Islam has never developped a tradition of monasticism. On the contrary, eremitism is highly recognised as a way to practice mystical training. Any mystical quest is necessarily an individual experience. It requires both the purity of intention (niyya) and the control of desires and instinct (tarwid). While the Druze religious congregation of al-Bayyada in the south of Lebanon can be considered as a kind of monastery, it is a very specific community which must be understood as an expression of eremitism instead. This paper first deals with the description of Druze forms of ascetism. Then it analyses the eremitic centre of Al-Bayyada in relationship to the communal ans the religious structure.
