The Rise of an Islamic Mass Move­ment 1928–1942
by Bryn­jar Lia
Fore­word by Jamal al-Banna
Ithaca Press, 1998
ISBN 0863722202
272 pages.

This impor­tant book deep­ens our under­stand­ing of the influ­ence of con­tem­po­rary Islamism by pro­vid­ing the first defin­i­tive his­tory of the mete­oric rise of the mother orga­ni­za­tion of all mod­ern Islamist move­ments, the Soci­ety of the Mus­lim Broth­ers.

Founded in 1928 by a young pri­mary school teacher, 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.

Bryn­jar Lia exam­ines the socio-economic and cul­tural fac­tors which facil­i­tated the movement’s expan­sion and analy­ses the keys to its suc­cess– its orga­ni­za­tion, inter­nal struc­ture, modes of action and recruit­ment tech­niques as well as its ide­o­log­i­cal and class appeal.

Draw­ing on a wealth of new sources which include British War Office and For­eign Office files, secu­rity files from the Egypt­ian National Archives and the Society’s news­pa­pers and inter­nal pub­li­ca­tions from the 1930s and early 1940s, this book also makes exten­sive use of the mem­o­ries and per­sonal let­ters of Mus­lim Brother vet­er­ans. The author has spent many years in Egypt inter­view­ing old and younger mem­bers of this influ­en­tial soci­ety.” [Pales­tine Times No.86 August, 1998]

THIS BOOK IS IN PRINT
Avail­able commercially.