Warren Tartaglia (Walid al-Taha)

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Warren Tartaglia was a brilliant 350-pound Jazz musician who died before his time as a result of a heroin overdose. He was one of the six founders of the Moorish Orthodox Church of America.

Warren, a Pisces, was born March 13, 1944 as Warren Tartaglia in Mt. Vernon, New York. His maternal grandfather, Harry Frank, was the first son of a Rabbi and his maternal grandmother was Ida Frank. Ida and Harry Frank were the parents of Ruth and her sister Ralene Frank and five brothers, who grew up on a farm outside Baltimore.

Ruth married Warren’s father Vincent Tartaglia, and became Ruth Frank Tartaglia. Warren’s mother -- Ruth Frank came from a Jewish family from Eastern Europe with many generations of first sons that were Rabbis. Warren’s maternal side of the family (Franks) also spawned many eccentric geniuses, inventors, musicians, artists, and members of Mensa.

Warren’s mother Ruth almost died from post-partum bleeding at his birth. Ruth was in the hospital for a month, too sick to care for him, while Warren was in an incubator, for almost a month, without his Mother’s care or touch. Whether that first month of his life with separation and isolation may have formed a part of his unique soul can be debated.

Walid would graduate from Mt. Vernon’s A.B. Davis High School where he was friends with Mike Maggid Bey and other future MOC founders. His friend Mike Maggid was the official photographer for the Noble Order of Moorish Sufis and is still a studio phographer today.

When he enrolled at N.Y.U. (Washington Square) he ran a temple there and became the head of Orissa Province (New York State). His friend G.M. Foster (Ghulam El Fatah) would head Temple #14 in Newark, N.J. and be Governor of Behar Province (New Jersey). Walid was also responsible for the chartering of Noble Order Temples 7, 22, and 23. Later, in 1965, some initiates of those temples would start the Moorish Orthodox Church at NYC’s Columbia University.

The Sultan, Rafi Sharif Bey, brought him into the Noble Order of Moorish Sufis in Baltimore in 1959 after being introduced by a mutual friend and Noble Order member — his cousin’s friend Jane Raquel Jacobs (Yacoubi El) who introduced him to the Sultan. Walid was 15 or 16 at this point and had a wandering, questioning mind. From the Sultan he would learn about Hassan Sabah and the Assassin Ismaili Dervish Order. Like the Sultan and the Sultan’s father, Walid was a Jazz musician and shared interests in worker rights. Walid was an alto sax player, a talented poet, and an artist. He had the honor of playing with such noted musicians as Yusuf Lateef, Art Blakey, Jim Green, Freddie Mitchell, and Pony Poindexter. Art Blakey’s son and his Native American daughter-in-law would join the Noble Order Moors.

Warren would often travel from Mt. Vernon, New York to Baltimore to visit his mother’s relatives (his aunt Ralene Frank Wasserman and her daughter, his cousin Randi) and the Sultan. Warren became a Noble Order Moor and rose quickly in the ranks of the Noble Order of Moorish Sufis, was given a Moorish name and title, and the honor of heading the second Noble Order Temple.

Walid brought the NOMS and the MOC to a wide audience as a preacher and a radio talk show host on WBAI. During his time there in 1965 he also read some of his poems on air and five were published postumously in the collection "Destruction of Baltimore." Such notables as Al Fowler, Ed Sanders, Ghulam El Fattah (Gregory Foster), Barbara Holland, and Harry Fainlight read their works over the airwaves on his show. Barbara Holland has lines about Moors in her poems “Of Jazz and Hierophants” and “Moresco” in the collection Return in Sagittarius (NYC: The Eventorium Press, 1965). Likewise we find Ed Sanders writing about Ancient Egypt in his Egyptian Hieroglyphics. Ghulam El Fatah became a full-fledged Noble Order Moor and continued to write poetry with Moorish themes. Harry Fainlight only had one twelve-page booklet of poems published in his life time Sussicran (London: Turret Books, 1965). Harry Fainlight’s poetry tends toward themes of love, isolation, and addiction much like Walid’s. Harry’s sister Ruth Fainlight is also a poet and has written on Moorish/Egyptian themes.

