 Al-Tilmisani (his name is a variation on Tlemceni, reflecting his family origin in the Western Algerian city of that name) headed the Muslim Brothers during a period of cooperation and, some observers suggest, cooptation by the Egyptian state.While the Brothers were not precisely legal during Tilmisani's term, they were tolerated and encouraged by President Anwar al-Sadat as a bulwark against both leftist opponents and more extremist Islamists.Al-Tilmisani was born in the Darb al-Ahmar district of Cairo in 1904.