Skip to main content

Publications

The Fourth Ordeal: A History of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, 1968 - 2018

The Fourth Ordeal tells the history of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt from the late 1960s until 2018. The book is based on five years of fieldwork conducted between 2011 and and 2016, where the author collected 140 first-hand Oral History interviews with leaders, rank-and-file members and dissidents, in addition to a wide range of original written sources. The story traces the Brotherhood's re-emergence and rise following the collapse of Nasser's Arab nationalism, all the way to its short-lived experiment in power in 2012-2013, and the subsequent period of imprisonment, persecution and exile. Unique in terms of its source base, this book provides unprecedented ethnographic insight into the Brotherhood's internal politics during 50 years of its history.

Buy on Amazon
Buy on CUP
Organizational Chart
This chart is the result of eight years of ethnographic fieldwork, completed between 2011 and 2018. It illustrates the Muslim Brotherhood's full internal architecture - from central leadership down to the local "families". At the top sits the General Guide, supported by a council and executive offices. Below that, 12 sections manage various functional domains that feed into a parallel structure stretching geographically across various organizational levels: sectors, governorates, regions, branches, and the rank and file. At the grassroots level, members are grouped into small units led by "captains", meeting regularly to study doctrine, report activity, and coordinate action. What emerges is a system that is both disciplined and decentralized - designed for endurance, not just control. This is an example of how bottom-up fieldwork can yield geopolitically significant insights: it is not only about who leads, but how power flows, how loyalty is built, and how movements survive repression and exile.

Other Selected Publications

  • "Phoenix Rising from the Ashes? The Internal State of Affairs of the Muslim Brotherhood at the Start of 2016", Jaidaliyya, January 2016.
  • "Brüder im Geiste: Die Geschichte der Muslimbruderschaft", Zenith, May 2021.
  • "The Fall of Kabul: Lessons for the Future of Political Islam from the Muslim Brotherhood's Experience in Egypt", Asia Global Online, September 2021.
  • "Making Sense of Middle East Geopolitcs: A Historical Perspective", Middle East Studies Institute of Shanghai International Studies University, April 2024.
Victor J. Willi The Fourth Ordeal

Praise for The Fourth Ordeal

"This superb oral history offers a forensic analysis of the Brotherhood's far-from-inevitable rise and fall from power in Egypt. Brothers are presented neither as victims nor villains, rather as social actors forced to make difficult choices in unprecedented circum-stances. With enviable scholarly impartiality, The Fourth Ordeal is history at its best."

Hazem Kandil
Cambridge University Professor of
Historical and Political Sociology

"A compelling and dramatic account of the rise of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood from suppressed opposition movement to the pinnacle of presidential power, only to be over in 2013 and banned as a terrorist organization. An outstanding book, drawing on extensive interviews of Muslim Brothers and their opponents, Victor J. Willi tells the story of the Brotherhood in their own words and as he himself witnessed events in the 2010s. The best book available on the most influential Islamist movement in the world."

Eugene Rogan
University of Oxford Professor of
Modern Middle Eastern History

"A highly readable account of the Muslim Brotherhood's modern history, based on a well of primary sources and interviews. Focusing on factional struggles between old-school leaders and younger reformists, the book offers an insightful interpretation of the background to the failed Morsi presidency and the movement's sup-pression in 2013."

Brynjar Lia
University of Oslo Professor of
Modern Middle Eastern Studies

    Explore Collaborative Opportunities

    Strategic Advisor | Geopolitical Analyst | Author | Speaker

    Contact