Describes the bloody 1979 takeover of Islam's holiest shrine, the Grand Mosque in Mecca, by armed gunmen led by Saudi preacher Juhayman al Uteybi, who believed the Saudi royal family had become servants of American infidels; the assault that knocked out the insurgents; and the repercussions of the event in terms of the rise of violent, extremist Islam around the world. Reprint. 20,000 first printing.
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In The Siege of Mecca, acclaimed journalist Yaroslav Trofimov pulls back the curtain on a thrilling, pivotal, and overlooked episode of modern history, examining its repercussions on the Middle East and the world. On November 20, 1979, worldwide attention was focused on Tehran, where the Iranian hostage crisis was entering its third week. That same morning, gunmen stunned the world by seizing the Grand Mosque in Mecca, creating a siege that trapped 100,000 people and lasted two weeks, inflaming Muslim rage against the United States and causing hundreds of deaths. But in the days before CNN and Al Jazeera, the press barely took notice. Trofimov interviews for the first time scores of direct participants in the siege, and draws upon hundreds of newly declassified documents. With the pacing, detail, and suspense of a real-life thriller, The Siege of Mecca reveals the long-lasting aftereffects of the uprising and its influence on the world today.
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