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The Moorish Orthodox Church of America is a syncretic, non-exclusive, and religious anarchist movement originally founded in New York City in 1965 and part of the burgeoning psychedelic church movement of the mid to late 1960s in the United States.
The Moorish Orthodox Church of America incorporates a vast array of liturgical and devotional traditions ranging from Moorish Science, the Five Percenters, the Episcopi vagantes movement, Nizari Islam, Sufism (particularly from the Sufi Order Ināyati, Shadhili, Alevi-Bektashi and Uwaisi traditions), varying degrees of Theosophical mysticism, Hermeticism, Oriental Orthodoxy, the League for Spiritual Discovery, Western esotericism, Neoplatonism, Tantra, Zoroastrianism, Taoism, and Vedanta. These influences have been brought into the Church by early founding members, and have been added to over the last 40 years. Thus the list of spiritual influences grows as the Church has aged.
The Church has historically exhibited strong anarchist, socialist, and utopian political orientations. These include the works of Charles Fourier, Abdullah Ocalan, Noel Ignatiev, Hakim Bey, Friederich Nietszche, Murray Bookchin, Mikhail Bakhtin, Karl Marx, Pierre-Joseph Prudhon, Max Stirner, Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, the Industrial Workers of the World, and John Henry Mackay. Combined influences also include Brethren of the Free Spirit, English Dissenters, William Blake, and Ivan Ilich.
A lineage group of the Moorish Science Temple of America, the Moorish Orthodox Church was founded in New York City in 1962 primarily by Warren Tartaglia, [1] beatniks, spiritual seekers, anarchists and members of the Noble Order of Moorish Sufis (a group that grew out of the Moorish Science Temple #13 in Baltimore on July 7, 1957). [2] The Moorish Orthodox Church of America published a journal entitled the Moorish Science Monitor from 1965–1967, which has been revived at times over the next few decades. [3] Moorish Orthodoxy was founded to explore the more esoteric dimensions of Noble Drew Ali's Moorish Science teachings, but quickly developed into a movement of spiritual exploration beyond its intended purpose, though it maintains Moorish Science as its core. After a long period of quiescence, the Moorish Orthodox Church of America experienced a small renaissance in the mid-1980s owing to the involvement of former members of the beat/beatnik movement, the counter-cultural hippie community, and the gay liberation movement, along with the continued involvement of Sultan Rafi Sharif Bey (who founded the Moorish League) and the prolific writings of Hakim Bey.
Sufism, also known as Tasawwuf, is a mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic purification, spirituality, ritualism, asceticism, and esotericism. It has been variously defined as "Islamic mysticism", "the mystical expression of Islamic faith", "the inward dimension of Islam", "the phenomenon of mysticism within Islam", the "main manifestation and the most important and central crystallization" of mystical practice in Islam, and "the interiorization and intensification of Islamic faith and practice".
A tariqa is a school or order of Sufism, or specifically a concept for the mystical teaching and spiritual practices of such an order with the aim of seeking haqiqa, which translates as "ultimate truth".
Peter Lamborn Wilson was an American anarchist author and poet, primarily known for his concept of Temporary Autonomous Zones, short-lived spaces which elude formal structures of control. During the 1970s, Wilson lived in the Middle East, where he explored mysticism and translated Persian texts. Starting from the 1980s he wrote numerous political writings, illustrating his theory of "ontological anarchy".
Pirate utopias were defined by anarchist writer Peter Lamborn Wilson, who coined the term in his 1995 book Pirate Utopias: Moorish Corsairs & European Renegadoes as secret islands once used for supply purposes by pirates. Wilson's concept is largely based on speculation, although he admits to adding a bit of fantasy to the idea. In Wilson's view, these pirate enclaves were early forms of autonomous proto-anarchist societies in that they operated beyond the reach of governments and embraced unrestricted freedom.
The Moorish Science Temple of America is an American national and religious organization founded by Noble Drew Ali in the early 20th century. He based it on the premise that African Americans are descendants of the Moabites and thus are "Moorish" by nationality, and Islamic by faith. Ali put together elements of major traditions to develop a message of personal transformation through historical education, racial pride, and spiritual uplift. His doctrine was also intended to provide African Americans with a sense of identity in the world and to promote civic involvement.
Abdāllit: substitutes, but which can also mean "generous" [karīm] and "noble" [sharīf]) is a term used in Islamic metaphysics and Islamic mysticism, both Sunni and Shiite, to refer to a particularly important group of God's saints. In the tradition of Sunni Islam in particular, the concept attained an especially important position in the writings of the Sunni mystics and theologians, whence it appears in the works of Sunni authorities as diverse as Abu Talib al-Makki, Ali Hujwiri, Ibn Asakir, Khwaja Abdullah Ansari, Ibn Arabi, and Ibn Khaldun.
The Malāmatiyya (ملامتية) or Malamatis were a Muslim mystic group active in 9th century Greater Khorasan. The root word of their name is the Arabic word malāmah (ملامة) "blame". The Malamatiyya believed in the value of self-blame, that piety should be a private matter and that being held in good esteem would lead to worldly attachment. They concealed their knowledge and made sure their faults would be known, reminding them of their imperfection. The Malamati is one for whom the doctrine of "spiritual states" is fraught with subtle deceptions of the most despicable kind; he despises personal piety, not because he is focused on the perceptions or reactions of people, but as a consistent involuntary witness of his own "pious hypocrisy".
