Research Catalog
Moorish Science Temple of America collection
- Title
- Moorish Science Temple of America collection, 1926-1967.
- Author
- Moorish Science Temple of America.
- Supplementary Content
- Finding aid
Available Online
Details
- Description
- 1.2 lin. ft.
- Summary
- The Moorish Science Temple of America collection consists of letters, certificates, legal documents, illustrations, pamphlets, programs, newspapers, posters, and other printed material. Accompanying the collection is an itemized list, compiled by the donor, of the contents of the collection.
- Subject
- Note
- Photographs transferred to Photographs and Prints Division.
- Access (note)
- Researchers are restricted to the use of photocopies.
- Source (note)
- Al-Hajj Talib Ahmed Dawud
- Biography (note)
- The Moorish Science Temple of America is a religion largely based on Christianity with significant borrowings from the Islamic faith. It was founded by Noble Drew Ali in 1913, with the first temple established in Newark, New Jersey. "The Holy Koran of The Moorish Science Temple," which Ali published in 1927, combined the Koran, the Bible, Marcus Garvey's and his own ideologies.
- Processing Action (note)
- Processed
- Cataloged
- Call Number
- Sc MG 435
- OCLC
- NYPW04-A7
- Author
- Moorish Science Temple of America.
- Title
- Moorish Science Temple of America collection, 1926-1967.
- Access
- Researchers are restricted to the use of photocopies.
- Biography
- The Moorish Science Temple of America is a religion largely based on Christianity with significant borrowings from the Islamic faith. It was founded by Noble Drew Ali in 1913, with the first temple established in Newark, New Jersey. "The Holy Koran of The Moorish Science Temple," which Ali published in 1927, combined the Koran, the Bible, Marcus Garvey's and his own ideologies.Noble Drew Ali, born Timothy Drew in 1886 in North Carolina, was among the first individuals to introduce Islam to African Americans through the Moorish Science Temple. Ali's followers believed he had been ordained a prophet by Allah. Ali's central teaching was that all black people were of Moorish (i.e. African) and thus Muslim origins. He advocated a "return" to Islam as the only means of redemption from racial oppression.The movement expanded rapidly between 1925 and 1929; it is estimated that there were thirty thousand members nationwide at its peak. Temples were established in Harlem, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and several Southern cities. As the sect expanded, a power struggle erupted between Ali and some of his followers. Following his death in 1929, the movement split into factions. One of the members, W.D. Fard, claimed to embody Ali's reincarnated spirit, and formed the beginnings of the Nation of Islam.
- Connect to:
- Research Call Number
- Sc MG 435