Noble Drew Ali

January 8, 1886
July 20, 1929

Religious leader Timothy Drew, more commonly known as the Noble Drew Ali, was born in Simpsonbuck County, North Carolina. It is not clear when Ali migrated north or when he came into contact with Eastern philosophy. Although he received no formal education, Ali developed an appreciation for Asian religions. Deeply moved by their racial inclusivity, particularly that of Islam, he saw an opportunity for African Americans to be influenced by its thinking. In 1913, at the age of twenty-seven, he established the first Moorish Science Temple of America in Newark, New Jersey.

Central to Ali's philosophy was the importance of racial identity. In his opinion, the lot of the blacks in America was the result of their inaccurate knowledge of themselves. Moreover, once blacks gained a proper understanding of who they were, he believed both salvation and victory over their oppressors would be obtainable. He thus urged his followers no longer to recognize the racial designations given them by Europeans and to call themselves Moors, Moorish-Americans, or Asiatics. Ali also published and distributed the Holy Koran of the Moorish Holy Temple of Science, which served as a catechism for temple members.

By the mid-1920s, the movement had spread throughout the United States and temples had been established in Detroit, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York, and Chicago. Headquarters for the temple were eventually relocated to Chicago, which proved to be both Ali's crowning achievement and his dethroning miscalculation. Since the Moorish Science phenomenon had grown beyond one person's control, he decided to appoint several educated black men to leadership positions within the organization. Shortly after the appointments, however, it became clear to Ali that his understudies were situating themselves to seize control of the movement.

After learning that some of the leaders had become rich by exploiting the rank-and-file membership, Ali re them and called for an end to the corruption. Nevertheless, tension within the group continued to rise until one of Ali's opponents was killed. Even though he was not in Chicago at the time of the murder, Ali was arrested for the crime upon his arrival in the city. In 1929, while waiting to be tried, he was mysteriously killed, apparently beaten to death either by members loyal to his opposition or by the police.

See also Islam

Bibliography

Fauset, Arthur Huff. Black Gods of the Metropolis: Negro Religious Cults in the Urban North. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1944.

Payne, Wardell J., ed. Directory of African American Religious Bodies, 2nd ed. Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press, 1995.

Wilson, Peter Lambron. Sacred Drift: Essays on the Margins of Islam. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1993.

quinton h. dixie (1996)