Egypt

Muhammad ‘Ali

Muhammad ‘Ali (1769-1849) was the Ottoman vicegerent of Egypt following the French occupation of Egypt from 1798-1801 who seized control of Egypt from the weakening Empire and declared himself Egypt’s leader, or khedive. He was a reformist who rapidly modernized Egypt’s military by cultivating a skilled Egyptian elite educated in European academic...

Muhammad ‘Abduh

Muhammad ‘Abduh (d. 1905) was an Islamic reformist, jurist, and eminent scholar whose influence substantially altered the course of contemporary Islamic thought. He graduated from Al-Azhar University, where he encountered and became a student of reformist theologian and activist Jamal al-Din al-Afghani. ‘Abduh was employed as a teacher through the Ministry of Education, and, following Afghani’s political exile from Egypt, was himself sent into early retirement before being hired to edit ...

General ‘Abdel Fattah al-Sisi

‘Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (b. 1954) is an Egyptian general, the Commander in Chief of the Egyptian Armed Forces, the Minister of Defense, and the Deputy Prime Minister. He was appointed as Minister of Defense by post-Arab Spring president Muhammad Morsi, though al-Sisi became the most visible leader in the popular military coup that deposed Morsi in 2013. He is widely popular among most Egyptians for restoring secular...

Egyptian Emergency Laws

Egypt’s Emergency Law was enacted after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat in 1981 and was extended multiple times until its dissolution in May of 2011 in the wake of the Arab Spring. However, Emergency Laws have been used prior to 1981, and more recently, were enacted to grant the government and police forces broad rights to arrest and detain individuals deemed to be “threats” to the government, to limit freedoms of assembly, to place limits on residence or travel, as well as the right to try...

Gamal 'Abdel Nasser

Gamal ‘Abdel Nasser was the second President of Egypt and a military officer who planned the Free Officers’ Revolution in 1952 which unseated the corrupt Wafd Party and ended British colonialism in Egypt. He was an outspoken nationalist, secularist, and socialist who directed educational, land, and economic reforms. He is also responsible for the enlargement and bureaucratization of the state, the institution of a single-party system, and for the empowerment of state security forces to limit speech, assembly, and other constitutional rights granted to Egyptians.

Following an...

Sayyid Qutb

Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966) was an influential Muslim Brotherhood ideologue whose later publications inspired radical Islamists worldwide, particularly those seeking confrontational means to address what they perceived as governing leaders’ immorality and corruption.

Like Hassan al-Banna and other Muslim reformists, Qutb was disturbed by the social ills he witnessed in Egypt, and...

Baha'i Faith in Egypt, The

A Baha’i Faith community has been present in Egypt since the early foundations of the religion. As of 2012, they numbered roughly 2,000.[1] The Baha’i Faith was founded in 19^th century Iran by Mirza Hosayn-Ali Nuri Baha’ullah (d. 1892) and developed from Babism, an Iranian messianic movement, and Shi’a Shaikhism. Baha’is acknowledge numerous prophets, including Muhammad, Jesus, Krishna, Buddha, and Baha’ullah. The Baha’i Faith is monotheistic and universalist, recognizing the truth claims of other religious traditions. Followers believe in...

General 'Abdel Fattah al-Sisi

Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (b. 1954) is an Egyptian general, the Commander in Chief of the Egyptian Armed Forces, the Minister of Defense, and the Deputy Prime Minister. He was appointed as Minister of Defense by post-Arab Spring president Muhammad Morsi, though al-Sisi became the most visible leader in the popular military coup that deposed Morsi in 2013. He is widely popular among most Egyptians for restoring secular rule and representative of the surge of nationalism that has swept Egypt since the coup, and is predicted to win May 2014 presidential elections. Al-Sisi has represented himself as... Read more about General 'Abdel Fattah al-Sisi

Shi'ism in Egypt

Though numbering roughly a million—a small minority of Egypt’s Muslims—Egypt’s Shi’a community has deep roots. Cairo itself was founded under the Egyptian Fatimid Dynasty (969-1171), which was led by Isma’ili Shi’a rulers. Members of the Prophet Muhammad’s family revered by Shi’a Muslims are buried in Cairo and elsewhere, and are visited by Shi’a and Sunni alike.

Like other non-Sunni Muslim communities, the Shi’a face institutional and societal discrimination which has included being barred from practicing religious rituals, quotidian harassment, threats of violence, and acts...

Al-Azhar University

Al-Azhar University is one of the world’s oldest educational institutions, founded in 972 by the Fatimids, and continues to serve as one of the most prominent centers of Sunni religious orthodoxy in the Muslim world. Many members of Egypt’s religious scholarly class, the ‘ulama, are graduates of al-Azhar. Al-Azhar has long played a role in Egyptian and wider Muslim politics, at times lending support and legitimacy to ruling powers and at other times serving to represent popular opinion against ruling powers.

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Muhammad Morsi

Muhammad Morsi (b. 1951) was the sixth president of Egypt, and its first civilian president, representing the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP). He was elected following the Arab Spring, which created unprecedented political opportunities for government opposition parties. Islamist parties performed especially well in elections—and none more so than the FJP—though Morsi...

Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, The

The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in 1928 in Egypt by Hassan al-Banna, a schoolteacher and Islamist intellectual who believed that Islam could, and should, adapt to modern contexts. The Brotherhood has been the most important and strongest political opposition force in Egypt, and the largest Islamic organization in the world. The Egyptian government has maintained restrictions on the Muslim Brotherhood since the mid-century, and, despite a brief period following the 2011 ...

Hassan al-Banna

Hassan al-Banna (1906-1949) was a schoolteacher, intellectual, and the founder of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Brotherhood would become the most influential Islamist organization in the Muslim world, and the largest government opposition force in Egypt. He was deeply inspired by Rashid Rida, a student of Muslim reformist and anti-colonialist Muhammad ‘Abduh, who argued...

Egyptian Islamic Revival, The

From the 1970s through the 1990s, Egypt witnessed an Islamic religious revival, a resurgence in the practice and public expression of Islam among a broad spectrum of religious Egyptians, from Islamists to members of Sufi orders, which corresponded with a global revival taking place in the Muslim world. Social support and charity organizations proliferated, and men and women attended Islamic study circles in higher...

Millet System, The

The Millet System refers to the Ottoman administration of separate religious communities that acknowledged each community’s authority in overseeing its own communal affairs, primarily through independent religious court systems and schools.

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