The Muslim Brothers in Egypt

Abstract

The founder of the Muslim Brothers' Society, Hasan al-Banna, was born in 1906 in Mahmudiyya, a small village near Alexandria.1 Under the influence of his father, who had some reputation as a religious scholar, young Hasan read Rashid Rida's al-Manar2 and frequented the hasafiyya Sufi order. He also participated in associations that promoted Islamic values and counteracted the activities of Christian missionaries. Upon finishing primary school, he was able to persuade his father—who would have wanted him to pursue his studies at the al-Azhar teaching mosque—to let him become a schoolteacher.