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The Siege of Mecca: The 1979 Uprising at Islam's Holiest Shrine

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Reading just like a classic thriller written by the likes of Graham Greene or John Le Carre, Wall Street Journal reporter Yaroslav Trofimov's "The Siege of Mecca" is an important, comprehensive examination of the events leading up to the two-week siege of Mecca's Grand Mosque, the siege of itself, and subsequent events afterwards, which would lead inexorably to the rise of Al-Qaeda and the spectacular 9/11/01 terrorist attacks upon the United States. This is without question, an important event not only in contemporary Islam, but for the world too, and yet it is one that has been ignored these past few decades. Now, finally, the untold story of the 11/20/79 seizure of the Grand Mosque, has been pieced together by Trofimov, who has written what ought to be regarded as one of the most important books of the year. Surprisingly, Trofimov covers much terrain in what proves to be a relatively terse book on this bloody episode in recent Saudi Arabian history, emphasizing the origins, but even, the aftermath of this attack, which, he asserts was the first of many bloody incidents of Islamofascist terror leading up to the 9/11/01 terrorist attacks.

Trofimov opens with a brief, but concise, history of both the Saudi royal family, emphasizing its 20th Century history and, especially, of the fundamentalist Sunni Islam sect known as Wahhabism; a sect which has been preaching Islamic Jihad (`Holy War") against the Western infidels encroaching upon Middle Eastern land for centuries. He emphasizes the close, centuries-old ties between the al-Saud family and Wahhabi clerics, reminding us of an early 19th Century Saudi-led effort to conquer the entire Arabian peninsula, hoping to transform it into a Wahhabi Islamic state; an attempt defeated only by an Egyptian military force acting on behalf of the Ottoman Sultan, after more than five years of bloody warfare (The Saudi ruler was finally captured, taken to Constantinople, and beheaded there amidst "fireworks and a public celebration".). A century later, the Saudis were far more successful in their religiously-motivated desire for empire-building, imposing upon their newly conquered domains, a strict adherence to Wahhabi Sunni Islam, cleverly using a crack troop of fanatical Wahhabis, the Ikwan, to lead the conquest of much of Arabia from the early 1910s to the late 1920s. Eventually, however, the Ikwan revolted against the Saudis, appalled by the king's embrace of Western beliefs and technology, such as telephones, only to be crushed decisively at the March 1929 battle of Sbala. Years later, one of these Ikwan veterans would celebrate the birth of a son, Juhayman, the future mastermind behind the 11/20/79 seizure of the Grand Mosque.

Through Juhayman's eyes, Trofimov traces the rise of radical Islamist movements throughout the Middle East, especially Egypt, from the 1950s through 1970s. Juhayman acquires his devout, fanatical adherence to Wahhabism via service as a member of the Saudi National Guard. Eventually he's influenced strongly by the charismatic blind cleric Bin Baz; the arch foe of Saudi Arabia's incessant rush towards modernization, criticizing sales of cigarettes, displaying portraits of the royal family in public buildings, and, in particular, the emerging emancipation of Saudi women. But Juhayman would go much further than Bin Baz, by criticizing the very existence of the Saudi kingdom in a religious manifesto smuggled out of the country, and published in neighboring Kuwait. He would anoint a young religious student, Mohammed Abdullah, as Islam's Mahdi (redeemer), destined to lead the faithful at the Grand Mosque at the dawn of Islam's 14th Century (11/20/79). He would smuggle arms and munitions into the Grand Mosque, drawing elaborate plans for its seizure at the dawn of the new century; plans which nearly resulted in success.

Trofimov demonstrates that not just the Saudi ruling family, but the West, too, was caught completely off guard by Juhayman's seizure of the Grand Mosque. While some of this was attributable to a strict ban against non-Muslims entering Mecca itself; another, equally compelling, reason was the ongoing hostage crisis at the United States Embassy in Teheran, Iran (Erroneously, at first, Iran was thought to have been the foreign power responsible for the siege itself.). A bloody comedy of errors ensues, as ill-equipped Saudi troops try storming the mosque, only to be mowed down by superior weaponry possessed by Juhayman and his band of militants (A band that includes Afro-Americans with military training.). Meanwhile, the Saudi family receives permission from leading Wahhabi clerics - including Bin Baz - to mount an all-out assault upon the mosque itself, in exchange for ending the family's modest efforts at Western-influenced modernization, and other measures which set the stage for the 9/11/01 terrorist attacks upon America itself. Last, but not least, at the Saudi family's urging, France sends an elite team of anti-terrorist commandos and tear gas; it is this team that directs the final, successful assault upon the mosque.

