Description
Prophet Noble Drew Ali
Prophet Noble Drew Ali was born Timothy Drew who was believed to have been born on January 8, 1886 in North Carolina, United States. Sources describe Drew as the son of a Moroccan Muslim father of the Moorish Empire and a tribal Cherokee mother. He was the leader and founder of the Moorish Science Temple of America. He established his first temple in Newark, New Jersey in 1913. His Chicago temple was called the Moorish Science Temple of America. Ali taught that blacks are Moabites or Moors.
Prophet Noble Drew Ali believed that African Americans were all Moors, whom he claimed were descended from the ancient Moabites (describing them as belonging to Northwest Africa as opposed to Moab as the name suggests). He claimed 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 (clothing} fez]] or Turban as head covering; women wear a turban. They added the suffixes Bey or El to their surnames, to signify Moorish heritage and reclaiming their lost titles as well as taking on the new life as Moorish Americans. This Movement was destined to progressively activate and change the whole frame of mind, status and political condition for the defeated Moorish Nation in Northwest Africa (Al Moroc / America).
Shortly after his release by the police concerning the murder of , Drew Ali died at age 43 at his home in Chicago on July 20, 1929. Although the exact circumstances of his death are unknown, the Certificate of Death stated that Noble Drew Ali died from “tuberculosis broncho-pneumonia”.
