassuccessively passedon fromthe Unitarianschools of Babylon andancient Egypt,ancient Greekphilosophe rs, 3 and gnosticpre-Christian com- munities. Reincarnationof thesoul isa corebelief thatthe Druzeliterally callthe 're- enwrapment ofthe soul'(taqammoṣl-arwah). 4

This instantaneousprocessoccurs at

the momentofdeath whenAllah breathesthe deceased's soulinto aDruze newborn's body andentrusts itscare toits progenitors. Orientalist literaturefrequent lyaffiliatestheDruze religionwith theMuslim faith, although itseems asdifferent fromIslam asIslam isfrom Christianityor Christianityis from Judaism(Bryer 1975b, 239).The Muslimconsider Druzedoctrine tobe heresy specifically becauseit extolsthe transmigration ofthe soul(taqammoṣl-arwah) and the repealof religion.The issueof womenin particulardistinguishes theDruze collective from theMuslim collective:Druze legislationon personalstatus prohibitspolygamy and remarriage ofdivorced wives,both ofwhich areallowed underIslamic law.Further, whereas Islamexcludes womenfrom handling-and knowledgeof -the Qur'anic Text, the Druzegive womenpriority accessto placesof worship,the Bookof Wisdom,and reli-quotesdbs_dbs29.pdfusesText_35

[PDF] Buried Disc Drusen have hypo-reflective appearance on SD-OCT

[PDF] LA DEGENERESCENCE MACULAIRE LIEE A L 'AGE

[PDF] Drusen du nerf optique

[PDF] Drusen du nerf optique

[PDF] ds 4 caractéristiques techniques et équipements - Citroen

[PDF] 3ème - Arithmétique - Exercices

[PDF] Sujets et corrigés des DS de mathématiques BCPST1A Lycée

[PDF] Exercices de Khôlles de Mathématiques, premier - Normalesuporg

[PDF] Classes Préparatoires aux Grandes Ecoles au Maroc (CPGE) - Jamiati

[PDF] Sujets et corrigés des DS de mathématiques BCPST1A Lycée

[PDF] MPSI1 - Année Complète - PEEP Louis Le Grand

[PDF] Devoir de troisième sur les probabilités

[PDF] DS 7 - Seconde - Physique - Chimie - Free

[PDF] DS 7 suites 13-14 - Lyon

[PDF] DS n°1 de SVT