'Umar al-Tilmisani, also Omar el-tilmisany (, ; most often transliterated as ''Omar el Telmesany'' or ''Telmesani '') (4 November 1904 – 22 May 1986) was the third General Guide (Murshid al-'Am) of the Egyptian

Muslim Brotherhood The Society of the Muslim Brothers ('' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar, Imam and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna in 1928. Al-Banna's teachings s ...

. He headed the Egyptian Islamist organization from 1972 until 1986. Al-Tilmisani headed the Muslim Brotherhood during a period of cooperation and, some observers suggest, cooptation by the Egyptian state. While the Brothers were not precisely legal during Tilmisani's term, they were tolerated and encouraged by Egypt's former President Sadat as a bulwark against both leftist opponents and more Islamists.

Biography

Al-Tilmisani was born in the Darb al-Ahmar district of Cairo in 1904. A lawyer, al-Tilmisani joined the Brothers in 1933, and was inducted into the organization by its founding General Guide,

Hassan al-Banna Hassan Ahmed Abd al-Rahman Muhammed al-Banna (; 14 October 1906 – 12 February 1949), known as Hassan al-Banna (), was an Egyptian schoolteacher and Imam, best known for founding the Muslim Brotherhood, one of the largest and most influential g ...

. Al-Tilmisani was from a family of prominent landowners, which owned 300

feddan A feddan () is a unit of area used in Egypt, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, and Oman. In Classical Arabic, the word means 'a yoke of oxen', implying the area of ground that could be tilled by oxen in a certain time. In Egypt, the feddan is the only n ...

s (acres) and seven houses. His deputy, and a later successor as General Guide, Mustafa Mashhur, was also from a family of wealthy landowners. Their prominence and social status led historian Robert Springborg to conclude at the end of the 1980s: "It can reasonably be claimed that those currently in control of the Muslim Brothers are of the Islamic

infitah ''Infitah'' ( ', "openness"), or Law 43 of 1974, was Egyptian president Anwar Sadat's policy of "opening the door" to private investment in Egypt in the years after the 1973 October War (Yom Kippur War) with Israel. ''Infitah'' was accompanie ...

bourgeoisie who 'bought' the organization with resources acquired through collaboration with the Sadat regime".

Salih Ashmawi Salih Ashmawi (1910–1983) was an Egyptian political figure and a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. He held several posts in the group and edited some of its publications such as '' Al Dawa'' and '' Al Nadhir''. Early life and education Ashmawi ...

, a senior Brotherhood member until his expulsion in 1953, asked al-Tilmisani to help him in reviving ''

Al Dawa ''Al Dawa'' (Arabic: ''The Call'') was an Arabic language monthly political magazine which was published in Egypt in two periods, 1951–1953 and 1976–1981. The publication was one of the media outlets connected to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egy ...

'' which had been published in the period 1951–1953 as an official organ of the group. Al-Tilmisani also managed the journal until its demise in 1981. In addition, he published many articles in the journal which appeared on the first page. Despite heading the group during this period of cooperation with the state, al-Tilmisani was imprisoned three times, once in 1954, as an activist during the Nasser years, and twice while at the head of the group, during Sadat's mass roundup of opponents in 1981, and again under

Hosni Mubarak Muhammad Hosni El Sayed Mubarak (; 4 May 1928 – 25 February 2020) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the fourth president of Egypt from 1981 to 2011 and the 41st Prime Minister of Egypt, prime minister from 1981 to ...

in 1984.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tilmisani, Umar Al 1904 births 1986 deaths Umar Tilmisani Islamists from Cairo