Amin Tarif

Amin Tarif (1898—October 2, 1993) was the religious leader of the Druze in Israel from 1928 till his death in 1993. Sheikh Amin was born in 1898 in the village of Julis, located in the Upper Western Galilee in Israel. Amin was the youngest son in his religious family, which had four sons and two daughters. Amin graduated after the fourth grade (the highest grade of the elementary school at that time). In 1911, at the age of 31, he went to Khilwat El Biada, the regional center for studies of the Druze religion, near the town of Hasbaya, at the feet of Mount Hermon in Lebanon. There he studied the basics of the religion until the year 1918.

After his return to his village Julis, the Sheikh adapted a life of abstinence from luxuries and lived modestly from growing grains for his own needs. In 1928, after the death of his father, Sheikh Muhammad Tarif, who has been the leader of the Druze community for 40 years, it was decided to appoint Amin as the successor to his father. This was in spite of his initial refusal and the refusal of a minority from the community.

Sheikh Amin died on October 2, 1993. A unique funeral with over 150 thousand participants, Druze and others, took place on October 4. Among others, present in the funeral were the President of the State of Israel, Ezer Weizman, the late Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, the Chairman of the Knesset (the Israeli Parliament) and other Members of the Knesset. Simultaneously, additional ceremonies took place in different places in Syria and Lebanon in the presence of tens of thousands Druze.