Mas’ada and Majdal Shams

The Druze of these villages are separated from their Syrian brothers and sisters only I by the looming Mt. Hermon. Unlike those on Mt. Carmel, most of these Druze are 1 loyal to Syria. In 1982, they tore up their Israeli citizenship documents in a rebellion I backed by PLO-supplied weapons. The Israeli army quickly quashed the revolt, but j not the Syrian allegiance. Outwardly, however, the villages are tranquil.

Mas’ada and Majdal Shams are far less primed for tourists than their counterparts in Carmel, with the emphasis here more on tradition than on commercialism, J Women walk around swathed in black and men wear the traditional black shirvelas (low-hanging baggy pants), which date from Ottoman times. The Qur’an describes j Muhammad’s reemergence in the world as coming through the “bowels of a man"; devout Turkish Muslims are prepared.