Noble Drew Ali
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Noble Drew Ali (January 8, 1886 died 1929) was the founder of the Moorish Science Temple of America. Timothy Drew was born in in North Carolina, USA. The accounts of Timothy Drew's childhood are varied, from him being the son of two former slaves who was adopted by a tribe of Cherokee Native Americans, to him being the son of a Moroccan Muslim father and a Cherokee mother. He is recorded, perhaps apocryphally, as saying, “When I was born, it turned black dark in the daytime. The people put their hoes down and came out of the fields.” Allegedly, at the age of 16, he joined a circus and became a stage magician, befriending a band of Roma, with whom he traveled the world. Supposedly during these travels, he met the high priest of an Egyptian cult of magic. In one version of Drew's biography, the cult leader saw him as a reincarnation of the founder of the cult, while in others he considered him a reincarnation of Jesus Christ.
They trained him in mysticism, and bestowed upon him a lost version of the Life of Jesus. This text came to be known as the Holy Koran of the Moorish Science Temple of America (which, in this case, is never spelled Qur'an), and is referred to as the uniting of the Holy Koran of Mecca. Sometimes the title is shorthanded as the Circle Seven Koran, because of the design on its cover, namely a red numeral seven surrounded by a blue circle broken into four segments. Drew changed his name to Noble Drew Ali, the Prophet and returned to the United States where he founded the organization in 1913 in Newark, New Jersey. In 1929 Drew was arrested and allegedly beaten by police, and released on bond pending an indictment. He died shortly afterwards. It was speculated that his death was due to injuries received at the hands of the police, although the exact circumstances of his death are unknown.
Moorish Science Temple of America
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The Moorish Science Temple of America is an Afro-american religious sect founded in 1913 by Noble Drew Ali, is a religion influenced by Islam, Gnosticism and Taoism. Its main tenet was that African Americans were descended from the Moors and thus were originally Islamic. Drew changed his name to Noble Drew Ali, the Prophet and founded the organization in 1913 in Newark, New Jersey.
The Holy Koran of the Moorish Science Temple of America is held to be a collection of knowledge kept secret by the Moslems of the East, now brought back to light by the Prophet. As such, Noble Drew Ali did not claim to be the author of the work, per se, although the final section of the Koran, Chapters 45-48, are in his proverbial hand. The Koran is in three major sections. Chapters 2-19 contain the lost history of Jesus as a child and young man, His travels and teachings in Palestine, Egypt, Europe, and India. The ministry of John the Baptist also figures heavily in this section. The most probable source for this material is the Aquarian Gospel of Jesus Christ, although the man credited with this work, Levi H. Dowling, as in the case of Noble Drew Ali, did not claim authorship, but rather suggests that it is a revealed, pre-existing text. The second major section of the Koran, Chapters 20-44, seems to be derived from the Ancient Egyptian text used by the Rosicrucians called Unto Thee I Grant, and consists largely of discussions of various aspects of the human condition. The third and final section, apparently penned by Noble Drew Ali, himself, contains a collection of histories of Asiatic peoples and the founding of Christianity, as well as an overview of the mission and intent of the Science Temple. In addition to these three sections, Chapter 1 serves as a sort of Creation story, a discussion of the fundamental nature of humans, how they came into being, and what their relationship to God is. This chapter is a slightly revised section from the introduction to Levi H. Dowling's text rather than from the "Aquarian Gospel." There is also a quick epilogue between Chapters 19 and 20, summing up the events portrayed in the first section as the story of the lives of Jesus and John the Baptist.
Moorish Science Temple
A major theme of the Moorish Science Temple is teaching or returning nationality to members of the Asiatic Nation of North America. The Science Temple was an early proponent of the Black Power movement in America, although Marcus Garvey is celebrated by the Moorish Science Temple as the Forerunner of the Prophet. The temple's doctrine was that of racial tolerance and equality, and the structure of the religion theoretically embraced all races. Drew Ali taught that Moors were "Asiatic", that there are only two races on the planet, Europeans and Asiatics. The peoples of Asia, Africa, and the Pacific, as well as Latin Americans, and indigenous peoples of the Americas are all considered Asiatic, as well as Moslems in Moorish Science Temple teachings. Drew taught that Europeans represent the "Lower Self" (Satan), and were driven out of Mecca by the Asiatic Moslems. Drew said that the empowerment of the Moorish people could only be found through an acceptance of Islam, although the Moorish Science Temple's definition of Islam was very different from the conventional one, and was more of a theosophistic combination of many religions, including Buddhism and indigenous religions. The theology of the church was lenient and inconsistent, if not non-existent, although there were consistent themes of universal love and pride.
