In this chapter, the author argues that the invention of the Maghreb was imposed and accepted by local politicians and ideologues despite their fierce opposition to the colonial discourse and its regime of truths. The colonial discourse, he further argues, because it was a discourse of impressive power, could not be opposed without being reproduced. The author considers several major Muslim reformers, authors of a modern historiography that engages the colonial one, to show that despite the reversal of historiographic truths, the Muslim discourse is produced as a colonial discourse, with a logic that confirms the colonial representation. The discourse of nationalism further entrenches this representation. However, the invention of the national discourse is not a replica of the colonial discourse, but a variant that became an official version of the state in the region.

This chapter sketches the Brotherhood’s early intellectual and political history, starting with its ideological precursors in the late 19th century to its founding in 1928 and up until 1966, when Sayyid Qutb was executed. It outlines the general historical context and some of the major concerns having led to the Brotherhood’s foundation before laying out an overview over the group’s central ideological features and key organizational characteristics. The chapter is based on a wide range of Oral History interviews that were conducted with Brotherhood rank-and-file members in 2012 and 2013 in Egypt, as well as a wide reading of the secondary literature about the Muslim reformers.