The great expounder and defender of the Druze religion is Hamzé, the
"Universal Intelligence," the only Mediator between God and man, and the
medium of the creation of all things. This Hamzé was a shrewd, able and
unprincipled man. In his writings he not only defends the abominations
of Hakem, but lays down the complete code of Druze doctrine and duty.

It is the belief of many, and said to be the orthodox view among the
Druzes that their system as such is to last exactly 900 lunar years. The
date of the Druze era is 408 Hegira, or 1020 A.D. The present year,
1872, corresponds to the year 1289 Anno Hegira, so that _in nineteen
lunar years_ the system will begin to come to an end according to its
own reckoning, and after 1000 years it will cease to exist. Others have
fixed this present year as the year of the great cataclysm, but the
interpreters are so secret and reserved in their statements, that it is
only by casual remarks that we can arrive at any idea of their real
belief. Lying to infidels is such a meritorious act, that you cannot
depend on one word they say of themselves or their doctrines. Their
secret books, which were found in the civil wars of 1841 and 1845, have
been translated and published by De Sacy, and we have a number of them
in the original Arabic manuscripts in the Mission Library in Beirût.
From a chapter in one of these, entitled "Methak en Nissa," or the
"Engagements of Women," I have translated the following passages, to
show the religious position of women, as bearing upon my object in
describing the condition of Syrian females.

"Believers are both male and female. By instruction women pass from
ignorance to knowledge, and become angels like the Five Ministers who
bear the Throne: _i.e._, the Doctrine of the Unity. All male and female