Newspaper editor Hamdi traces the emergence, rise, and recent eclipse of the al-Nahda movement, of which he was part from 1978 to 1992, the period he most intensely discusses. He explores the factors being its creation, its three major confrontations with the Tunisian government that led to its being banned in 1991, the basic concepts of political Islam, the rejection of secularism, the movement's proposal for a modern Islamic state, and Islamists' cultural agenda and insistence of an Islamic identity for Tunisia. Much of the material, as well as the perspective, is not available elsewhere in English. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.