Gudrun Krämer has presented the first well-founded biography of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hasan al-Banna.
In the late 19th century, the Islamic world was in many places subject to the western colonial powers. This presence was particularly noticeable in Egypt. Britain secured dominion over the country for many decades in 1882. France was involved in the Suez Canal Society and also had a significant cultural influence on Egypt’s educated seculars. Among the religious, the confrontation with European ideas and behavior led to a hardening of conservative Islamic attitudes. However, reform-oriented circles took up modernization impulses and endeavored to reassess their own traditions with the aim of making Egyptian society more “Islamic”.