Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966) was the most important radical Islamist ideologue in modern times. This groundbreaking new study analyses Qutb’s thinking from his early years in Cairo to the radical Islamist stance he adopted towards the end of his life. Occidentalism and Orientalism are mere "duelling essentialisms" and shows that Qutb’s views of the Christian European "Other" are much more nuanced. Of particularly importance are Qutb’s views on the West in the light of the escalation in violent attacks by militant Islamists targeting Western values. The book covers, amongst others, the following topics : The discovery & perceptions of the West in the Modern Age ; Qutb’s early encounter with modern Western civilisation - The West-East duality, and Qutb’s early views on Islam in relation to Christianity and Judaism - Qutb’s Islamism as a drastic discontinuity of Islamic cumulative tradition. « Essentialist views are not the preserve of Orientalists in the Saidian sense. They are the bottom line of all brands of contempt for or hatred of the Other, when the latter is a collective identity, one side’s essentialist rejection prompting the other side’s counter-rejection. There is no better illustration of this than Qutb, the firebrand martyr of Jihadism, whose complex attitude towards the Western Other is closely examined in this fascinating book. » (Professor Gilbert Achcar, SOAS, University of London)