Born: January 8, 1886 — North Carolina
Organization: Moorish Science Temple of America
Title: Prophet Noble Drew Ali
Nationality: Moorish American
- Founded the Moorish Science Temple of America in Newark, New Jersey in 1913 A.D.
- Erected 15 Temples across 10 cities by mid-1928 with thousands of members
- Attended the Sixth International Conference of American States in 1928, Havana, Cuba
The European nations and historians have spent centuries erasing the true name of your ancestors, replacing it with slave names like “Negro,” “Colored” and “Black.”
Noble Drew Ali is the only being with the authority to restore it. And in less than 16 years, he did.
What follows is a record of what he built — and what he left for us all…
A New Era of Time Now
Noble Drew Ali was born January 8, 1886 in the State of North Carolina.
Although he did not leave many details of his early life, what is known is what he carried out of it — a mission he would spend the remaining 43 years of his life executing with precision.
1913 A.D.: The Birth of a New Nation
According to the Koran Questions for Moorish Americans, Noble Drew Ali founded the Moorish Science Temple of America in Newark, New Jersey in 1913.
He began teaching his people to be themselves. That was the whole of it — and it was everything.
Moors had been marked with the labels “Negro,” “Colored” and “Black” since 1779 — slave names imposed to sever them from their lineage by design.
Noble Drew Ali taught that those labels were not identities.
The people bearing them were originally Moors: descendants of the ancient Moabites, inhabitants of the Northwestern and Southwestern shores of Africa.
By May 1, 1916, Noble Drew Ali had established the Moorish Holy Temple of Science of the World. The M.H.T. of S took root in Newark.
Then Drew Ali expanded northward.
Industrious Acts of The Moors in Chicago, IL
In 1919, Noble Drew Ali expanded to Chicago and incorporated the movement under the name used on its official seal: the Moorish National and Divine Movement. What followed was not organic growth — it was precision.
By October 1925, the movement was reorganized as the Moorish Temple of Science and by November 1926, it was incorporated as a civic organization.
By May 2, 1928, it carried the name it holds today: the Moorish Science Temple of America.
That same year, Drew Ali filed a Religious Affidavit converting the MSTA from a civic to a religious corporation.
Noble Drew Ali did not only build a movement…
He built an enterprise: a publishing company, a manufacturing company, a weekly newspaper — and he owned and published every word of it.
In 1927, the Holy Koran of the Moorish Science Temple of America was published and placed into the hands of the membership soon afterwards.
In total he delivered three authoritative texts and declared them sufficient, including: The Koran Questions for Moorish Americans and The Divine Constitution and By-Laws.
Many Moors have said that Noble Drew Ali held up the Holy Koran of the MSTA, the Divine Constitution and By-Laws, and the Koran Questions for Moorish Americans and stated: “I have brought you everything it takes to save a nation, take it and save yourself.”
At the 1st Annual National Convention in October 1928, Noble Drew Ali appointed Edward Mealy El as the first Supreme Grand Sheik and Chairman of the Moorish Science Temple of America and W. Morris El as Assistant Grand Sheik.
Noble Drew Ali confirmed Mealy El in that role the following month.
The line of succession has continued unbroken — through eight Supreme Grand Sheiks and Chairmen — to Emmanuel Braswell Bey, who serves today as the 8th in Succession…
In the same year, 3,000 Moors at Grand Temple No. 1 and the West Side Temple No. 9 organized and prepared to vote as a unified bloc for Alderman Louis B. Anderson, George W. Blackwell, Oscar DePriest and Robert H. Jackson, in conjunction with Daniel Jackson.
In 1928, 3,000 Moors at Grand Temple No. 1 and the West Side Temple No. 9 organized and prepared to vote as a unified voting bloc for Alderman Louis B. Anderson, George W. Blackwell, Oscar DePriest and Robert H. Jackson, in conjunction with Republican Daniel Jackson.
Noble Drew Ali traveled with Kirkman Bey to Cuba for the Sixth International Conference of American States. He drove from Chicago to Atlanta — personally — to visit Marcus Garvey in federal prison.
The Chicago Defender reported his return.
Marcus Garvey, the Defender noted, was very much pleased with the uplift work being done by the Moorish National Divine Movement.
Noble Drew Ali had written:
“In these modern days there came a forerunner, who was divinely prepared by the great God Allah and his name is Marcus Garvey, who did teach and warn the nation of the earth to prepare to meet the coming Prophet.”
Garvey was the forerunner. Drew Ali was the one he foretold a year prior.
July 20, 1929
On July 20, 1929, Noble Drew Ali passed away.
His death certificate records the cause as Tuberculous Broncho-Pneumonia, with Pulmonary Hemorrhage as the contributory cause.
He had been under a physician’s care since May 1 of that year.
His work was complete.
Indestructible: The Survival of an Everlasting Movement
After Noble Drew Ali passed, outside groups — men who had never been appointed to the highest offices by the Prophet, several of whom were not even Sheiks — pressed claims on the movement’s authority, records and identity. Every attempt failed.
The Moorish Science Temple of America, led by Edward Mealy El as Supreme Grand Sheik and Chairman, held its 2nd Annual Convention in September 1929.
The succession has continued uninterrupted since — Bro. E. Braswell being the eighth Supreme Grand Sheik and Chairman.
Nationality was the one thing that could not be excerpted, repackaged, rebranded or duplicated. And he brought Moors their nationality in 1913. It has remained intact ever since — and it is waiting for you.
As more details about Noble Drew Ali’s early life are uncovered and verified, this biography will be updated to reflect the full record. Get on Amexem’s Notification List a be notified on any updates.