Sayyid Qutb (9 October 1906-29 August 1966) was an Egyptian author and poet who played a key role in the rise of the Islamist movement and the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood during the 1950s and 1960s. In 1966, he was executed by Gamal Abdel Nasser's government for plotting his execution.
Biography[]
Sayyid Qutb was born in Musha, Egypt on 9 October 1906, and he was raised in a mud-walled home. The precocious Qutb memorized the Quran at the age of 10, but he was not very religious; he opposed the traditional learning system of the imams. From 1929 to 1933, he received a British-style education in Cairo, and he became an author and critic. In 1939, he came to work for the Ministry of Education, and he went to study at the University of Northern Colorado in the United States in 1948. Qutb left Alexandria, having earned the ire of King Farouk I of Egypt and the love of the Egyptian people for his criticism of the government. Upon arriving in New York City, he was shocked by the immoral lifestyles of American people, including the large amount of burlesque theaters, pimps, prostitutes, bars, and non-traditional clothes. However, he found life in Greeley, Colorado to be more agreeable, as he enjoyed the concerts played there (he loved some aspects of Western culture such as classical music, Hollywood, and clothes), the temperance movement (there were no saloons or bars there), and the liberal political atmosphere. On one occasion, however, a movie theater refused to allow for African-Americans to enter the theater, and the owner refused to let Qutb and his friends enter, mistaking them for black Americans. The owner let Qutb's friends into the theater after they informed the man that they were Egyptians, but Qutb refused to enter the theater due to its hypocrisy; it would allow black Egyptians into the theater, but not black Americans. He was disgusted by how a female college professor lectured him on how casual sexual intercourse was natural among all animals, and he decided to withdraw from his classes.
Muslim Brotherhood leader[]
Qutb's work written covertly in prison, Milestones
Qutb returned to Egypt on a TWA flight on 20 August 1950, returning to Egypt as a radical rather than as a liberalized man, as his friends had hoped. Qutb became involved with the Muslim Brotherhood of Hassan al-Banna, a man from the same part of Egypt who was born within days of Qutb, and who attended the same school at a different time. Qutb succeeded Banna as the movement's spiritual leader, and he supported Gamal Abdel Nasser's 1952 coup; he supported the coup d'etat against the monarchist and un-Islamic government, and promised to assist the Free Officers Movement plotters if the coup failed. However, the coup succeeded easily, and the Muslim Brothers played little role in its actual execution. Qutb became known as a major opponent of the Nasserist regime, and he refused to serve as Minister of Education, Minister of Arts, or any other cabinet position offered to him by Nasser. He was imprisoned a few times for his opposition to the regime, the first time being after a Brother failed to kill Nasser at a rally; this event made Nasser a popular hero. In prison, he wrote Milestones, a series of works promoting his views. He argued that there was a need for a vanguard that would overthrow the Nasserist government and create an Islamic state, and that the vanguard would move on after his death.
Martyrdom[]
Qutb behind bars
In August 1965, he was arrested for plotting to overthrow the Nasserist government and was sentenced to death after a show trial. Crowds of people rallied in the streets to oppose Qutb's execution, and even Nasser realized the power that Qutb held. Nasser offered to give Qutb a position in his government such as Minister of Education, and he offered to pardon him; however, Qutb resolved to become a martyr for his cause, and he refused to accept clemency. When his sister asked him to lead the Islamic movement, he told her to write his words down, and he had his siblings lead the movement. He was executed by hanging after dawn prayers on 29 August 1966 at the age of 59. Qutb instantly became a martyr, and his views inspired the growth of the Qutbist/Salafist movement in Egypt after the defeat in the 1967 Six-Day War led to the decline of Nasserism. Ayman al-Zawahiri would lead the vanguard that Qutb had envisioned.