Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discovers and analyses the history and discourse of the Tunisian Islamic movement al-Nahda in relation to post-independence Tunisian history and the trends of thought within contemporary Islamic movements. The importance of the study comes from the fact that it may be considered the first academic research done in English on al-Nahda; up to now, the movement has received only scant treatment in English sources. Although the Algerian Islamic Salvation Front has attracted more attention in the Maghreb as a whole since 1990, it was the Tunisian Islamic movement that played the role of the champion of Islamism in the region during the eighties, gaining more fame and attracting more scrutiny than any other Islamic organisation in the Maghreb. However, this scrutiny has come mostly from the media rather than from academics.