Table of Contents

Introduction

1 FAMILY BACKGROUND, EDUCATION AND EARLY CAREER

Rural Piety

Early Education

Encountering Sufism

At Dar al-‘Ulum

The Impact of the Capital

2 THE SOCIETY OF THE MUSLIM BROTHERS: 1928–38

Planting the Seed in Isma‘iliyya

Contestation and Suspicion

The Move to Cairo

Building a Base

Recruitment and Activities

3 ENTERING THE POLITICAL STAGE: 1938–49

Looking Beyond Egypt

Going Political at Home

Preparing for Jihad: Rovers and Battalions

Patrons without Clients? The Muslim Brothers, the Palace and Party Politics

The Second World War and its Aftermath

Post-War Growth and Expansion

The Special Apparatus

Breakdown: 1948–9

4 HASAN AL-BANNA: THE PIVOT OF HIS UNIVERSE

Between Shaykh and Efendi: a Social Profile

Islam Applied: an Intellectual Profile

What Went Wrong?

The Means of Change

On Unity and Community

Islam as a System

A Moral Order, or Creating New Islamic Man

The Virtuous City

A Moral Economy

A Charismatic Community?

Concluding Remarks

Endnotes

Bibliography

Index

About the Author

Gudrun Krämer is Professor and Chair of Islamic Studies, Free University, Berlin.