Doctrine of the temple was unconventional, including stories about Christ and Apollo battling, and the Greek Gods watching over his tomb before his resurrection, as well as the descendants of Sub-Saharan Africans should be referred to as "Moors" or "Moorish Americans" instead of Negroes, Blacks, or today, African-Americans.
Members of the Temple wear fezes, and a turban (including Drew, who wore a Cherokee feather in his) and add the suffixes Bey or El to their names to signify their Moorish heritage. The ushers of the Temple wore black fezzes, and the leader of a particular temple was known as a Grand Sheik, or Governor. Drew began to teach the Moorish Americans how to become better citizens, and make more impassioned speeches, urging Moors to reject the Derogatory labels such as Black, colored, and Negro—and for Americans of all races to reject hate and embrace love. He believed that Chicago would become a second Mecca, and the temple began selling remedies (such as Moorish Tea) and issuing members of the church membership cards that authorized them as Moslems and declared that they were citizens of the United States.
The Temple suffered scrutiny and possibly harassment by Chicago police. A member of the Temple, Claude Green Bey, splintered off, declaring himself Grand Sheik, taking a number of members of the original temple, but was later stabbed by unknown parties. Drew was arrested and allegedly beaten by police, and released on bond pending an indictment. He died shortly afterwards, in 1929. It was speculated that his death was due to injuries received at the hands of the police, although the exact circumstances of his death are unknown. He was never brought up on charges for any involvement in the stabbing of Claude Green Bey.
The Moorish Science Temple lived on after Drew Ali’s death, but splits among the Temple adherents widened. Edward Mealy El, chosen by Drew Ali to lead his movement, as the Grand Sheik/Supreme Grand Sheik (the 1st Grand Sheik of the Moorish Science Temple of America by the Prophet and the Grand Body) attempted to keep it alive until other factions eventually formed, all led by close associates of the Prophet. Bro C. Kirkman-Bey [1], the Prophet’s translator, became the head of what would eventually be the largest group, and which currently claims the name "Moorish Science Temple of America, Inc". This came about over him splitting away from the Grand Body in 1934, in disagreement with the head E Mealy El over the usage of a self-proclaimed title "Supreme Grand Advisor and Moderator" which did not exist within the group. Currently, this faction of the Moorish Science Temple of America has been particularly successful in the prisons.
Another faction developed into the so-called Reincarnated Temples, led by the Prophet’s former chauffeur, Bro. John Givens El, who thereafter called himself "Noble Drew Ali, Reincarnated". Givens El, and the brothers Richardson Dingle-El and Timothy Dingle El who succeeded him, taught that the Prophethood of Noble Drew Ali remained intact and passed on to them at the death of each before them, similar to the succession of authority from father to son or grandson in Shia Isma’ili Islam. From the work of the Dingle El brothers came the splits of the Temple No. 13, and the creation of a faction headed in Baltimore, MD, called the Noble Order of Moorish Sufis in Baltimore. Founded by the former Grand Mufti Sultan Rafi Sharif Bey on July 7, 1957, this group later lead to the founding of the Moorish Orthodox Church and the Moorish League. The Order of the Resurrection with its Second Heaven Order of four degrees was co-written by Sheik Rafi Sharif Bey and Sheik Timothy Dingle El.
Also claiming Reincarnation, Wallace Fard Muhammad (known in the MST of A as David Ford El) broke away from the Moorish Science Temple of America and formed his group called the Allah Temple of Islam, later becoming the Nation of Islam.
The smallest faction continued their faithfulness to the original teachings of Noble Drew Ali and his successor whom he appointed Bro. E. Mealy El as the Grand Sheik/Supreme Grand Sheik. This faction is still in existence, but with probably the fewest adherents out of the three; this group claims true lineage to the Prophet, and has various followings by a few separate factions formerly held together by Mealy El's step-grandson D. Bailey El (ex Grand Governor, now expelled for embezzlement), succeeded by Sheiks in Chicago that he appointed prior to his official termination as Grand Governor and Sheik; that particular grand body has a few temples throughout the country and are continuing the works of Noble Drew Ali.
During World War II, the Science Temple (specifically the Kirkman-Bey faction) got the attention of the FBI, who falsely suspected the Moors of collaborating with the Japanese. No doubt doctrines and prophecies that the world order would one day invert and put the Asiatics of the world back in charge, as the Temple taught was the original order of things, sounded woefully suspicious to the anti-Japanese mindset of the times. The FBI created a file on the organization which grew to 3,117 pages, but produced no evidence of any connection or even much sympathy between the Empire of Japan and the temple.
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