Druze faith emerges from al-Hakim's disappearance

1021

After the Fatimid caliph vanished into the Muqattam hills and never returned, a group of his followers declared him divine and in occultation rather than dead. Hamza ibn Ali codified their beliefs into a distinct theology that rejected mainstream Islam's rituals. The Druze community, closed to converts, would endure in the mountains of Lebanon and Syria for a millennium.