November 20, 1979 was the first day of Islam's year 1400, and the beginning of the third week of the Iranian hostage situation. Much less well known, though probably more important, it also brought the siege of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, and launched modern jihad. "The Siege of Mecca" tells that story, despite the closed Saudi Arabian society and its highly restricted coverage of the event - at least partly because the royal family's response was seen as incompetent and lessening loyalty among its citizens.

Mixing with the locals inside the mosque were 100,000 Muslims from all over the world. Hidden among them were hundreds of rebels, mostly Saudis of Bedouin stock. They smuggled in arms inside caskets supposedly carrying dead relatives brought for blessing.

Ragged-looking rebels chained shut and guarded all 51 gates as soon as the regular prayers ended. Machine-gun nests were set up atop the shrine's 7 minarets. The Saudis imposed a communications blackout and its soldiers were reluctant to act for fear of condemnation for fighting fellow Muslims in a holy place. Obtaining that essential religious support required that the Saudi rulers commit to stricter Islamic observation - no more women on TV, billions to be spent spreading rigid Wahhabi Islam around the world, etc.

The Saudi Army then blasted the snipers out of the minarets (using U.S. Army TOW missiles), and then brought in armored personnel carriers to clear out the rebels in the above-ground portion of the mosque. Unfortunately, the mosque had a seemingly impenetrable underground labyrinth of rooms and tunnels that still housed rebels, and the Saudis were unable to dislodge them.

Jordan volunteered help, but was declined because of the site's history - originally taken from Jordan. The CIA was not used - presumably because this would have required Carter's authorization. Thus, the Saudis went to the French, and were given three commandos as advisers. Their strategy involved wider use of a stronger gas than the Saudis had used, and successfully led to retaking the shrine.

The two week takeover brought an estimated 1,000 casualties, per independent experts (vs. the Saudi estimate of 500). Saudi intelligence brought no warning of the siege - it had been focused on Communists, nationalists, and pro-Iranian revolutionaries. After the takeover the Wahhabis decided to support the Saudi Arabian government as a defense against Communism in Afghanistan and the Shiite heresy from Iran. Unfortunately, the militant strains of Islam greatly benefited from the new support, and al Qaeda eventually was born.

I was prepared to dislike this book, suspecting an "action pack thriller", full of loopy historical inaccuracies, if not outright fantasy - all because of the jarring black and red cover. Instead I found a lean, scholarly, and almost certainly dispassionately accurate account of one of the more important and not very well understood events in the last quarter of the 20th Century. It is written in a fast-paced action style, flipping back and forth among the major actors in this drama, but that enhances and does not hinder his story. Ramifications of this siege are affecting us today.

Mr. Trofimov knows his subject well, amazingly well. He deftly describes the numerous disparate historical antecedents to the taking of the mosque by Islamic fanatics, and the reactions of the major actors. The Ikhwan, the religious brotherhood which was instrumental in Abdul Aziz's conquest and consolidation of what would be the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and his decision that they overstepped their limits, and so he had to mow them down with borrowed British machine guns in the early `30's, leading to a sense of martyrdom in the remnants of the defeated communities. America was tired of "foreign adventures," Vietnam being the prime reason, and therefore the CIA was severely constrained, with the coups it directed in Chile and Iran very much in mind. There was the Kingdom itself, being overwhelmed by the "future shock" of oil revenues, and the attendant rapid "modernization," with its own ills, inevitably leaving some people behind

As with many events of this magnitude, ironies abound; they are described but not overplayed. The Royal Family must obtain a ruling from the Ulema, the chief religious body, that force can be used to remove the rebels, yet philosophically, the Ulema is in large measure in agreement with the complaints of the rebels. For days virtually no one knows the exact identify of the people who seized the mosque, so the United States insists it was Iran, and the Shiites; meanwhile Iran is insisting it is the United States and the infidels. Perhaps the best trained Arab force that could assist the Saudis is the Hashemite Jordanians, but they can not be used since they were once rulers in the Hejaz, were defeated by Abdul Aziz, and if they returned, "may not leave." Eventually the Saudis turned to the French, "because they were discreet and could keep a secret," which also proved false.

I found the section of the French involvement particularly fascinating, since it dispelled the rumors that had dominated this topic, and described in an authoritative manner the exact nature of the fairly limited intervention (3 men, and supplies). Characteristically of Trofimov's account, he states the facts which he could ascertain, but does not speculate whether Barril, one of the three Frenchmen, actually entered Mecca.