Perhaps the republishing of Warren's The Hundred Seeds of Beirut will prompt the uncovering of tapes of Walid’s show and his other poems, musical performances, essays, short stories, etc. Some recordings are in personal collections in Greece, California, Maryland, New Jersey, and New York. These include a reel-to-reel of Warren reading three of his stories aloud, and a recording of his cousin Randi and Warren made as children when they acted as if they had a radio show.

Walid (Warren) had a shadowy side as well — a love of opium. This hindered his education, his career as a musician, and ultimately led to his martyrdom. In November 1965, he collapsed into a coma in an NYC city park, was handcuffed, and was taken to a hospital where he died ten days later. Today he is memorialized by having NOTMS Temple #2 named Walid al-Taha Memorial Temple. An obituary was published in the New York Times on November 18, 1965.

Warren's poetry reads as if it should be sung. It emotes pain, longing, and a search for meaning. His more widely known poems include "Lonely Battle," "Agents of Chaos" and "Chendoh Waltz." Other poems were read on air at NYC's WBAI Radio. Most of his published poems can be found in the single issue journal "Destruction of Philadelphia."

Warren attempted to blend the search for meaning and self on the path of chemical enlightenment with that of the spiritual Moorish Path. The Moorish Path of the New Current has an Ismaili Order of Dervish Path as one of its lodges. Nevertheless, Moors have traveled on the Bektashi Path, the Salmanic or Ghulat Path, the Uwaisi, the Khidri, the Kabbalist Path, Qalandri Path, Rosicrucian, and other paths Muslim, Jewish, Yezidi, Wicca, and more. However, all Noble Order Moors and Moorish Orthodox Church Moors have always returned to the safe roost and haven of Love, Truth, Peace, Freedom, Justice, and Beauty.

The Silsila of the Moorish Orthodox Church can be traced as Rofelt Pasha, John G. Jones, Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Prophet Most Noble Timothy Drew Ali, Brother Prophet John Givens El, Timothy Dingle El (Noble Drew Ali), Sultan Rafi Sharif Bey Shah, Rachel Yaqoubi El, Walid al-Taha, and Hakim Bey. Rofelt Pasha is the reputed founder of the Ancient Egyptian Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. The AEONMS is an African-American version of the Shriners that grew out of Prince Hall Masonry.

The Moorish Orthodox Church and the Noble Order of Moorish Sufis trace their linage to the Chisti Sufi Order. All the Sufi Paths trace back to the Prophet Muhammad through Hazret Ali his nephew and son-in-law. All other paths trace through the line of Ali being the door to knowledge. The American and European tracings are Masonic and traditional Islam spread through slavery and migration during and after slavery. In Moorish Science we find meaning in all these paths. In Moorish Science the message of Allah and Ali is spread. In the places that this is mentioned it can be read as Drew Ali being the Son of Allah, Drew being a Messenger of Allah, or with a bit of a stretch, as spreading the message of Hazret Ali. The Shriners and the Knight Templers trace their linage to the Bektashi. By default the Moors would also if part of their spiritual path came from the Shriners. The Bektashi Brethren spread the message of the unity of Reality-Muhammad-Ali. This is an Islamic “trinity” and does not necessarily mean that they worship three Gods.

[edit] References

• al-Taha, Walid (Warren Tartaglia) The 100 Seeds of Beirut to Fan Eisen (MOC, NYC 1966)
• “Heroin Shot Kills Youth in Hospital: Mount Vernon Police Say Friend Smuggled in Dose” by Merrill Folsom (Special to the New York Times) New York Times Nov. 18, 1965: pg. 52.
• Bey, Hakim. “Sijil of the Fatimid Order,” (Adept Chamber of the Holy Moorish Orthodox Temple).
• El Fatah, Ghulam “Remembering Walid,” Moorish Science Monitor: Historical Edition (Baltimore: Noble Order of Moorish Sufis, Spring 2000: 53, 55).
• The collected works of Warren Tartaglia[1]
• A Book on the Bektashis [2]
• Three Shooting Alley Narratives (a spoken word CD) [3]
• The Moorish Orthodox Church Diocese of New Jersey [4]