Wallace Fard Muhammad

Wallace Fard Muhammad (born 26 February 1893) was the founder of the Nation of Islam, an African-American religion and empowerment organization. He arrived in Detroit in 1929 with an obscure background and several aliases, where he taught a distinctive form of Islam among the city's African-American population. He disappeared in 1934 after several disputes with local authorities. Historians have used public records to identify Fard as Wallace Dodd Ford, a former restaurateur and Moorish Science Temple leader. The Nation of Islam rejects this claim and considers him "Master Fard Muhammad," the manifestation of Allah.