Autobiography or Fiction? Ḥasan al-Bannā’s Memoirs Revisited

Abstract

Scholars dealing with the rise of contemporary Islamism and the Muslim Brothers’ early history frequently turn to Ḥasan al-Bannā’s autobiography, Mudhakkirāt al-Daʿwah wa’l-Dāʿiyah (Memoirs of the Call and the Preacher) as one major source of information about the movement’s origin. Despite the centrality of this autobiography and the abundance of references to it in Islamist literature, it remains poorly understood. Drawing upon a range of under-explored primary sources, this article argues that the autobiography was never written as a traditional ex post facto memoir. Only by recognizing its fictionalized nature and by exploring the boundaries between biography and fiction, can al-Bannā’s memoirs can be properly understood.Keywords: Islamism, Egypt, Ḥasan al-Bannā, The Muslim Brothers, Biography, Autobiography

Social and Institutional Origins of Political Islam

“… 15 Note that Lia (2015, 207–8) has suggested that al-Banna’s hostile attitude toward the West was likely a political position that he cultivated later, and so is unlikely to have been a factor at the outset of the Muslim Brotherhood.…”

“… 20 This dynamic is also visible during the movement’s formative early years in Ismailia, where al-Banna drew on the patronage of local elites (Lia 2015, 210-211).…”

Escaping the Nation in the Middle East: A Doomed Project? Fanonian Decolonisation and the Muslim Brotherhood

“…It allowed room for a more substantial form of nationalism to creep into the Brotherhood's ideology after Banna's assassination in 1949. Indeed Banna's opposition to the nationalist Wafd and the monarchy had already been criticised by a faction of his own members before then (Lia, 2015). This provides us with the first indication as to how and why the Brotherhood departed from its early decolonial project.…”

“…The power that nationalist discourse held in Egypt is clear from the amount of space Banna dedicated in his tracts to debating the relationship between nationalism and religion -these were all meant for a public audience. In contrast, Banna gave no appeasement to nationalist sentiment in his memoirs, arguably a greater reflection of his personal ideology, and a sign that he was not personally affected by any dilemma between faith and nation; but also intended as instruction for close followers of the movement (Lia, 2015). argued that the Brotherhood did not necessarily outlaw nationalist sentiment, as long as it was simply used for the purposes of achieving greater unity, first among the Arabs and then amongst Muslims in other parts of the world (1997: 28).…”

Who Supported the Early Muslim Brotherhood?

“…In 1928, Hasan al-Banna, a public school teacher and recent graduate, founded the Muslim Brotherhood in the Suez Canal town of Ismailiyya. Al-Banna's religious message, tireless organizing, and adoption of a modern repertoire of contention, rapidly grew the movement into a national political force (Lia, 2015). Within a decade, hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood branches had been established across the country (Brooke and Ketchley, 2018).…”