Spring, then fall: a weakened Muslim Brotherhood

In the aftermath of the Arab Spring, the Muslim Brotherhood appeared to be the movement that had come out ahead. Its members were instrumental in the uprisings of Syria, Libya, and Yemen. Its affiliates won numerous parliamentary seats in Tunisia. And in Egypt, its candidate became the country's first democratically elected president. That upsurge in power did not last. "The Muslim Brotherhood, if you look across the region from Egypt to Tunisia, Syria to Jordan, is probably weaker and more divided than it's ever been," says Gareth Brown, The Economist's Middle East correspondent.

What the Brotherhood was and why it mattered

The Muslim Brotherhood is best understood as a political and social movement founded on Islamic values in society. It was born in Egypt, shaped by a cleric named Sayyid Qutb, who traveled to the United States in the late 1940s and returned disgusted by what he saw in Western civilization. He wrote about the need for the Arab and Muslim world to rekindle Arab and Islamic dignity. Since then, the Brotherhood has been an important political force throughout the region — not only through winning power and playing politics, but as a social movement running welfare programs, businesses, and supporting communities neglected by autocratic governments. Even when out of power, it remained organized and discipli