Les grandes familles druzes entre local et national

Abstract

Outcome of a long process of community and social development, the internal power structure of the Druze of the Jebel (Southern Syria) was initially created within an exclusive and homogeneous territory from a religious perspective, a place of retreat for the Druze community. This power system favours a number of dominant families and sometimes lasts several generations. The creation of an administratively centralized and integrating modern Nation State was not accomplished without difficulty nor without compromise in spite of the early involvement of a segment of the Druze population in the nationalist cause. Nevertheless, from the time of the Mandate, no regime has successfully challenged the socio-political and territorial organization of the Jebel Druze community. The central government’s presence in the management of the Druze territory perpetuates the inherited social and community structures.