Qutb, Qutub, Kutb, Kutub or Kotb, means 'axis', 'pivot' or 'pole'. Qutb can refer to celestial movements and be used as an astronomical term or a spiritual symbol. In Sufism, a Qutb is the perfect human being, al-Insān al-Kāmil, who leads the saintly hierarchy. The Qutb is the Sufi spiritual leader that has a divine connection with God and passes knowledge on which makes him central to, or the axis of, Sufism, but he is unknown to the world. There are five Qutbs per era, and they are infallible and trusted spiritual leaders. They are only revealed to a select group of mystics because there is a "human need for direct knowledge of God".
Timothy Drew, also known as Noble Drew Ali, was an American religious leader who, in the early 20th century, founded a series of organizations that he ultimately placed under the umbrella title the Moorish Science Temple of America; including the Canaanite Temple (1913–1916), the Moorish Divine and National Movement (1916–1925), the Moorish Temple of Science (1925–1928), and the Moorish Science Temple of America. Considered a prophet by his followers, he founded the Canaanite Temple in 1913 while living in Newark, New Jersey. From there, he made his way westward and eventually settled in Chicago between 1922-1925. Upon reaching Chicago, his movement would gain a following of thousands of converts under his instruction. Following the murder of a rival Moorish Science Temple leader, Drew Ali was arrested and sent to jail; he died on July 20th, 1929, shortly after being released.
Sufism is the mystical branch of Islam in which Muslims seek divine love and truth through direct personal experience of God. This mystic tradition within Islam developed in several stages of growth, emerging first in the form of early asceticism, based on the teachings of Hasan al-Basri, before entering the second stage of more classical mysticism of divine love, as promoted by al-Ghazali and Attar of Nishapur, and finally emerging in the institutionalized form of today's network of fraternal Sufi orders, based on Sufis such as Rumi and Yunus Emre. At its core, however, Sufism remains an individual mystic experience, and a Sufi can be characterized as one who seeks the annihilation of the ego in God.
Warren Tartaglia was an American jazz musician, poet and one of the six founders of the Moorish Orthodox Church of America. He died at age 21 of a heroin overdose.
A schism is a division between people, usually belonging to an organization, movement, or religious denomination. The word is most frequently applied to a split in what had previously been a single religious body, such as the Great East–West Schism or the Western Schism. It is also used of a split within a non-religious organization or movement or, more broadly, of a separation between two or more people, be it brothers, friends, lovers, etc.
Rafi Yahya Abdullah Sharif-Bey was a pioneer in the development of Islamic culture in the United States. He was a co-founder of the Sufi group The Noble Order of Moorish Sufis, the head Mufti of Moorish Science Temple #13 in Baltimore, and involved in the Ahmadiyyah movement.
Th. (Thom) Metzger is an American writer, musician, and historian. The author of both fiction and non-fiction, he is best known for his exploration of the esoteric and little known history of the Burned Over District of western New York State. As Leander Watts, he has published five YA novels.
Sufism in Bangladesh is more or less similar to that in the whole Indian subcontinent. India, it is claimed, is one of the five great centers of Sufism, the other four being Persia, Baghdad, Syria, and North Africa. Sufi saints flourished in Hindustan (India) preaching the mystic teachings of Sufism that easily reached the common people, especially the spiritual truth seekers in India. Sufism in Bangladesh is also called pirism, after the pirs or teachers in the Sufi tradition.
Edward Mealy El, often known as E. Mealy El, was an American religious leader who was Noble Drew Ali's successor as head of the Moorish Science Temple of America. He was appointed the first Assistant Chairman of the Moorish Science Temple of America by Prophet Noble Drew Ali on June 1 of 1927. On August 1 of the same year he received an appointment to General Chairman from the Prophet Drew Ali. In February 1928, Mealy El was made Grand Sheik and Chairman of the Moorish Science Temple of America by appointment of the Prophet Noble Drew Ali. By the close of the first annual convention of the Moorish Science Temple of America Edward Mealy El was promoted to Supreme Grand Sheik of the organization's highest tribunal and executive cabinet, the Supreme Grand Council. In all his appointments, he was unanimously approved by the "Grand Body", or, executive heads of all subordinate temples within the Moorish Science Temple of America. In February 1929, an annual corporation report filed with the Illinois Secretary of State lists Edward Mealy El as President of the Moorish Science Temple of America Inc.
Islamic neo-traditionalism is a contemporary strand of Sunni Islam that emphasizes adherence to the four principal Sunni schools of law (madhahib), belief in one of the Ash'ari, Maturidi and Athari schools of theology and the practice of tasawuff (Sufism), which its followers consider to be representative of the classical Sunni tradition.
Then, in 1962 one of the Baltimore group's young members, Warren Tartaglia, left the city to attend New York University, where he introduced the organization to Manhattan's white hipsters, including the man who would become one of the US' most influential non-orthodox Muslims: Peter Lamborn Wilson (Hakim Bey). The New York Group, which was named the Moorish Orthodox Church, would soon adapt other elements of Sufism...
Another group that traces its origins to the work of Noble Drew Ali is the Moorish Orthodox Church of America. Despite its claim to Orthodoxy, the group, which was started by a handful of white poets and jazz musicians in the 1950s in Washington, D.C., developed a thoroughly eclectic theology.
The last Moorish Science Monitor, according to Peter Lamborn Wilson, appeared in 1966, but the journal was revived in 1986. It is the publication of the Moorish Orthodox Church of America which was "founded in the late 1950s by Europeans who (according to oral sources) had obtained Moorish Science Temple passports as 'Celts' or 'Persians." (Sacred Drift, 49).
