The Islamic Revolution of Iran, led by religious authority and supported by broad popular participation, introduced a distinctive model of religious governance that influenced Islamic movements across the Middle East. Among these movements, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood engaged most seriously with the Iranian experience and sought to adapt its lessons to its own vision of Islamic government. The Muslim Brotherhood promotes Islamic sovereignty through an Islamic caliphate, where political legitimacy is based on popular allegiance (bayʿa) and authority is limited to the implementation of Islamic law (sharia).

This study provides a comparative analysis of the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, focusing on the impact of Iran’s revolutionary model on Egypt’s post-revolutionary trajectory. It argues that the theory of Velayat-e Faqih, by combining divine legitimacy with popular acceptance and embedding authority within a coherent institutional framework, has offered a more sustainable model of Islamic governance. In contrast, the caliphate model in the political thought of the Muslim Brotherhood lacks institutional mechanisms compatible with the modern state, which contributed to its failure to consolidate power in Egypt. Using an analytical–comparative approach and library-based sources, the study examines both cases in terms of legitimacy, power structure, and popular participation.