The Impact of World War II On Egyptian Society and On Sayyid Qutb, 1939–1945

Introduction

This research focuses on a very crucial period in Sayyid Qutb's intellectual career, 1939 – 1945, that is World War II period.¹ This specific stage in Qutb's life has received the last attention from researchers even though it is of paramount importance when attempting to understand a holistic view of Sayyid Qutb's transformation from a secular oriented literary critic to an ideologue of the Islamic movement and the Muslim Brothers of Egypt in the early 1950's and eventually to a radical Islamist in the late President Abd al-Nasser's prisons, 1954-1964, 1965–1966. Qutb was executed by the regime in August 1966.

Throughout this study the author depended on primary sources, that is the writings of Sayyid Qutb in Cairo's leading periodicals such as al-Muqtataf, al-Risalah and other publications. It (They?) clearly showed the long lasting impact of World War II on Sayyid Qutb's world view and his renewed interest in the Qur'an which eventually, among other things, led him to the Islamic way of life and Islamic social justice in 1948.

World War II 1939-1945, and its Impact

When the Anglo-American Middle East Supply Center made Egypt the central focus of the Allied war effort during the war years in the Middle East and North Africa, relations between Egyptians and the occupying forces deteriorated. Peter Mansfield points out the following:

For the average British soldier, a typical Egyptian was a Cairo prostitute or a Port Saeed (Said) pimp selling Spanish fly and tickets to a blue film. After a few beers he would be ready to belch out the British army version of the Egyptian national anthem:

King Farouk, King FaroukHang your buttocks on a hookOrQueen FaridaQueen Farida of all the wogs

Mansfield points out that "most Egyptians knew enough English to understand and if they did not the sentiment was clear."²

Furthermore, return of the Wafd to power on February 4, 1942, with the aid of Sir Miles Lampson, British high commissioner since 1933, and General R.C.W.H. Stone, commander of British troops and armor in Egypt, caused great anger and frustration among Egyptians. The incident caused a great rift between the humiliated king and the Wafd, as well as dismay among many of the Wafd's followers and young army officers. The late President Abd al-Nasser, then a young army officer, writes in his Falsafat al-Thawrah (Philosophy of the Revolution, Cairo, Dar al-Ma'aref, 15) about the long-lasting impact of the events of February 1942 on young army officers, who deeply felt humiliated by the British action and as a result became determined to sacrifice themselves to restore the nation's dignity.

Mansfield points out that the February 1942 incident was a "seminal event in the history of modern Egypt. Its immediate effect was to upset the twentyyear-old triangular balance of forces in Egyptian political life. Ultimately it destroyed the monarchy, the Wafd, and in helping to provoke the 1952 revolution, the British position in Egypt."³

World War II in Egyptian Arabic Literature as seen in Naguib Mahfouz

The ethos of World War II is highly visible in the writings of Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz (1911-2006), who won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1988. Mahfouz's 1947 novel Zugaq al-Midaqq (Midaq Alley) was received with much acclaim for its realistic portrayal of the impact of the war on the inhabitants of a blind alley in the Hussayni quarter of old Cairo, near al-Azhar. The residents of the Zuqaq are civilians, and the war invades their lives in the form of rising prices, well-paid jobs at Allied bases in Cairo and at the Suez Canal, and drastic changes in their personal lives.

Through the central characters of the novel-Hamidah, the restless beautiful maiden of the alley who is willing, at any cost, to leave the alley and its wretched conditions; Kirsha, the homosexual owner of the alley's coffeehouse; Zita...