Muhammad Abd al-Rahman Salih al-Ashmawi

1911 - 1983

Ideologist of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Muhammad Abd al-Rahman Salih al-Ashmawi is one of the leading ideologists and journalists of the Muslim Brotherhood. He joined the Brotherhood in 1931 and graduated from the Faculty of Commerce, Cairo University, in 1932. He was appointed general secretary of the Brotherhood in 1936. He was the editor-in-chief of the main journals of the Brotherhood, al-Nazir, al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun, and others. Upon the request of Hasan al-Banna in the 1940s, Ashmawi founded and became the editor-in-chief of the Islamist journal al-Daʿwa, which played a central and successful role in Islamic politics and organization. He became the head of the special apparatus in 1941 and was arrested in 1948. After al-Banna's assassination in 1949, Ashmawi led the Brotherhood for two and a half years. When judge Hasan al-Hudaybi became the supreme guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, Ashmawi joined the radical faction that opposed al-Hudaybi. It was Ashmawi who recruited Sayyid Qutb into the Brotherhood after his return from the United States. While President Gamal Abdel Nasser tried to convince Ashmawi to join his government, the supreme leader Hudaybi fired him from the organization. AlDaʿwa continued to be published independently by Ashmawi, who owned its license. When Umar alTilmisani assumed the leadership of the Brotherhood in 1973, Ashmawi joined again, and his journal was again published as its mouthpiece. President Anwar al-Sadat ordered his arrest along with other Muslim Brothers in 1981 in the aftermath of the Camp David Accords.

Bibliography

Moussalli, Ahmad. Historical Dictionary of Islamic FundamentalistMovements in the Arab World, Iran, and Turkey. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1999.

— AHMAD S. MOUSSALLI