Banna', Hasan al-

Banna', Hasan al-

(born 1906, Egypt—died February 1949, Cairo) Egyptian political and religious leader. He began teaching Arabic at a primary school in Ismailia in 1927. In 1928 he established the Muslim Brotherhood, which aimed at rejuvenating Islam and Egyptian society and expelling the British from Egypt. By 1940 it was attracting students, civil servants, and urban labourers to its ranks. He tried to maintain an alliance with the Egyptian government, but many members saw the government as betraying Egyptian nationalism, and after the war, members were implicated in several political assassinations, including that of Prime Minister al-Nuqrashi in 1948. Hasan al-Banna' was assassinated with government involvement the next year.