Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Afif Bahnassi, Damascus: The Capital 

of the Umayyad Dynasty (Damascus: Dar Tlass, 2002); 

Lynn Theo Simarski, “Visions of Damascus.” Saudi 

Aramco World 42, no. 2 (March/April 1991): 20–29.

Daoud Ahmed

 

(1891–1980)  pioneer American 

Muslim

Sheikh Al-Haj Daoud Ahmed Faisal led one of 

the early successful efforts to spread Islam in 

America. Born in m

orocco

, he moved with his 

family to Bermuda at the age of 10. He subse-

quently migrated to the U

nited

  s

tates

 in 1907. 

He attended the Juilliard School in Manhattan, 

where he mastered the violin and specialized in 

both classical and jazz music. In 1920, he married 

Dakota Station, later known as Sayidah Khadijah.

Through the 1920s, he associated with several 

Muslim groups, including the a

hmadiyya

, but 

in 1928, with his wife’s assistance, he founded 

the Islamic Propagation Center of America in 

Brooklyn. Located at 143 State Street, it came to 

be known informally as the State Street Mosque. 

From Brooklyn, he spread Sunni Muslim teach-

ings, somewhat in competition with the effort of 

Noble Drew Ali, to propagate his form of sectarian 

Islam. In 1934, he purchased the Talbot Estate in 

East Fishkill, Dutchess County, New York, and 

turned it into a Muslim community known as 

Madinah al-Salaam (City of Peace). He was able 

to sustain the community for eight years, but it 

finally folded for financial reasons.

At some point, he made the 

haJJ

 to m

ecca

,

possibly at the end of the 1930s. In 1943, he 

added the title sheikh (Arabic 

shaykh

) to his name 

as a sign of a relationship with King a

bd

 

al

-a

ziz

ibn

  s

aUd

 (d. 1953), who had a decade earlier 

consolidated his control of modern s

aUdi

 a

rabia

.