Sabaseviciute, G: Sayyid Qutb

Erscheinungsjahr 2021
ISBN: 978-0-8156-3728-8
Verlag: Syracuse University Press

Buch, Englisch, 288 Seiten, Paperback, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm

Reihe: Modern Intellectual and Political History of the Middle East

No Arab historical figure is more demonized than the Egyptian literati-turned-Islamist Sayyid Qutb. A poet and literary critic in his youth, Qutb is known to have abandoned literature in the 1950s in favor of Islamism, becoming its most prominent ideologist to this day. In a sharp departure from this common narrative, Šabaseviciute offers a fresh perspective on Qutb's life that examines his Islamist commitment as a continuation of his literary project. Contrary to the notion of Islam's incompatibility with literature, the book argues that Islamism provided as Qutb with a novel way to pursue his metaphysical quest at a time when the rising anti-colonial movement brought the Romantic models of literature to their demise. Drawing upon unexplored material on Qutb's life - book reviews, criticism, intellectual collaborations, memoirs, and personal interviews with his former acquaintances - Šabaseviciute traces the development of Qutb's thought in line with his shifting networks of friendship and patronage. In a distinct sociological take on Arab intellectual and literary history, this book unveils the unexplored dimensions of Qutb's involvement in Cairo's burgeoning cultural scene.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturwissenschaft
• Geisteswissenschaften Islam & Islamische Studien Islam & Islamische Studien

Über Autor(innen)

Giedre Šabaseviciute is research fellow at the Oriental Institute in the Czech Academy of Sciences, specializing in Egypt's intellectual past and present.