Families of the Unitarian Druze, their origins and homelands.
The Abu Shaqra family, or rather clan:
The Call of Tawhid, sponsored by the Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, was proclaimed in 1017 AD, and thousands upon thousands of people responded to it, especially since the head of authority in Cairo was its patron. Thus, it spread across the plains and mountains, expanding like any authority-backed religious or factional movement,
and it even spread beyond the borders of the Fatimid state, which at the time dominated North Africa, Yemen, the Hijaz, and the Levant, as evidenced by the fact that the Epistles of Wisdom carried titles addressed to India, Kabul, Constantinople, and elsewhere…
and contrary to what some believe, it was not confined solely to mountainous regions…
According to Yahya Hussein Ammar in *Al-Usul wal-Ansab* (Vol. 1, pp. 13, 14, and 15), the Abu Shaqra family traces its lineage back to the Banu Mahdi ibn Tarif... ibn Saba. They came to Amatour from the direction of the plains of Hauran and Balqa in northern Jordan, where they had embraced the Tawhid faith and were known as princes of the desert. During the Crusades, they were among the Druze of Hauran and the tribesmen who confronted the Crusader assault on Damascus in 1147 and wore it down (see Dr. Kamal Salibi in his book *The Druze in History*, p. 41). However, they faced persecution at the hands of the Seljuk Turks of Mongol origin, who arrived in the Levant in the twelfth century AD.
During their transit through the Golan, a branch of them split off and settled in the town of Jubata al-Khashab; they are the Maryoud family, who follow the Sunni doctrine today. Another faction migrated to Shebaa, and they are the ancestors of the Al-Khatib family. As for the faction to which the Abu Shaqra family belongs, they ultimately settled in the town of Amatour in the Chouf. Several families trace their descent to them, such as Sleika, Jammaz, Abu Tafesh, Hassoun, Barakat, and Mlih.
In Amatour, they played an active role alongside the Abd al-Samad family, as they acquired the lands of the Iqlim al-Tuffah region during the reign of Prince Fakhr al-Din II, cultivating its villages, farming its land, and settling Metawali farmers in it. After the killing of Prince Fakhr al-Din in 1635, the Governor of Sidon, Ahmed Pasha Kucuk—who led the Ottoman army against Prince Fakhr al-Din—seized the land of Iqlim al-Tuffah from the Druze of Amatour…, but Prince Melhem al-Ma'ni later restored the land to them…
Following the Battle of Ain Dara in 1711 and the decline of the Qaysi-Yamani factionalism, the Shaqrawi-Abdalsamadi rivalry emerged in Amatour. When the Yazbaki and Jumblatti factions arose, the Shaqra family aligned with the Jumblatti camp, while the Abd al-Samad family sided with the Yazbakis alongside the Al-Imad family. The rivalry between these two powerful houses persisted, prompting Prince Bashir Shihab II, through his cunning, to incite one against the other in an effort to eliminate both, though Sheikh Hussein Hamadeh of Baakline managed to thwart that intrigue.
Dr. Muhammad Khalil al-Basha states in his book *A'lam al-Duruz* (Vol. 1, p. 30) that "Amatour historically enjoyed privileges unshared by any other town, including the right to grant asylum to anyone seeking refuge within it for a full year, during which the hand of authority could not reach them. Feudal lords and rulers respected this privilege. Furthermore, a captive could not pass through Amatour bound or chained; rather, his restraints had to be untied before entering Amatour, and any stranger passing through it was obliged to dismount from his horse or mount."
Nassif al-Yaziji pointed out the significance of the role of the Abu Shaqra family in the Chouf, as it provided society with statesmen and administrators, as well as three spiritual heads (Sheikh Aql), the last of whom was the late Sheikh Muhammad Abu Shaqra.
Ibrahim Al-Aaqel, Studies in Society and History