The Siege of Mecca: The Forgotten Uprising in Islam's Holiest Shrine and the Birth of Al Qaeda

On November 20, 1979, worldwide attention was focused on Tehran, where the Iranian hostage crisis was entering its third week. The same morningthe first of a new Muslim centuryhundreds of gunmen stunned the world by seizing Islams holiest shrine, the Grand Mosque in Mecca. Armed with rifles that they had smuggled inside coffins, these men came from more than a dozen countries, launching the first operation of global jihad in modern times. Led by a Saudi preacher named Juhayman al Uteybi, they believed that the Saudi royal family had become a craven servant of American infidels, and sought a return to the glory of uncompromising Islam. With nearly 100,000 worshippers trapped inside the holy compound, Meccas bloody siege lasted two weeks, inflaming Muslim rage against the United States and causing hundreds of deaths.

Despite U.S. assistance, the Saudi royal family proved haplessly incapable of dislodging the occupier, whose ranks included American converts to Islam. In Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini blamed the Great Satanthe United States for defiling the shrine, prompting mobs to storm and torch American embassies in Pakistan and Libya. The desperate Saudis finally enlisted the help of French commandos led by tough-as-nails Captain Paul Barril, who prepared the final assault and supplied poison gas that knocked out the insurgents. Though most captured gunmen were quickly beheaded, the Saudi royal family responded to this unprecedented challenge by compromising with the rebels supporters among the kingdoms most senior clerics, helping them nurture and export Juhaymans violent brand of Islam around the world.

This dramatic and immensely consequential story was barely covered in the press in the pre-CNN, pre–Al Jazeera days, as Saudi Arabia imposed an information blackout and kept foreign correspondents away. Yaroslav Trofimov now penetrates this veil of silence, interviewing for the first time scores of direct participants in the siege, including former terrorists, and drawing on hundreds of documents that had been declassified on his request. Written with the pacing, detail, and suspense of a real-life thriller, The Siege of Mecca reveals how Saudi reaction to the uprising in Mecca set free the forces that produced the attacks of 9/11, and the harrowing circumstances that surround us today.

"'Trofimov, a Wall Street Journal writer and observer of the Muslim world (Faith at War), tackles an incident unreported in the West: the violent takeover of Islam's holiest shrine by Muslim fundamentalists in 1979. Carrying out his investigations in one of the world's most closed societies, Trofimov has crafted a compelling historical narrative, blending messianic theology with righteous violence, and the Saudi state's sclerotic corruption with the complicity of the official religious institutions. Trofimov aptly points out endemic regional problems with enduring repercussions for fighting terror, but is hampered by his sensationalist style ('The world was twelve months away from the tumultuous events that would cover the mosque's marble courtyard with blood, spilled guts and severed limbs'). In 1979, the Saudi intelligence services apparently had no accurate blueprints of the Grand Mosque, and knew nothing of the underground labyrinth where many of the militants took shelter; they eventually received plans to the site from Osama bin Laden's older brother. Ringleader Juhayman and his followers have inspired al-Qaeda and countless other Islamic revivalist movements to ever greater acts of violence, even though they were mesmerized by their limited understanding of an obscurantist theology and were convinced that that one of their unassuming members was the Messiah. Casual readers will be well served by this introduction to Muslim fundamentalist terrorism. (Sept. 18)' Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Having interviewed many of the participants, Trofimov (a staff foreign correspondent of the Wall Street Journal) reconstructs the events of the November 1979 seizure of the Grand Mosque in Mecca (the Masjid al-Haram), led by a Saudi preacher named Juhayman al Uteybi. The Saudi National Guard failed to break the siege, with some members actually joining the forces of Uteybi, and the Mosque was finally retaken after two weeks by Pakistani and French security forces in a bloody assault, but not before angry mobs had attacked the American Embassies in the capitals of Pakistan and Libya, spurred by Iranian Ayatollah Khomeini's accusations that the United States was behind the siege. In addition to recounting these events, Trofimov looks at their aftermath, which included the public beheading of the conspirators and, in Trofimov's view, the eventual creation of Al Qaeda. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

On November 20, 1979, hundreds of gunmen stunned the world by seizing Islams holiest shrine, the Grand Mosque in Mecca. Trofimov interviews for the first time scores of direct participants in the siege, including former terrorists, and draws on hundreds of once-classified documents.

YAROSLAV TROFIMOV, a staff foreign correspondent of The Wall Street Journal since 1999, has extensively reported from Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries. He is also the author of Faith at War: A Journey on the Frontlines of Islam, from Baghdad to Timbuktu.