8/20/2019 Ashes of Hama Book Cover Final Version

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ASH

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BROTHEI

Cover design © Fatima Jamadar

9 781849 042857

ISBN 978-1-84904-285-7HURST & COMPANY, LONDONwww.hurstpublishers.com

HURST

RAPHAËL LEFÈVRE is aGates Scholar and PhD student atKing’s College, Cambridge University,where he also earned an MPhil inInternational Relations. He haspublished extensively on the Syrian

Islamic movement and is the co -authorof State and Islam in Baathist Syria:Confrontation or Co-optation? 

‘No book could be more timely. Anyone wishing to understandSyria must understand the long and bitter history of the MuslimBrotherhood’s struggle with the Assad regime. Islamic groups arepoised to take power in Syria — and the Brotherhood is foremostamong them. Westerners and Syrians alike who fail to appreciate theimportance and centrality of the Brotherhood to Syria’s modern historyare foolish.’ — Joshua M. Landis, Director, Center for Middle EastStudies, University of Oklahoma, and author of Syria Comment

‘To understand the bloodshed in Syria there is no better guide thanRaphaël Lefèvre’s brilliant, wonderfully-sourced and timely book.He demonstrates that the current vicious civil war is but the latestphase of a fifty-year struggle between the Muslim Brotherhood andthe secular Ba'ath Party, which seized power in Damascus in 1963,overturning Syria’s centuries-old socioeconomic and political order.’— Patrick Seale, author of The Struggle for Syria and Asad: TheStruggle for the Middle East

‘A fascinating study that unravels the complexity of dynamicsbetween radical and more moderate currents within the SyrianMuslim Brotherhood, and its most radical offshoots that were primarilyresponsible for provoking the Ba'ath regime into the tragic bloodbathof Hama in 1982. Lefèvre explains how today’s Syrian Revolutionprovided the Brotherhood with a golden opportunity to make acomeback to the forefront of Syrian politics, having experienceddecades of repression.’ — Nikolaos van Dam, author of The Struggle for Power in Syria: Politics and Society Under Asad and the Ba’th Party 

‘This is a truly excellent book, not only because it provides thefirst detailed account of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood from itsinception to 2012, but also because it situates the movement withinthe twentieth-century history of Syria, particularly in the context ofthe movement’s arch-adversary, the Alawite-dominated Ba’athistregime. It deserves a place on the bookshelves of every scholar of thecontemporary Middle East.’ — George Joffé, Department of Politicsand International Studies, University of Cambridge

‘When the Assad regime has fallen and the bloodshed finally ends,the Muslim Brotherhood will likely command centre stage in the newSyria. Yet the movement is little understood and much misrepresented.

This highly readable and impressively researched account could not bemore welcome — or more timely.’ — Alan George, St Antony’s College,Oxford University, and author of  Syria: Neither Bread Nor Freedom

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‘Raphaël Lefèvre’s book is the definitivestudy of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood.

Besides providing a comprehensive over-view of the movement’s development,

Lefèvre also uses interviews withBrotherhood leaders to throw new light

on pivotal episodes of conflict with theBa'ath regime, from the Hama Revolt

to the current uprising, in which theregime’s violent reaction unwittingly

empowered the Brothers as the main

alternative to its rule.’ — RaymondHinnebusch, Professor of InternationalRelations and Director of the Centre for

Syrian Studies, University of St. Andrews