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Yakub (also spelled Yacub or Yaqub) is a figure in the mythology of the Nation of Islam (NOI) and its offshoots. According to the NOI's doctrine, Yakub was a black Meccan scientist who lived 6,600 years ago and created the white race. According to the story, following his discovery of the law of attraction and repulsion, he gathered followers and began the creation of the white race through a form of selective breeding referred to as "grafting" on the island of Patmos; Yakub died at the age of 150, but his followers continued the process after his death. According to the NOI, the white race was created with an evil nature, and were destined to rule over black people for a period of 6,000 years through the practice of "tricknology," which ended in 1914. Yakub is identified with two biblical figures: the patriarch Jacob and John of Patmos from the Book of Revelation.
The story and idea of Yakub originated in the writings of the NOI's founder Wallace Fard Muhammad. Scholars have variously traced its origins in Fard's thought to the idea of the Yakubites propounded by the Moorish Science Temple or to the historical Battle of Alarcos, or alternatively say it may have been created with little basis in any other tradition. Scholars have argued the tale is an example of a black theodicy, with similarities to Gnosticism with Yakub as the Demiurge, as well as the fall of man. It has also been interpreted as a reversal of the contemporary racist ideas that asserted the inferiority of black people. The NOI's interpretation of the biblical Jacob has been criticized for being antisemitic.