The initial stage of the Muslim Brotherhood's activity: from political self-isolation to the demand to create an "Islamic party" (1928-1936)

Abstract

The subject of the research in the article is the development of the political doctrine of the Egyptian organization "Muslim Brotherhood" in the period from 1928 to 1936. The author examines in detail the historical context in which the Brotherhood arose and developed at the initial stage of its existence. The political situation that developed in Egypt by the end of the 1920s - early 1930s, as well as the peculiarities of the socio—economic development of the country in the interwar period (1919-1939) are analyzed. The author examines in detail the evolution of the views and rhetoric of the founder of the organization Hassan al-Banna. Special attention is paid in the article to the formation of the structure of society, its apparatus, as well as the political doctrine and the question of the positioning of the "Brotherhood".  The main conclusions of the study are the existence of a visible connection between the nature of al-Banna's statements and the political situation prevailing in Egypt at a particular time, as well as the conscious desire of the founder of the organization to isolate himself from participating in the struggle for power for the sake of further strengthening the Muslim Brotherhood. A special contribution of the author is the deconstruction of the events of 1936, which led to a sharp politicization of the Brotherhood, reflected in the demand to create an "Islamic party". The novelty of the research lies in the involvement of a large array of materials in Arabic, as well as in an attempt to compare the development of nationalist and Islamist movements in Egypt.