Encyclopedia of Islam

Banna, Hassan al-

 

(1906–1949)  Egyptian 

founder and intellectual leader of the Society of 

Muslim Brothers

Born in Mahmudiyya, e

gypt

, al-Banna was greatly 

influenced by his father, an 

al

-a

zhar

 graduate who 

served as the village imam and religious instructor. 

Al-Banna exhibited a propensity toward religious 

activism at an early age, joining several organiza-

tions that fought against British colonial influ-

ence and “un-Islamic” trends in Egypt. Following 

primary school, he completed teacher training at 

Damanhur and then Dar al-Ulum in c

airo

, after 

which (in 1927) he accepted a teaching position 

in Ismailiyya, a city in the Suez Canal Zone with a 

heavy British presence. His passionate interest in 

religious and social affairs quickly drew the atten-

tion of a group of disaffected locals who appealed 

to him to become their leader, and the result, in 

1928, was the founding of the Society of Muslim 

Brothers, also known as the m

Uslim

 b

rotherhood

.

In 1932, al-Banna transferred to Cairo, where he 

established a branch of the society and began to 

expand its purpose and structure, positioning it to 

K  88