The Moorish Science Temple
Legends and Charisma in the making of productive Prophecy
Continuous Muslim
Presence?
“Noble Drew Ali, as the foundation for Islam
among African Americans in the twentieth century,
may very well be their link to an African Muslim
past, as he was born and reared in an area
contiguous with Melungeon and Ishmaelite
influence at a time when the descendents of
verifiable African Muslims may have yet been
practicing Islam along the Georgia and South
Carolina coasts.” (Gomez, 275)
Importance of the Moorish
Science Temple
“For, in the final analysis, Noble Drew Ali is
necessarily the bridge over which the Muslim
legacies of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
crossed over into the Muslim communities of the
twentieth and twenty-first.” (Gomez, 203)
the coming together of Islam, Islamism,
Garveyism, Freemasonry, New Thought,
Rosicrucianism, anticolonialism, black nationalism


what does authentic mean here? Syncretism?
The life of Noble Drew Ali
(1)

born as Timothy Drew in non-existent
Simpsonbuck county in North Carolina on
January 8, 1886

possible meeting of the Drew family with Jamal
al-Din al-Afghani (d. 1897) in Newark, NJ

Egypt connection: induction into the secrets of
High Magic; appointment by Saudi ruler of
Mecca, fact or allegory?
The life of Noble Drew Ali
(2)

Canaanite Temple founded in 1912-3 in Newark,
NJ; possible membership of 30’000 by 1920

Context of the Great Migration, religious and
political movements; NAACP founded in 1909;
Garvey arrives in 1915

Shift to Chicago in 1925, Moorish Temple of
Science declared in 1926, in 1928 the Moorish
Science Temple of America

Internal Conflict and then his death in 1929
The Noble
Drew Ali
Noble Drew Ali on Race and Islam
“We, as a clean and pure nation descended from the
inhabitants of Africa, do not desire to amalgamate or
marry into the families of the pale skin nations of
Europe. Neither serve the gods of their religion,
because our forefathers are the true and divine
founders of the first religious creed, for the
redemption of mankind on earth. Therefore we are
returning the Church and Christianity back to the
European Nations, as it was prepared by the
forefathers for their earthly salvation. While we, the
Moorish Americans are returning to Islam, which was
founded by our forefathers for our earthly and divine
salvation.” (Quoted in Dannin, Black Pilgrimage 28)
Establishing a proper
genealogy
“The “Negro,” as they were called in this nation, have
no nation to which they might look with pride. Their
history starts with the close of the Civil War or more
properly with his being forced to serve someone else.
Thus he is separated from the illustrious history of his
forefathers who were founders of the first civilization of
the Old World . . . This is why the nationality of the
Moors was taken away from them in 1774 and the
word negro, black and colored, was given to the
Asiatics of America who were of Moorish descent,
because they honored not the principles of their
mother and father, and strayed after the gods of
Europe of whom they knew nothing.” (Quoted in
Constructing the meaning
of race
From the Koran for Moorish Children:
92.
What title does Satan give himself? God.
93.
Will you define the word White? White means
Purity, Purity means God, and God means the
Ruler of the Land.
94.
To who do we refer to at times, as being the
GREAT GOD? ALLAH.
95.
Is the devil made in the Image and Likeness of
ALLAH? No, he is the shadow of our lower-selves
and will pass away. (Gomez, 225)
Identity Card: Muslim and American
“This is your Nationality and Identification Card for
the Moorish Science Temple of America, and
Birthrights for the Moorish Americans, etc. we
honor all the Divine Prophets, Jesus, Mohammad,
Buddha, and Confucius. May the blessings of the
God of our Father Allah, be upon you that carry
this card. I do hereby declare that you are a
Moslem under the Divine Laws of the Holy Koran
of Mecca, Love Truth Peace Freedom and
Justice. “I AM A CITIZEN OF THE U.S.A.””
(Quoted in Dannin, Black Pilgrimage 27)
The importance of economic
independence
Circle Seven Koran (1)

The Holy Koran of the Moorish Holy Temple of Science 7,
Know Yourself and Your Father God-Allah, That You
Learn to Love Instead of Hate. Everyman Need to
Worship Under His Own Vine and Fig Tree. The Uniting
of Asia.

