Syed qutb biography
Sayyid Qutb
Egyptian political theorist and revolutionary (–)
Sayyid Qutb | |
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Qutb on trial in | |
| Born | Sayyid Ibrahim Husayn Shadhili Qutb ()9 October Mūshā, Asyut Governorate, Khedivate of Egypt |
| Died | 29 August () (aged&#;59) Cairo, United Arab Republic |
| Cause of death | Execution by hanging |
| Nationality | Egyptian |
| Era | Modern era |
| Main interest(s) | Islam, politics, Quranic exegesis (tafsir) |
| Notable idea(s) | Jahiliyyah, Ubudiyya |
| Notable work(s) | Milestones, In the Shade of the Quran |
| Relatives | Muhammad Qutb (brother) |
| Religion | Islam |
| Jurisprudence | Shafi'i |
| Creed | Modern Sunni |
Influenced&#;by
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Sayyid Ibrahim Husayn Shadhili Qutb (9 October &#;&#; 29 August ) was an Egyptian political theorist and revolutionary who was a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Author of 24 books, with around 30 books unpublished for different reasons (mainly destruction by the state), and at least articles, including novels, literary arts critique and works on education, he is best known in the Muslim world for his work on what he believed to be the social and political role of Islam, particularly in his books Social Justice and Ma'alim fi al-Tariq (Milestones). His magnum opus, Fi Zilal al-Qur'an (In the Shade of the Qur'an), is a volume commentary on the Quran.
During most of his life, Qutb's inner circle mainly consisted of influen Winner of the Czech Academy of Sciences Book Award. "An excellent book which sheds new light on an extremely important figure."—Walter Armbrust, author of Martyrs and Tricksters: An Ethnography of the Egyptian Revolution "The author’s knowledge of the literary scene of early to mid 20th century Cairo is second to none, and so is her ability to bring it to life with important analytical implications."—Lucie Ryzova, University of Birmingham "The most complete intellectual biography to date. A massive contribution to Egyptian intellectual history."—Yoav Di-Capua, University of Texas at Austin "Coming from the French tradition of the sociology of knowledge and combining it with critical intellectual history and a careful understanding of the anthropology of Islam, Šabaseviciute goes beyond these deconstructions to explain to us in detail the Egyptian literary world and the visions of its protagonists after and the new shifts within this world after "—Bettina Gräf, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München No Arab historical figure is more demonized than the Egyptian literati-turned-Islamist Sayyid Qutb. A poet and literary critic in his youth, Qutb is known to have abandoned literature in the s in favor of Islamism, becoming its most prominent ideologist to this day. In a sharp departure from this common narrative, Šabaseviciute offers a fresh perspective on Qutb’s life that examines his Islamist commitment as a continuation of his literary project. Contrary to the notion of Islam’s incompatibility with literature, the book argues that Islamism provided as Qutb with a novel way to pursue his metaphysical quest at a time when the rising anti-colonial movement brought the Romantic models of literature to their demise. Drawing upon unexplored material on Qutb’s life—book reviews, criticism, intellectual collaborations, memoirs, and personal interviews with his former acquaintances—Šabaseviciute traces the development of Qutb’s thought in li A new book aims to defend Sayyed Qutb, but the rapid collapse of Egypt&#;s Muslim Brotherhood government is yet another demonstration that his philosophies are no alternative to modernity. Sayyid Qutb was an Egyptian educator, writer and literary critic. He was also a founding theorist of jihadism and one of the few intellectuals that Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood has produced in its year history. Qutb's ideas shaped the uncompromising approach to governance that led to Mohammed Morsi's recent ouster. Born in the Egyptian village of Musha in the southern governorate of Asyut in , Qutb was raised in a religious, politically active home with strong nationalist tendencies. He was educated at Dar al-Ulum in Cairo, the same university that Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna had attended, and he worked as a teacher for the Ministry of Education after graduating in Qutb, who had reportedly memorized the Quran by the age of 10, initially took to the secular culture of Cairo's literary scene. But then he spurned both democracy and secularism, embracing instead a zealous moralism. In , after spending two years in the U.S. on a government scholarship, Qutb returned to Egypt. His antagonism toward the West had hardened. America, and indeed much of the Arab world, embodied what he called jahiliyya, a Quranic term that connotes apostasy, immorality and evil. Thoroughly radicalized, he formally joined the Muslim Brotherhood in A year later he was arrested, along with other Brotherhood members, during Gamal Abdel Nasser's crackdown on the group. For the next 12 years, until his execution in , Qutb slid further toward militancy, formulating his distinctive brand of Islamism, which advocates violently toppling non-Islamic governments and replacing them with puritanical Muslim theocracies. His life and voluminous writings have inspired generations of terrorists, including al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, whose own writings frequently quote The influential Egyptian ideologue Sayyid Qutb () is credited with establishing the theoretical basis for radical Islamism in the post-colonial Sunni Muslim world. Lacking understanding of Qutb’s life and work, the popular media has often conflated his aims with those of bin Laden and Al-Qaeda, portraying him as a terrorist, ‘Islamo-Fascist’ and advocate of murder. John Calvert, an expert on Middle Eastern dissent in general and Egyptian nationalism in particular, rescues Qutb from these misrepresentations. He recounts Qutb’s life, from his small childhood village to his execution by the regime, via the harrowing incarceration that injected religion into his Islamism. Most importantly, Calvert traces the evolution of Qutb’s thought in its context—one of the most eventful periods in Egyptian history. In these years of British tutelage, rising nationalism and Free Officer hegemony, Qutb rubbed shoulders with other great Egyptian thinkers, from Naguib Mahfouz to political giants like Taha Husayn and Nasser himself. This is a sensitive exploration of the cultural, political, social and economic circumstances that shaped Qutb’s thought, leading him to repackage the Islamic heritage as a challenge to authority—including ‘infidel’ authorities that he did not see as truly Muslim. &#;This rich and carefully researched biography sets Qutb for the first time in his Egyptian context, rescuing him from caricature without whitewashing his radicalism. It is no small achievement.&#; — The Economist &#;Hefty and impressively researched … insightful&#; — New York Review of Books &#;In one of the first serious English-language biographices of Qutb, Calvert puts this often misunderstood figure into his historical context, situating Qutb within the turbulent intellectual and political flow of Egyptian and Arab history. He expertly shows the development of Qutb&#;s thinking, from literary critic to Islami
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A Dangerous Mind
Sayyid Qutb and the Origins of Radical Islamism
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