Sayyid Qutb - an Islamic fundamentalist

Seminar paper from the year 2003 in the subject Politics - Political Theory and the History of Ideas Journal, grade: A (1), Lebanese American University (Political Science Department), course: Graduate Seminar: Modern Arab Political Thought, 10 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: This paper deals with one of the most important Islamic thinkers of the 20th century, Sayyid Qutb of Egypt. Taking into consideration his importance and impact on the Islamic world, the amount of research done on him seems to be very modest and is difficult to get hold during these times/ at the moment of writing. In this paper first, the life of Sayyid Qutb is presented and related to the historical events in Egypt and the Middle East in general. After a short summary of some of Qutb’s most important writings, an overview of his political ideas, his views of the world and Islam is given. Afterwards his most important single concept of jahiliyyah and hakimiyyah is presented, followed by a summary of Qutb’s call for activism and his theological discourse. Finally, I tried to assess the importance and the impact of Sayyid Qutb’s live and writings.