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The Princess and the Prophet: The Secret History of Magic, Race, and Moorish Muslims in America
Bottom of the pile
19
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
21/100Critics
17/100Scholars
Author:
Jacob S Dorman
Publisher:
Beacon Press
Date:
March 3, 2020
The story of how two enigmatic circus performers and the cultural ferment of the Gilded Age sparked the Black Muslim movement in America.
What The Reviewers Say
A captivating reinterpretation of Muslim-American heritage. Spanning religion, history, and sociology, this will appeal to readers across these subjects..
Dorman’s contribution to this story is the revelation of Drew Ali’s pre-Moorish identity. By means no less forensic than spotting a birthmark in an archival photo, he identifies Drew Ali as Walter Brister, a former cornetist and child star.
... makes a signal contribution to understanding African-American Islam.
Dorman combines a picaresque account of the enigmatic John Walter Brister with a kaleidoscopic history of the origins of the Nation of Islam in this complicated history.
