Die Personennamen in den altsabaischen Inschriften: Ein Beitrag zur altsudarabischen Namengebung.

• Author: Jamme, A.

By Ahmad S. Mousall. Beirut: American University of Beirut Press, 1992. Pp. 262. $20 (paper).

Studies of Islamic movements often focus either on the transitory political conditions which explain their radicalism, or treat them as mechanical manifestations of an islamic essence unfolding in history. The intellectual dimensions of these movements are usually ignored or even denied. Moussalli's Radical Islamic Fundamentalism is a welcome and needed exception to these approaches. In his book, Moussalli provides a systematic exposition of Islamic fundamentalist thought by examining the works of Sayyid Qutb, who was a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt and perhaps the most famous ideologue of modern Islamic movements.

Moussalli's book is divided into three sections. In the first, Moussalli gives a useful, though brief, account of the life and writings of Qutb. He presents an overview of the events that led to the radicalization of the Muslim Brotherhood, and the transformation in the life and thought of Sayyid Qutb. In the second section, Moussaili defines and examines the conceptual foundations of Qutb's thought. He then outlines Qutb's notion of religion as a comprehensive way of life which comprises metaphysical concepts and a system for regulating social life. Moussalli also explores Qutb's normative statements about such subjects as God, history, reason, philosophy, and science. In the last section, Moussalli examines Qutb's political theory, and his notions of political legitimacy, social justice and revolution.

Moussalli provides an interesting comparative analysis of fundamentalist thought (represented, in addition to Qutb, by Banna and Mawdudi) and the thought of Islamic modernists (such as lqbal, Afghani, and (Abduh). Moussalli's distinction between the modernists and the fundamentalists, however, is based on an inadequate dichotomy between reason and tradition. He attributes...