Equally important was the depiction of the immediate ramifications throughout the Muslim world, who blamed the United States, in large part because of Khomeini. US Embassies in Libya and Pakistan were burned, with loss of American life.

John Burgess, on his CrossRoads Arabia website, pointed out some (relatively minor) flaws in Trofimov's book, citing the reason that the Bedouin were settled was not, as Trofimov contends, to better perform their ablutions, but rather to stop their raiding. I'd add a couple of my own: the Nejd would never be described as the "central Arabian highlands" (p14), and, of course, 1400 is not the first year of new century, 1401 is.

On a personal note, I traveled by road in the Asir, from Abha to Taif, one week prior to the taking of the mosque, and may very well have passed some of the participants. On that trip, at a police checkpoint, was the only time in my 20 years in the Kingdom, that a Muslim did not give the proper response to my "As-Salaam Alikum" greeting; the followers of Juhayman believe(d) that a Muslim should not respond to an infidel when he gave the traditional greeting.

In Trofimov's summing up, he correctly identifies Juhayman's deed as only one of the currents which lead to the formation of Al Qaeda. He also points out a second one, arriving from Egypt, in the person of Ayman Al Zawahir (who had been inspired by the execution of his hero, Sayyid Qutb). Of course, a third could easily be postulated: the unintended consequences, a/k/a "blowback" in CIA jargon, of America and Saudi Arabia funding and arming Islamic fundamentalist to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. And a fourth: the CIA coup against the democratically elected government of Iran in 1953.

Epilogues can be used to examine some of the "what ifs" of an event. One of the rumors concerning Juhayman's capture stated that he had asked: "But where are the armies of the north"? Trofimov does not cover this, and only alludes to the self-delusional nature of individuals who succumb to millennial dogmas; the alleged Mahdi believes that he is "bullet proof," with the attendant fatal consequences. How many of my fellow citizens believe in the "rapture," the postulated end of the world when Christ returns, and would actually like to hasten the date? And "what if" they took concrete actions to accomplish this goal? Our own Juhayman...

Trofimov account is almost certainly the best account we will ever have on the seizure of the mosque in Mecca in 1979, and is highly recommended.

Yaroslav Trofimov's "The Siege of Mecca" is an attempt at forging a secret history of Al-Qaeda through the lens of an oft-forgotten 1979 uprising in the Grand Mosque in Mecca that has been all but forgotten in many modern histories. The precise information of the uprising was suppressed in media outlets by the Saudi government in order to avoid upsetting Saudi Arabia's public perception and the delicate situation the Saudi royal family was in as caretakers of the two holiest cities in Islam. Trofimov weaves a multi-faceted account of what happened, showing how the mistakes of well-meaning individuals at all levels on the world stage helped contribute to the current climate of radical Islamic fundamentalism.

The book is a quick read, well paced and well-researched, Trofimov relying both on perviously hard to obtain offical records regarding the uprising and his own extensive rearch and interviews. He has provided a great service in assembling good research in a book that is accessible to anyone with interest.

But most important are the lessons that are learned from the book. Trofimov reminds us that, while we are rarely gifted with the gift of foresight in our involvement in world affairs, it pays to learn from the past. The raw ideological materials for al-Qaeda were present 30 years ago, but the imminent concerns of the Soviet Union and the Ayatollah's Iran prevented this seemingly isolated incident to be recognized as the eventual world threat that it would turn into. With the fate of our future involvement in the Iraq war looming and with many in our nation preferring isolationism and the satisfaction of our imminent concerns over our participation in the world scene, it would do us good to remember that, like it or not, there's a world out there that's aware of us even if we are not aware of it.

While this book is a valuable history of the attempted takeover of Mecca to install a purported Mahdi, its greatest value is its insights into workings of the House of Saud and the mindsets of the Sunni and Shia of the area. It reads very well and is highly detailed and well researched. Alas, the circumstances that it describes are still with us today. If you wish to understand some of the current Iraq, Iran, and Middle East situation as we now have it, read this book along with authors such as Qutb, Vali Nassr, etc. Very simply a must have book for today.

This is a brilliantly written extremely well researched book about the seige of Mecca fomented by the belief in the returm of the Mahdi. These events are still illegal to talk about or teach in most the Muslum world.
Along the way the reader is given an excellent history of Islam especially relating to modern events. It pieces the puzzel together in a way that gave me many "eureka" moments as I started to relate historic and modern events. THE WORLD NOW MAKES MORE SENSE!!
Everyone should read this book!!