Canaan and Moab the historical homeland, founders
of Africa

Jesus not Jewish so much as Moabite (David’s
marriage to Ruth)

John to Jesus as Garvey to Noble Drew Ali
Circle Seven Koran
(sources)

Chapters 2-19 from The Aquarian Gospel of
Jesus the Christ by Eva S. and Levi Dowling,
published in 1909

Chapters 20-44 from Unto Thee I Grant,
published in San Francisco, 1925

Chapters 1, 45-48 original by Noble Drew
Ali
Circle Seven Koran (2)
“This observation need not diminish claims that the
Circle Seven Koran constitutes divine revelation;
however it does mean that Noble Drew Ali
“encountered” most of the revelation indirectly,
identifying sacred, arcane utterance rather than
receiving it afresh. The real problem with the Circle
Seven Koran, therefore, does not issue from its mostly
derivative nature but from the fact that its sources are
unacknowledged. Noble Drew Ali is therefore
susceptible to the charge of being one of the more
significant plagiarists of the twentieth century.”
(Gomez, 232)
Influences on the MSTA



Rosicrucianism, came to America in the 19th century
Christian Science, founded by Mary Eddy (d. 1910)
in America, the New Thought Movement
Garveyism

Freemasonry, Black lodges in America since the 18th
century

Shriners, Black Shriners founded in 1893, in Newark
from 1901 onwards

Ahmadiyya
Conversion to the MST


All black men and women in the USA descended from Canaan,
specifically from Moab, and Muslims, most recently from Morocco;
part of an Asiatic transnational community
Upon joining the MST, one takes a new surname: Bey or El

Dietary restrictions; monogamy; men must continuously wear fezzs;
three daily prayers facing Mecca; Friday a holy day

The Noble Drew Ali a reincarnation of both Jesus and Muhammad

There was no afterlife to worry about, heaven and hell in this world

Many symbols, figures, songs taken from Christianity: conversion is
facilitated
Marcus Garvey (d. 1940)
“So few of us can understand what it takes to make a
man - the man who will never say die; the man who
will never give up; the man who will never depend
upon others to do for him what he ought to do for
himself . . . If 400,000,000 Negroes can only get to
know themselves, to know that in them is a sovereign
power, is an authority that is absolute, then in the next
twenty-four hours we would have a new race, we
would have a nation, an empire, - resurrected, not
from the will of others to see us rise, - but from our
own determination to rise, irrespective of what the
world thinks.”
http://www.marcusgarvey.com/wmview.php?ArtID=56
Other messiahs: Father Hurley (d.
1943)
“Father Hurley instructed his
followers to refer to themselves as
“Black” or “Ethiopian” as opposed to
the pejorative “Negro,” and to
eschew interracial marriage.
“Contemptuous” of so-called
mulattoes, Hurley proscribed swine
and alcohol (although he permitted
“wine in moderation” for special
religious occasions), and he flew his
own version of the red, black, and
green flag (the colors of the UNIA
flag).” (Gomez, 211)
Critiques of the MSTA

Satti Majid Muhammad, from the Sudan,
arrived in New York in 1904, founds
orthodox Muslim groups, encounters Seven
Circle Koran in 1927; went back to Egypt
and asked for fatwa from al-Azhar against
MSTA

Garvey’s attack on the MSTA

Internal fragmentation in 1929
Crisis in the MSTA
“Noble Drew Ali was facing the crisis of the conflict
in his own message. He consistently required his
followers to observe the law of the land; on the one
hand, his argument for the embrace of Moroccan
identity as a necessary precursor to full acceptance in
North America suggests that he was not interested in
a radical political solution to the intransigence of
racism. On the other hand, he had created a
psychological space, a terrain of the mind, wherein
racial separation was envisioned and anticipated.”
(Gomez, 266)
Succession struggles

in 1929 Claude Greene declared himself to be Grand
Sheik; he was killed on March 15; Drew was arrested,
released on bail, died July 20, 1929

Kirkman Bey, Steven Gibbons and George Johnson Bey
vied for power; latter two claimed Drew’s spirit had
entered them

Steven Gibbons founded new Moorish Temple in
Chicago in 1941

Muhammad Ezaldeen, former member, returns in the late
1930s from Egypt, founds Adenu Allahe Universal Arabic
Association, a Sunni organization
Kirkman Bey (1929-59) Nelson Bey (195962)
Blakely (1963-71)
2002)
R. Love El (1971-
Current leader: R. Jones
Bey
The Significance of the
MST

previous strands of Muslim influence/presence
converge

the emerging importance of African-American
political movements, such as that of Marcus Garvey

The MST continues until today, but it also prefigures
in important ways the Nation of Islam (presence of a
black Prophet in America, stress on economic
independence, intrinsic link of black Americans to
both Islam and Africa (specifically Morocco)