The Almoravids movement of Abd Allah ibn Yasin conquered parts of northwestern Africa and later Spain during the eleventh and twelfth centuries and converted the defeated populations to Malekite (Maliki) Sunni Islam. Little is known of Abd Allah ibn Yasin's life prior to 1035, when as a student he was visited by a Sanhadja Berber chieftain and invited to return home with him to teach his people the true faith of Islam A devout Muslim Abd Allah ibn Yasin was scandalized by the lax and immoral practices of the Sanhadja Berbers He encouraged them to convert to Malekite Sunni Islam imposing a strict interpretation of Qur anic law Eventually he even restructured the Berber s military to conduct jihads holy wars in accordance with the Qur an By 1041 however the Berber chieftains resented the religious scholar s rule and sent him away Abd Allah ibn Yasin and ...
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Abd Allah ibn Yasin
Elizabeth Heath
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Grace, Charles Emmanuel
Richard Newman
better known as Daddy Grace or Sweet Daddy Grace or by his self-proclaimed title, Boyfriend of the World, was one of the more flamboyant religious leaders of the twentieth century. He was born, probably as Marceline Manoel da Graca, in Brava, Cape Verde Islands, of mixed Portuguese and African ancestry, the son of Manuel de Graca and Gertrude Lomba. In the charismatic church that he founded and headed, however, he managed to transcend race by declaring: “I am a colorless man. I am a colorless bishop. Sometimes I am black, sometimes white. I preach to all races.” Like many other Cape Verdeans, Grace immigrated to New Bedford, Massachusetts, around the turn of the century and worked there and on Cape Cod as a short-order cook, a salesman of sewing machines and patent medicines, and a cranberry picker.Also known as Bishop Grace he may have established his first church ...
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Grace, Charles Emmanuel (“Sweet Daddy”)
Eric Bennett
Charles Emmanuel Grace was of mixed African and Portuguese descent, born in the Cape Verde Islands around 1882, probably as Marceline Manoël de Graça. Grace was among the numerous Cape Verdean immigrants who arrived in the United States during the first decade of the twentieth century. In the Cape Verdean communities of New Bedford and Cape Cod, Massachusetts, Grace worked as a short-order cook, a cranberry picker, and a sewing machine and patent medicine salesman.
Grace founded his first church in West Waltham, Massachusetts, around 1919. By the mid-1920s he had moved south, and was holding large, popular revivals and tent-meetings around Charlotte, North Carolina. In 1927 with an estimated 13 000 followers Grace incorporated The United House of Prayer for All People of the Church on the Rock of the Apostolic Faith The church grew rapidly and soon included branches all along the eastern seaboard ...
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Ibn Yasin, ʿAbd Allah
Chouki El Hamel
Islamic teacher and founder of the Almoravid movement in Morocco, was a Berber originally from the Jazula clan of the Sanhaja (or Znaga) tribal group. He grew up in the Sus region in the south of Morocco.
Ibn Yasin’s political career began after a visit around 1035 by Yahya ibn Ibrahim (other sources refer to Yahya ibn Ibrahim as al-Jawhar ibn Sakkum) from the Berber group in the western Sahara, who set off with some Sanhaja leaders to perform the Pilgrimage. On his way back home, Yahya encountered Wajjaj ibn Zalwi al-Lamti, the Maliki religious leader and founder of a religious school known as Dar al-Murabitin Concerned that the Sanhaja people were only nominally Muslims and needed to be taught the Islamic beliefs and practices according to the Maliki doctrine Yahya asked Wajjaj to allow one of his students to return with him to educate his people on the ...
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Spencer, Peter
Lewis V. Baldwin
founder of the Union Church of Africans, was born a slave in Kent County, Maryland. Much of his early life is shrouded in obscurity. There is no record of his parents' names. Freed upon the death of his master, he moved to Wilmington, Delaware, sometime in the 1790s and received a basic education in a free African school supported by Quakers.
In Wilmington, Spencer soon established a reputation as a shrewd businessman with unblemished honesty. The 1814Wilmington Directory listed him as “a labourer” residing at the corner of French and Chestnut streets, and his work as a mechanic resulted in strong business ties with both blacks and whites. The intelligence, sound practical sense, and great dignity of character he displayed in the business arena and as a property owner were matched only by his deep religious faith and personal piety.
Spencer joined the Asbury Methodist Episcopal Church ...
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Spencer, Peter
Frank Towers
Peter Spencer was born a slave in Kent County, Maryland. Spencer's master, on his death in the mid-1790s, willed manumission to the young slave. Like many African Americans emancipated in the early Republic, Spencer moved to the nearest city, which in his case was Wilmington, Delaware.
In Wilmington, Spencer studied at a private school that was probably run by Quakers, a sect sympathetic to the black struggle for freedom. Although influenced by Quakerism, Spencer turned to Methodism, a faith that attracted African Americans because it combined a message of racial egalitarianism—and, for a time, opposition to slavery—with communal worship and a less ritualized, more emotional style than that of other Protestant denominations.
Shortly after arriving in Wilmington, Spencer joined the Asbury Methodist Episcopal Church, Delaware's principal Methodist congregation. The church's namesake, Francis Asbury opposed slavery and encouraged black conversion to Methodism Asbury sometimes preached in Wilmington as did Harry ...
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Spencer, Peter
Lewis V. Baldwin
Spencer, Peter ( February 1782– July 1843), founder of the Union Church of Africans, was born a slave in Kent County, Maryland. Much of his early life is shrouded in obscurity. There is no record of his parents’ names. Freed upon the death of his master, he moved to Wilmington, Delaware, sometime in the 1790s and received a basic education in a free African school supported by Quakers.
In Wilmington, Spencer soon established a reputation as a shrewd businessman with unblemished honesty. The 1814 Wilmington Directory listed him as a labourer residing at the corner of French and Chestnut streets and his work as a mechanic resulted in strong business ties with both blacks and whites The intelligence sound practical sense and great dignity of character he displayed in the business arena and as a property owner were matched only by his deep religious faith and personal ...