at in 1950 around 12,000 individuals (less than 1% of all landowners) owned as much land as 2.6 million small landowners.23 This meant that while a small number of immense estates was scarcely cultivated by their ultra-rich owners (who usually lived in Cairo, away from their properties), a huge number of small landowners could barely live off their lands, and often drowned in debts. Non-owner farm workers’ conditions were even worse. Eight million people, one third of the Egyptian population, were forced to choose between wage labor and renting parcels of land, while either option inevitably led to miserable conditions and outright exploitation"in 1950 around 12,000 individuals (less than1% of all landowners) owned as much land as 2.6 million small landowners.23 This meant that while a small number of immense estates was scarcely cultivated by their ultra-rich owners (who usually lived in Cairo, away from their properties), a huge number of small landowners could barely live off their lands, and often drowned in debts. Non-owner farm workers’ conditions were even worse. Eight million people, one third of the Egyptian population, were forced to choose between wage labor and renting parcels of land, while either option inevitably led to miserable conditions and outright exploitation...
his general failure to respond to the popular demand for social reform marked on the one hand the decline of the Wafd Party and of all other liberal forces, and on the other the rise of mass movements that advocated for national independence as well as the liberation of the “popular masses” from exploitation by a rich minority. The ideologies that those movements referred to can be roughly divided into three categories: the first, a xenophobic and authoritarian nationalism, modeled on the pattern of European fascist movements.25 The second, political Islam, of which the most representative movement was the Society of the Muslim Brothers, which became a significant political force precisely in the late thirties.26 The third one was communism, a minor movement in the Twenties and Thirties—mainly composed of intellectuals of European descent and/or Western-educated Egyptians‒which turned into a real mass movement during World War II.27 The Battle between Islam and Capitalism arises from this historical context. It declares the failure of the liberal system, and calls for the necessity of a popular revolution.
According to Quṭb, the collapse of the old system was inevitable: the only doubt was about which ideology and which political group would lead the Egyptian masses in building a new order. His entire book, then, is an invitation to the Egyptian people to follow his own example and choose Islam as their leading ideology. Islam as the Third Way."
