Whether the Druze faith is a branch of Islam or a separate religion is genuinely contested, and it is contested by Muslim authorities, by scholars and by Druze themselves, sometimes with the same person answering differently in different settings.
The origin is not in dispute. The movement began within Ismaili Shia Islam, in the Fatimid caliphate of the early eleventh century, and its scriptures are in Arabic and use an Islamic vocabulary. Several Arab states classify Druze as Muslims for purposes of personal-status law, and Druze have at times accepted the classification, which under taqiyya is unproblematic and has often been prudent.
The case for treating it as distinct is substantial. The five pillars are not observed in their Islamic form; in their place the tradition sets seven duties: truthfulness of speech, protection of one's fellow believers, renunciation of former creeds, repudiation of evil, acknowledgement of the divine unity in every age, acceptance of God's acts, and submission to God's will. There is no mosque, no hajj, no Ramadan fast as Muslims keep it. The canon of revelation closed in 1043, after the Quran and independently of it. And transmigration of souls is rejected by mainstream Sunni and Shia teaching alike. Medieval jurists, including Ibn Taymiyya, ruled the Druze outside Islam, a ruling that has had lethal consequences for the community at intervals ever since.
The name is itself a small monument to outside misunderstanding. Druze prefer al-Muwahhidun, those who profess the unity of God, or simply Banu Maruf. Druze derives from Muhammad al-Darazi, an early preacher whom the movement condemned as a heretic and repudiated. The community is therefore known to the world by the name of a man it regards as a false teacher.
Its most honoured prophet is Jethro, Nabi Shu'ayb, the father-in-law of Moses. His shrine near the Horns of Hattin in Galilee is the site of the community's principal annual pilgrimage, held in late April.