New Books (Dorman, Golia, Ferris, Adimi)

Reviews of Jacob S. Dorman’s “The Princess and the Prophet,” Maria Golia’s “Ornette Coleman,” Toby Ferris’s “Short Life in a Strange World,” and Kaouther Adimi’s “Our Riches” (trans. Chris Andrews)

Last summer, Philadelphia proclaimed July 15 a day in honor of Moroccan Americans. The mayor’s office held a flag-raising ceremony at city hall, where a municipal official, flanked by men in red fezzes, praised the contributions of immigrants to civic life. “We are the Moors!” chanted the small crowd, which, according to Morocco World News, did not include a single Moroccan. Rather, the honorees belonged to the Moorish Science Temple of America (MSTA), a religious movement established by the Jazz Age street-corner preacher Noble Drew Ali. Although they could be described as African-American Muslims, Moors self-identify as “Asiatic,” claiming that George Washington destroyed evidence of their Moroccan nationality. Their scripture, the Circle Seven Koran, does not include a single saying of the Prophet Mohammed. Yet, without Moorish Science, there might never have been a Muhammad Ali or Malcolm X.