And any man desiring to take unto himself a wife and receive our Moorish rites, he must go to the City Hall and receive his license to be registered in that city, county, and state. It then must be turned over in the hands of the aforesaid ordained minister and head of a temple after it has been properly signed by city officials. The price thereby for such administering to man and wife will be five dollars. For all those who have their papers and desire our Moorish marriage ceremony, it is three dollars.
We Moors cannot marry no one but we obligate you. according to our divine laws and covenant and the laws of the land. This must be proclaimed and made known to every temple so that there will be no misunderstanding. There will be no misunderstanding about I, the Prophet, and my teachings because Allah alone binds two hearts together as a unit. These are the marriage obligations and instructions for man and wife.
Chapter 22 from our Koran is to be read first to the husband and chapter 21 is to be read secondly to the wife. These are the instructions of marriage from our Holy Koran. Please obey the law as given you by your Prophet through your Governor.
PROPHET NOBLE DREW ALI
17. MOORISH COSTUMES BALL
So enthusiastic was the reception of the costumes worn by the Moorish Americans during their parade that the members of the Moorish Science Temple have decided to have at different times what they will call a Moroccan Costume Ball. This affair will be had shortly after the holidays, about New Years Eve. The Prophet consented that this could be for the entertainment of the members. Other groups of people in the city have been using the dress of our forefathers and imitating them all but the olive hue they cannot get.
During the Moorish convention more than fifteen hundred Moroccan costumes were rented to Europeans who had seen the program and knew the Moors were to have a costume parade. But, nevertheless, we were successful in obtaining through certain Asiatic costume dealers, all the costumes we wanted.
The Moorish Costume Ball will be among the first of such given where an idea is put forth that has to do with the origin of the millions of people in this country, who can trace their ancestors back to the illustrious founders of civilization. It will remind the descendants of these people of the time when their forefathers were the main people to spread the most progressive ideas of civilization. In fact they paved civilization many times.
When more barbaric tribes from the North were ravishing all countries, they were permitted to enter. It was the forefathers of the Moorish Americans and their near kin that saved the historic records that were threatened during the days when the burning of libraries was a fad for despotic soldiers.
This costume ball will be much looked for and appreciated.
BY THE PROPHET.
18. THE INDUSTRIUS ACTS OF THE MOSLEMS
The Industrious Acts of the Moslems of Northwest and Southwest Africa
These are the Moabites, Hamathites, Canaanites who were driven out of the land of Canaan by Joshua, and received permission of the Pharaohs of Egypt to settle in that portion of Egypt. In later years they formed themselves kingdoms. These kingdoms are called this day Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, etc. They originated the beauties of the Alhamhra and to an unpracticed eye the light relives and fanciful arabesques which cover the walls of the Alhambra appear to have been sculptured by the hand. With a minute and patient labor, and inexhaustible variety of detail, yet a general uniformity and harmony of design truly astonishing. And this may especially be said of the vaults, and cupolas which are wrought like honeycombs or frost work, with stalactites, and pendants which confound the beholder with the seeming intricacy of their patterns. The astonishment ceases, however, when it is discovered that this is all stucco work, plates of plaster of paris cast in moulds and skillfully joined so as to form patterns of every size and form. This mode of disappearing walls with arabesques and stuccoing the vaults with grotto work was invented in Damascus but highly improved by the Moors in Morocco to whom Saracenic architecture owes its most graceful and fanciful details. The process by which all this fairy tracery was produced was ingeniously simple. The walls in their naked state were divided off by lines crossing at right angles, such as artists use in copying a picture. Over these were drawn a succession of interesting regiments of circles. By the aid of these the artists could work with celerity and certainty and from the mere intersection of their plain and curved lines arose the interminable variety of patterns, and the general uniformity of their character. Much gilding was used in the stucco work, especially of the cupolas, and the interstices were delicately penciled with brilliant colors, such as vermilion and lapis lazuli laid on with the whites of eggs.
The primitive colors alone were used, says Ford, by the Egyptians, Greeks, and Arabs, in the early period of art, and they prevail in the Alhambra wherever the artist has been Arabic or Moorish. It is remarkable how much of their original brilliancy remains after the lapse of several centuries. The lower part of the walls in the saloons to the height of several feet is encrusted with glazed tiles, joined like the plates of stucco work so as to form various patterns. On some of these are emblazoned the escutcheons of the Moslem Kings traversed with a band and motto. These glazed tiles, Azzulijas in Spanish, Azzulija in Arabic are of Oriental origin.
Their coolness, cleanliness and freedom from vermin render them admirably fitted in sultry climates for paving halls, and fountains. Encrusting bathing rooms and lining the walls of chambers. Ford is inclined to give them great antiquity. From their prevailing colors, sapphire and blue, he deduces that they may have formed the kind of pavements alluded to in the Sacred Scriptures. "There was under his feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone," Exod. xxiv-10 and again. "Behold I will lay thy stones with the fairy colors and lay their foundations with sapphires."-Isa. IV-II. These glazed or porcelain tiles were introduced into Spain at an early date by the Moslems. Some are to be seen among the Moorish ruins have been there upwards of eight centuries. Manufactures of them still exist in the Peninsula and they are much used in the Spanish houses, especially in the southern provinces for paving and lining the summer apartments. The Spaniards introduced them into the Netherlands when they had possession ol that country. The people of Holland adopted them with avidity as wonderfully suited to their passion for household cleanliness. And thus these Oriental inventions, the Azzulijas of the Spaniards, the Azzulija if the Arabs, have come to be commonly known as Dutch tiles.
By PROFESSOR DREW, The Egyptian Adept.
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