The Society of the Muslim Brothers in Egypt: The Rise of an Islamic Mass Movement 1928-1942 [Paperback]

Brynjar Lia (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2006

Following the remarkable resurgence of Islamic political activism in recent decades, radical Islamic movements now have a presence in almost every Muslim country and form the major opposition forces to the established regimes in the Middle East. This important book deepens our understanding of the influence of contemporary Islam by providing a definitive history of the meteoric rise of the mother organization of all modern Islamic movements—the Society of the Muslim Brothers. Founded in 1928 by a young primary schoolteacher, Hasan al-Banna, the Society rose to become the largest mass movement in modern Egyptian history in less than two decades, clashing with the ruling elite on a wide range of issues. Drawing on a wealth of sources which include material by the Society's veterans and dissidents, the Society's internal publications from the 1930s and early 1940s, a collection of Hasan al-Banna's letters to his father, and security files from the Egyptian National Archives, the author examines the socio-economic and cultural factors which facilitated the movement's expansion and analyzes the keys to its success.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'a very impressive research effort into the early years of the Muslim Brothers, Lia relies on new sources and deep knowledge of his subjects.' Middle East Quarterly "Because the author, more so than previous studies, has researched a great variety of documents on the Muslim Brotherhood...he has achieved an analysis of the period 1928-1936 hitherto not available in this depth...provides new knowledge not only on the rise of Islam, but also on its ability to persist in spite of massive repression.' Edition Wuqf 'a careful and scholarly account which contains much information not available to early writers...the historical rather than the ideological fully emerges for the first time.' World without Frontiers (BBC Radio Arabic Programme) 'a fresh reassessment of the growth of the Muslim Brothers, drawing on a wealth of recently discovered documents.' Jerusalem Post

About the Author

Brynjar Lia is a Research Scientist at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment and teaches at the Institute of East-European and Oriental Studies at the University of Oslo.

Product Details

• Paperback: 340 pages
• Publisher: Ithaca Press; 1 edition (June 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0863723144
• ISBN-13: 978-0863723148
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 6.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #930,830 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Birth of Mass Politics in Egypt, May 25, 2003

By 

Tron Honto - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Society of the Muslim Brothers in Egypt: The Rise of an Islamic Mass Movement 1928-1942 (Hardcover)

This is a solid work of scholarship, and serves a nice supplement to Mitchell's more expanded work. However, given that the new information handled by B. Lia offers merely a refinement of our understanding of the Brotherhood rather than a radical revision, one is recommended to rather begin with Mitchell-whose book is available in paperback, is more established, and is a fraction of the cost. Contrary to D. Pipes' and others' reviews, Mitchell's work does not portray the Muslim Brotherhood as reactionary. This rhetorical device of point, counter-point does considerable injustice to Mitchell's work.

Standing on its own, this work is well written and easy to follow. Lia is able to delve into the mechanics of the organization on a social and political level in order to reveal just how it reached the amount heights of success that it did. The result is a picture that explains well why it was a model so extensively copied and exported throughout the Muslim world. If there is any comparison to be made to Mitchell's work, this would certainly be the proper feature to focus on. Overall, Lia gives a much more lucid, detailed account of the Muslim Brother as a social organization and makes a convincing case for the organization being the first grass-roots political movement in Egypt with its origins and leadership from the poorer classes [unlike the Wafd]. What is lost, however, is comprehensive picture of the whole-and this due partly to the limited time frame of the study-wherein the Brotherhood's other distinguishing features [e.g., its religiosity, transformation during political persecution, etc.] are obfuscated.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Book review in Jerusalem Post, April 28, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Society of the Muslim Brothers in Egypt: The Rise of an Islamic Mass Movement 1928-1942 (Hardcover)

Book review in Jerusalem Post

"Lia's book provides a fresh reassessment of the growth of the Muslim Brothers. He does so by drawing on a wealth of recently discovered documents, including the Society's own internal publications from the 1930s and '40s, British intelligence reports and al-Banna's personal letters.

While touching on issues of ideology and anti imperialism, Lia places great emphasis on the Society's structure and its activities within Egypt to explain its early phenomenal growth. Rather than a reaction to modernity, he argues that the Society itself was a modern organization, open to new technologies and ideas. (..)

The violence and radicalism within the organization prove to be among the thorniest issues in the book. While the Muslim Brothers provided the organizational model for today's radical Islamic groups, to some extent they also provided the template of violence. Lia argues that the Society, while calling for an all-Islamic "struggle" on various occasions, was not inherently violent. The Muslim Brothers did have a military wing, the so-called Special Section, but this, he says, was a way to channel the radical energies of the more energetic younger members. This element of violence can be traced back to a split within the Muslim Brothers in 1939. As a reaction to al-Banna's accommodationist political activity, a group calling itself the Society of Our Master Muhammad's Youth split off from the main organization. Throughout the next decades, this group would continue to splinter, creating the network of violent Islamic groups which plagued Egypt today (..) Lia argues that the growing radicalism resulted from government efforts to shut these Islamic groups out of the Egyptian political system. Lacking a legitimate outlet for their energies, he argues, these groups can easily turn to the option of terrorism.

"The Society of the Muslim Brothers in Egypt 1928-1942" is an important contribution to our understanding. If any complaint can be leveled it is at the circumscription of the book's time frame. Lia limits his study from the beginning of the Society until 1942 (..)Numerous issues of interst arose in the Society's history after this period from the involvement of the Muslim Brothers in the 1948 war against Israel to the 1949 assassination of al-Banna and Nasser's eventual outlawing of the Society. A wider study would further consider the development of violence within the Muslim Brothers and its splinter groups and offshots. One can only hope that Lia has plans for a companion volume"

Book review by Shai Tsur in Jerusalem Post December 1998

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Society of the Muslim Brothers in Egypt: The Rise of an, August 5, 2001

By 

Daniel Pipes, Middle East Forum, Philadelphia (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Society of the Muslim Brothers in Egypt: The Rise of an Islamic Mass Movement 1928-1942 (Hardcover)

The best known study of Egypt's foremost fundamentalist Islamic movement, Richard Mitchell's Society of the Muslim Brothers (1969), portrayed the organization as a reactionary response to Westernization mounted by those left in its wake. And, indeed, this was the general interpretation of fundamentalist Islam by most writers on the subject before 1990 or so. Now, however, a thoroughly different (and much improved) interpretation rules, one that sees the Muslim Brothers and like movements as a facet of modernization. Their personnel are urbanites dealing with the cutting edge of modern problems; their ideas, methods, and goals all incorporate modern ways; and they show far more willingness to learn from the West than was hitherto realized.

In a very impressive research effort into the early years of the Muslim Brothers, Lia (a Norwegian scholar) relies on new sources and deep knowledge of his subject to show convincingly just how well that movement does fit the new interpretation. He establishes that it organized in ways novel for Egypt and mobilized elements of the population hitherto neglected. But its greatest importance lay in developing an answer to the rampant European ideologies of the 1930s: in this, the Muslim Brothers began "a lasting process of renewal . . . in which religion was related to the modern age and all aspects of modern life." With justification, Lia concludes that the Muslim Brothers' "reinterpretation of Islam will remain the most far-reaching Islamic renewal this century."

Middle East Quarterly, June 1999