Najib Mahfuz and the Muslim Brotherhood

Fuad Ajami expressed his surprise at the Muslim Brotherhood kind words for Najib Mahfuz. His comments was part of a segment on BBC America World News dedicated to Mahfuz this evening.

Ajami could not recall the first critic ever to hail the rising star Mahfuz was none other than Syyed Qutub. In the 1940's Qutub wrote several reviews of Mahfuz's novels Kifah Tibah, Khan al-Khalili and al-Qahirah al-Jadidiah. All his reviews were published in al-Risalah in 1944, 1945 and 1946 respectively.