The Moorish Science Temple of America is an American religious organization founded in the early 20th century by Timothy Drew. He based it on the belief that African Americans had descended from the Moors and thus were originally Islamic. Drew put together elements of major traditions to develop a message of personal transformation, racial pride and uplift. It also intended to provide African Americans with a sense of identity in the Western Hemisphere and promote civic involvement. One primary tenet of the Moorish Science Temple is the belief that African-Americans are of Moorish ancestry, specifically from Morocco; in their religious texts, adherents refer to themselves as "Asiatics".[1] An adherent of this movement is known as a Moorish-American Moslem and are called "Moorish Scientists" in some circles.
The Moorish Science Temple of America was incorporated under the Illinois Religious Corporation Act 805 ILCS 110. Timothy Drew, known to members of the Moorish Science Temple of America and the world as Prophet Noble Drew Ali, founded the Moorish Science Temple of America in 1913 in Newark, New Jersey. After some difficulties, Drew Ali moved to Chicago, establishing a center there as well as temples in other major cities, where it expanded rapidly during the late 1920s. The quick expansion of the Moorish Science Temple arose in large part from the search for identity and context among black Americans.[2]
Competing factions developed among the congregations and leaders, especially after the death of the charismatic Noble Drew Ali, and led to at least three separate organizations. The founding of the Nation of Islam by Wallace Fard Muhammad also created competition for members. In the 1930s membership was estimated at 30,000, with one third in Chicago. During the postwar years, the Moorish Science Temple of America continued to increase in membership, albeit at a slower rate.
By the late 20th century, demographic and cultural changes had decreased the attraction of young people to the Moorish Science Temple of America. In the early 2000s, it is estimated that presently there may be 800 adherents in four major cities,[3] although the organization itself states it has 260 temples nationwide.[4]
Early life[edit]
Traditionally, it was believed that Timothy Drew was born on January 8, 1886 in North Carolina, USA.[5] Accounts of Timothy Drew's ancestry variously described his being the son of two formerslaves who was adopted by a tribe of Cherokees[6] or the son of a Moroccan Muslim father and a Cherokee mother.[7] However, a paper published in 2014 by F. Abdat in the Journal of Race Ethnicity and Religion has used census records, a World War I draft card, and street directory records to provide new empirical biographical details that challenges previously accepted beliefs concerning Ali's roots derived from religious literature of the Koran Questions for Moorish Americans.[8] Abdat's article states that Ali's real name was 'Thomas' Drew (born Jan 8, 1886) from Virginia rather than North Carolina as popularly believed. Drew was adopted as a young child by an African-American couple- James W. Drew (born Oct 1860) and Lucy Drew (born May 1863) all of whom lived in 411 Princess Anne Avenue, Norfolk, Virginia.[9]
To support his adoptive parents who worked as a longshoreman and a laundress whose wages struggled to financially maintain their biological children, Aadie Drew (born Jan 1898) and Brinnie Drew (born Sep 1899), the teenage Drew took on a variety of jobs including farmhand, laborer and eventually a longshoreman to supplement his family income through the Southern city's rural and industrial sectors.[10] By 1917, Drew reinvented himself as Eli Drew, a porter who worked in Richmond, Virginia.[11]
Within a year, Drew moved to Newark, NJ where he worked as a laborer for Submarine Boat Corp on Port Newark, contributing to America's war industrial efforts in the construction of cargo ships . On Sep 12, 1918, Ali appeared before the local draft board in Newark New Jersey as part of the Third National Draft Registration and filled up a card that was historiographically critical since it showed Thomas Drew to be the same personality as Noble Drew Ali as the former was listed as being born on Jan 8, 1886 and lived in 181 Warren St, Newark, NJ in 1918 as traditionally accepted during Ali's spiritual phase as "Professor Drew", the Egyptian Adept.[12] The 1920 Federal Census traced Drew Ali living in 181 Warren Street, Newark, NJ as a 'preacher' on the 'public streets' together with Louise Atkins Gaines (born June 1876), a fellow Virginian migrant.[13] During this phase as Professor Drew, he restructured the declining structures of Abdul Hamid Suleiman's Canaanite Temple in Newark and reinvigorated the religious movement into a Moorish Asiatic entity by 1925 in Chicago.[14]
Interestingly, the WWI draft card also revealed that Ali possessed "badly burnt forearms", dovetailing with Moorish Science hadith that the young Ali was thrown into a fiery furnace by his adoptive aunt.
