Return of the Pharaoh is a book by Zainab al Ghazali

Zainab al Ghazali

Zaynab Al-Ghazali was a Egyptian activist. She was the founder of the Muslim Women's Association , and was closely associated with the Muslim Brotherhood.-Early life:...

. It relates how, accused of conspiring to kill Gamal Abdel Nasser

Gamal Abdel Nasser

Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein was the second President of Egypt from 1956 until his death. A colonel in the Egyptian army, Nasser led the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 along with Muhammad Naguib, the first president, which overthrew the monarchy of Egypt and Sudan, and heralded a new period of...

, the president of Egypt, in 1965, the author was arrested and imprisoned. While awaiting trial, she was subjected to torture

Torture

Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...

.

Return of the Pharaoh describes the ordeal which this Muslim activist went through in the notorious Egyptian prison. Instead of dampening her enthusiasm for Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

 and the Islamic movement

Islamism

Islamism also , lit., "Political Islam" is set of ideologies holding that Islam is not only a religion but also a political system. Islamism is a controversial term, and definitions of it sometimes vary...

, her prison experiences increased her commitment and dedication to the cause of Islam. This autobiographical work can be considered a historic document in that its author was an active witness to one of the most volatile periods of Egypt's contemporary history.

Author

Zaynab Al-Ghazali Al-Jubaili was born in Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

 in 1917. At the age of twenty, she formed a major women's charitable organization which rendered service to the poor, orphans and the underprivileged. Although she had acquaintance with Shaikh Hasan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood

Muslim Brotherhood

The Society of the Muslim Brothers is the world's oldest and one of the largest Islamist parties, and is the largest political opposition organization in many Arab states. It was founded in 1928 in Egypt by the Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna and by the late 1940s had an...

 (al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun), since the late 1930s and actively participated in many Islamic programmes, she formally joined the Muslim Brotherhood in 1948. After the assassination of Hassan al-Banna in 1949, she played a major role in the re-organization of the Muslim Brotherhood. She was arrested in 1965 for an alleged conspiracy to kill Gamal Abdel Nasser and overthrow his government. She was released from prison in 1971 during Anwar Sadat

Anwar Sadat

Muhammad Anwar al-Sadat was the third President of Egypt, serving from 15 October 1970 until his assassination by fundamentalist army officers on 6 October 1981...

's presidency. In addition to being very active in Da'wah work, Zainab al Ghazali has been a prolific writer, contributing regularly to major Islamic journals and periodical. Her latest book is a two-volume study on the Tafsir

Tafsir

Tafseer is the Arabic word for exegesis or commentary, usually of the Qur'an. Ta'wīl is a subset of tafsir and refers to esoteric or mystical interpretation. An author of tafsir is a mufassir .- Etymology :...

 of the Qur'an

Qur'an

The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...

.

External links

• http://www.islamicthinkers.com/index/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=273&Itemid=26
• http://www.scribd.com/doc/18540888/Return-of-the-Pharaoh-Memoirs-in-Nasirs-Prison-, Return of the Pharaoh at scribd.com