Making the Arab World: Nasser, Qutb, and the Clash That Shaped the Middle East

by Fawaz A. Gerges

Overview

How the conflict between political Islamists and secular-leaning nationalists has shaped the modern Middle East

In Making the Arab World, Fawaz Gerges, one of the world's leading authorities on the Middle East, describes how the clash between pan-Arab nationalism and pan-Islamism has shaped the history of the region from the 1920s to the present. He tells this story through an unprecedented dual biography of Egyptian president and Arab nationalist leader Gamal Abdel Nasser (1918–1970) and another of the twentieth-century Arab world's most influential figures—Sayyid Qutb (1906–1966), a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood and the father of many branches of radical political Islam. Based on a decade of research, including in-depth interviews with many leading figures in the story, Making the Arab World is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the roots of the turmoil engulfing the Middle East, from civil wars to Al-Qaeda and ISIS.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691196466
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	08/27/2019
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	504
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.80(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Fawaz A. Gerges is professor of international relations and Emirates Chair in Contemporary Middle East Studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is the author of several acclaimed books, including ISIS: A History (Princeton), The New Middle East, and The Far Enemy. Twitter @FawazGerges

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Introduction 3

1 Egypt's "Liberal Age" 35

2 The Anti-colonial Struggle and the Dawn of Underground Politics 60

3 The Free Officers and the Ikhwan 77

4 The Birth of the Deep State and Modern Radical Islamism 126

5 Young Gamal Abdel Nasser 152

6 Young Sayyid Qutb 175

7 The Lion of the Arabs 187

8 The Accidental Islamist? 214

9 Qutb's al-Tanzim al-Sirri 236

10 The Decline of the Nasserist Project 284

11 Sadat's Coup and the Islamist Revival 314

12 The Mubarak Era: Keeping the Ikhwan in the Freezer 343

Conclusion 390

Notes 407

Index 467

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"A fascinating and deeply researched revisionist history."—Shadi Hamid, Foreign Affairs

"An important work of journalism as well as history."—Richard Spencer, The Times

"[Gerges] writes with brilliant insight."—Steve Donoghue, The National

"Accessible and refreshing."—Gareth Smyth, Arab Weekly

"[A] sweeping and powerful new book.... [A] solid, clearly written work of scholarship by a talented and experienced historian of the Middle East. . . . [A]n important contribution."—John Calvert, Middle East Journal

Editorial Reviews

"Gerges . . . writes with brilliant insight about these two competing forces in the Arab world: pan-nationalism and pan-Islamist movements."—-Steve Donoghue, The National

"This is an important work of journalism as well as history."—-Richard Spencer, The Times

"In Making the Arab World, Fawaz Gerges traces the intertwining biographies and intellectual trajectories of these two titans of Egyptian history. The result is a fascinating and deeply researched revisionist history—one that sheds light on the forces still roiling in Egypt under the surface calm of Sisi’s rule. Today, Nasser and Qutb are remembered as representatives of opposing visions for Egypt. Gerges, however, tells a far more interesting and complicated story about the relationship between the two men and the movements they helped shape. Behind their competing ideologies were flawed individuals with complex and sometimes contradictory motivations. Gerges’ reexamination of a crucial period in Egyptian history usefully illustrates how all ideologies—even the ones that seem most fixed and unyielding—are in fact fluid and contingent on events."—-Shadi Hamid, Foreign Affairs

"At 400-plus pages, the new book from Fawaz Gerges, professor of international relations at the London School of Economics, is a weighty tome drawing on more than 12 years of research but it is also accessible and refreshing."—-Gareth Smyth, Arab Weekly

"Making the Arab World: Nasser, Qutb, and the Clash that Shaped the Middle East is a significant contribution to Middle East studies. It draws together incredible research to tell an important story about two figures who had a great impact on life in their own historical moment and beyond."—-Caleb Elfenbein, American Academy of Religion

"This dual biography of two Egyptians, Gamal Abdel Nasser and Sayyid Qutb, shows clearly that the conflagration in Middle Eastern lands was kindled a long time ago. In the face of a complex civilizational dynamic, Gerges gives the reader the fundamental answer: What we have intervened in is an intra-Islamic war between the secular nationalists and the Islamists; or, in the words of one of Gerges’s Islamist interviewees, a war between ‘Islam versus apostasy.’"—-Lima Simms, Law and Liberty

"Fawaz Gerges gives a novel, nuanced, and extremely interesting view of the relationship between the hero of Arab nationalism, Gamal Nasser, and the main intellectual of the Muslim Brotherhood Sayyid Qutb. I enjoyed reading it both from a pleasure point of view as well as from an informative one. It is highly readable and informative."—-Karim Mezran, Atlantic Council

"To understand the current environment within Egypt and its neighboring countries, Gerges provides both an analytical as well as empirical framework to assist in understanding the difficulties between nationalism and activist Islam."—-Lt. Col. Stephen Harvey, U.S. Army, Retired, Military Review

"What we have is a solid, clearly written work of scholarship by a talented and experienced historian of the Middle East. Over a decade in the writing, it is an important contribution to the growing number of books that aim to explicate Islamism’s dialectical relationship with the Arab state."—-John Calvert, Middle East Journal

"Not since Richard P. Mitchell’s The Society of the Muslim Brothers and Nazih Ayubi’s equally definitive Political Islam has the scholarly community been treated to such a comprehensive and thought-provoking work."—-Ghada Hashem Talhami, Middle East Policy Council

"Interviewing close to a hundred elderly comrades for a new history of the relationship between the Egyptian state and the Islamists, Fawaz Gerges, a longtime professor at the London School of Economics, breathes new life into one of the most formative periods in the history of post-colonial Egypt. It is a good story, worthy not only of a fine historian but providing rich material for a novelist or a playwright who might take interest in digging through the ruins of decolonization and the rubble of dystopia."—-Yoav Di-Capua, Los Angeles Review of Books

"In his sweeping and powerful new book Making the Arab World, Fawaz Gerges traces the genesis of this ill will to the show-down, in Egypt, between the Muslim Brotherhood and the Free Officers in 1952–54."—-John Calvert, Bustan

From the Publisher