claim he was born in Mecca on February 26, 1877, the son of a black Meccan and a white woman from the Caucasus Mountains. Being half-white, the NOI maintain, was necessary to allow Fard Muhammad to move freely in white society.

Outside the Nation, various theories have been proposed as to Fard Muhammad's identity. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) matched Fard Muhammad's fingerprints to those of Wallie D. Ford, who had a record