Sami Makarem and the history of the Druzes

Sami Makarem, a professor of Arabic at AUB, died.  I was not a fan of his.  He has a book on the Druze faith but it is not useful.  The story is that a courage Druze, Abdullah Najjar, wrote a book (self-publisehd) in English in the 1960s about the Druzes.  Many in the community considered the book dangerous because it revealed secrets of the doctrine that were not supposed to come out.  A group of unknown men beat the hell of Najjar, and he spent time in the hospital.  Some leaders of the community met and decided to ask Makarem to write a different history of the Druze in which--for political reason--they are situated within the context of Islam.