Sayyid Qutb
1906 – 1966 Egyptian Islamist writer and theorist
Egyptian writer whose radical Islamist theory became a foundational text for later jihadist movements.
- Religion
- Sunni Muslim, Islamist
- Affiliations
- Muslim Brotherhood
Sayyid Qutb was an Egyptian writer and literary critic who turned to a radical political Islam after a period studying in the United States. As a leading thinker of the Muslim Brotherhood he wrote Milestones, arguing that modern Muslim societies had lapsed into a state of ignorance and that an armed vanguard was needed to restore true Islamic rule. He was imprisoned and tortured under Nasser and hanged in 1966. His writings became a foundational influence on later jihadist movements, including the currents that produced al-Qaeda.