Fatima.Mernessi_The-Forgotten-Queens-of-Islam-EN

174 The Arab Queens
shrouded streets and forests to gaze at the stars, which seemed to
defy death by their fixity. We will never know what fears impelled
the prince to desert the precincts of the palace with its luxury and
comfort. What is certain is that the da'i Hamza was in a position
to propose a remedy for those fears and that the decision of the
prince to declare himself Ilah, God in person, and thus immortal,
made sense for him in some way or other. Not only did al-Hakim
let himself be convinced by Hamza, but he yielded to the latter's
pressure to make a public announcement and compel the Muslims
to worship him. 62
Although the majority of Muslims chose disobedience to a prince
who had gone beyond the limits, to this day a small minority in the
mountains of Lebanon keeps the memory of al-Hakim and Hamza
alive. For the Druzes the disappearance of al-Hakim is only a
ghayba, an absence that is part of the cosmological order of the
imamate and its mysteries, which surpass common understanding. 63
Hamza Ibn 'Ali, the founder of the Druze sect, declared to his
adherents that 'al-Hakim is veiled [ihtajaba] and will return to earth
after his absence [ghayba] to assure the rule of the faith.' 64 Today
the Druzes play a very modest role; few people are acquainted with
their vision of the world and the key figures of their cult. The two
most famous Druzes of the modern world (at least for people of
my generation) were Farid al-Atrash and his sister Asmahane, two
of the greatest modern singers. Of princely descent, handsome and
gifted, Farid al-Atrash and Asmahane led a life stamped with the
fascinating quality of extremist Shi'ism - the mysterious power to
unleash the imagination. And it is the savour of the unreal and
escape into the unusual that is found in the sad songs and hybrid
melodies of Farid and Asmahane, melodies that are not exactly
oriental nor exactly occidental, not intrinsically Arab nor totally
Asian. For me, a North African, they were my first contact with
the Druzes and the opportunity to discover that there existed
another Islam different from Sunnism. 65 But although one group of
adherents always kept alive the memory of al-Hakim with respect
and devotion, the same cannot be said of the Egyptians of that
time.
Upon the declaration in the mosques of the caliph's divinity, with
all the necessary pomp and with strong backing from the qadis and
the 'ulama, the people of Cairo reacted with anger. The Egyptians
made use of two means of expression that would become among
the most powerful in the modern world: individual writings such as
are found in the published press, and handwritten messages