Founding the Moorish Science Temple[edit]
Drew reported that during his travels, he met with a high priest of Egyptian magic. In one version of Drew's biography, the leader saw him as a reincarnation of the founder, while in others, the priest considered Drew a reincarnation of Jesus, the Buddha, Muhammad and other religious prophets. According to the biography, the high priest trained Drew in mysticism and gave him a "lost section" of the Quran.
This text came to be known as the Holy Koran of the Moorish Science Temple of America (which is not to be confused with the Islamic Quran). It is also known as the "Circle Seven Koran" because of its cover, which features a red "7" surrounded by a blue circle. Drew took parts of his book from the Rosicrucian work, Unto Thee I Grant, and most of it from The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ, published in 1908 by esoteric Ohio preacher Levi Dowling. In The Aquarian Gospel, Dowling described Jesus's supposed travels in India, Egypt, and Palestineduring the years of his life which are not accounted for by the New Testament. Drew and his followers used this material to claim, "Jesus and his followers were Asiatic." ("Asiatic" was the term Drew used for all dark or olive-colored people; he labeled all whites as European. He suggested that all Asiatics should be allied.)[15]
Drew crafted Moorish Science from a variety of sources, a "network of alternative spiritualities that focused on the power of the individual to bring about personal transformation through mystical knowledge of the divine within".[15] In the inter-war years in Chicago and other major cities, Drew used these concepts to preach racial pride and uplift. His approach appealed to thousands of African-Americans who had left severely oppressive conditions in the South and faced struggles in new urban environments.[15]
Drew claimed to have been anointed Noble Drew Ali, the Prophet. He launched into his career as head of the Moorish Science Temple of America. Drew taught his followers to "face east when praying, regard Friday as their holy day, and call their god Allah and their leader Prophet. Moorish-Americans are not obligated to follow Islam completely. They pray five times a day, and travel to Mecca only if they choose to do so.[3] Many hymns sung are recognizable as adapted from traditional Christian hymns common in black churches.[3]
Practices and beliefs[edit]
Drew believed that African Americans were all Moors who he claimed descended from the ancient Moabites (describing them as belonging to Northwest Africa as opposed to Moab as the name suggests), that Islam and its teachings are more beneficial to their earthly salvation, and that their true nature had been withheld from them. In the traditions he founded, male members of the Temple wear a fez as head covering; women wear a turban.
They added the suffixes Ali, Bey or El to their surnames, to signify Moorish heritage as well as their taking on the new life as Moorish Americans. It was also a way to claim and proclaim a new identity other than that lost to slavery of their ancestors in the United States. Thus a Moor could accept that his African tribal name may never be known to him/her, and that the European names they were given were not theirs, either.
As Drew began his version of teaching the Moorish-Americans to become better citizens, he made speeches in which he urged them to reject derogatory labels, such as "Black", "colored", and "Negro". He urged Americans of all races to reject hate and embrace love. He believed that Chicago would become a second Mecca.
The ushers of the Temple wore black fezzes. The leader of a particular temple was known as a Grand Sheik, or Governor. Drew Ali was known to have had several wives.[16] According to the Chicago Defender, he took the power to marry and divorce at will.[17]
History[edit]
Early history[edit]
In 1913, Drew Ali formed the Canaanite Temple in Newark, New Jersey.[18] He left the city after agitating people with his views on race.[19] Drew Ali and his followers migrated, while planting congregations in Philadelphia; Washington, D.C., and Detroit. Finally, Drew Ali settled in Chicago in 1925, saying the Midwest was "closer to Islam."[20] The following year he officially registered Temple No. 9.
There he instructed followers not to be confrontational but to build up their people to be respected. He was creating a way for African Americans to make their place in the United States by teaching them their true cultural identity and to be themselves.[21] In the late 1920s, journalists estimated the Moorish Science Temple had 35,000 members in 17 temples in cities across the Midwest and upper South.[22] It was reportedly studied and watched by the Chicago police.
Building Moorish-American businesses was part of their program, and in that was similar to Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities Leagueand the later Nation of Islam.[23] By 1928, members of the Moorish Science Temple of America had obtained some respectability within Chicago and Illinois, as they were featured prominently and favorably in the pages of the Chicago Defender, an African American newspaper, and conspicuously collaborated with African American politician and businessman Daniel Jackson.[24]
Drew attended the 1929 inauguration of the Illinois governor. The Chicago Defender stated that Drew's trip included "interviews with many distinguished citizens from Chicago, who greeted him on every hand."[25] With the growth in its population and membership, Chicago was established as the center of the movement.
