LAUSR

underpins this measured analysis and makes the book a valuable tool for readers interested in particular events or aspects of Ennahda. Paradoxically, this strength may be indirectly connected to the book’s major weakness, which is that it does not put forward amajor thesis, a ‘big idea’, about the movement. While not breaking new ground in this latter way, however, the book makes a major contribution towards the scholarly understanding of Ennahda, no mean achievement in this age of ideological and emotive contestation over Islamist politics.