This book is about an event that was little-reported in the West at the time but has since had a big impact. The siege of one of Islam's holiest shrines disgraced the Saudi regime and fueled radical Islam. I was really impressed by how the author dug out new documents by using the Freedom of Information Act. He also went to Saudi Arabia and talked to many of the participants. These interviews let him create exciting scenes, like when the brave but doomed Saudi troops try to storm the mosque. He weaves in some good background and history on the region and radical Islam, so at the end of the book you've had some fun but also learned a lot.

I was living in Germany going to college at the time and remember how the end of 1979 was chaos in the Middle East. The author gives an excellent account how the siege of Mecca was the trigger for much of this.

The author describes very well the story of the Ikhwan (brothers) in Saudi Arabia. This group of Sunni extremists was used by the House of Saud in order to take over Saudi Arabia around the 1920's. The Ikhwan were such bigots, aside from considering non-Sunni heretics, that they would not even say hello to other Sunni who did not belong to their brand of religion, what we all now refer to as the Wahhabis. This attitude of the Ikhwan, by the way, is very similar to the Jewish settlers in the occupied territories. I lived there before and just try to say hello to American Jews when you hear them in the market. they switch to Hebrew and then ignore you. (I merely mention this comparison as the settlers are the same problem as the Ikhwan).

The Ikhwan had to be crushed as they turned against the House of Saud when the latter refused to expand into areas occupied by Britain or France. The Ikhwan declared war on the House of Saud and were then defeated. How this ties in to the siege is that the father of the leader of the siege (Juhayman) was at the last battle of the Ikhwan. It was just a matter of time.

The author shows how the House of Saud was so paranoid regarding the ramifications of the siege that they blacked out all reporting. While falsely stating all was under control, they had to turn to the French for help in putting it down. It was really touch and go for all. The author shows the devil's bargain the House of Saud had to make with the Saudi clerics in order to call Juhayman and his followers apostates. To fight in Mecca was a sin and this was some bargain. Saudi Arabia became very backwards instead of progressive as they were at the time as a direct result.

The takeover of the American embassy in Tehran and attacks on American embassies in the Middle East showed how inept the Carter Administration was in dealing with this new Islamic threat. The Soviets were also inept, as the siege precipitated their own invasion of Afghanistan. Saudi Arabia was able to get rid of the Juhayman followers by sending them to Afghanistan to fight the godless communists as a sign of piety.

Many authors like to point to certain past events as being the catalyst for Al Qaeda. They are all right to a certain degree, but this author shows how the siege in 1979 had significant unintended consequences.

In 1979, a group of over 100 Muslem fundamentalists took over Islam's holiest shrine, convinced that they were fulfilling an obscure prophecy about the Final Days. They came dangerously close to succeeding.

This little-known event remains a profound embarrasment to Muslims in general and the Saudi kingdom in particular, so it's not surprising that information on it is hard to come by even 20 years after the fact. Indeed, I'd never heard of it until a few years ago when I was surfing Wikipedia and found a vague stub entry for the event.

"The Siege of Mecca" is the first serious effort to lift the veil of mystery on this odd event. The result is a fairly scary picture of how close the House of Saud came to collapsing and the Middle East plunging into all-out Holy War. Along the way, we get a contextual history lesson of ultra-fundamentalist Islam and its eschetology. The author also goes to some length to show how the Seige sewed the seeds for the rise of Al Qaida.

The book is a quick read, in part because it grips the reader early on. It also manages to be non-biased, heaping scorn equally on the perpetrators of the take-over, the inept Saudi responses, and the bungling US state department that apparently never fully grasped the enormity of the situation.

TSOM reads like a political thriller, which actually was the only problem I had with it. The author's prose is heavy-handed in use of passive and negative voice, which I found awkward. Also, he forgoes footnotes in favor of a "notes and sources" section at the very end of the book. When discussing things such as a Haddith or Quaran sura, I would have liked to have seen it (or had it more immediately referenced) so I could draw my own conclusions. However, these are just minor complaints, and I doubt other readers will be as picky as I am.

Over-all, a good read, and very recommended.

I thoroughly enjoyed this recounting of the capture of the holy shrine in Mecca in late 1979. The author does an outstanding job telling the story of the uprising and along the way gives the reader a primer on the history of Islam. This is no dull academic exercise however as it reads like an international thriller in many respects. The author also shows how the uprising in 1979 has led directly to many of the problems the USA faces with the Islamic world today. The birth of Al Qaeda is connected directly to this event as is the rise of Osama Bin Laden. For those of us confused by what is happening in the Middle East this is an excellent resource for getting up to speed and perhaps delving more deeply into the Islamic world.