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

Excellent book about very unknown event that took place in 1979.
I can only say it is very disheartening and disturbing to be introduced to inner workings of the country that is sitting not on two but on so many chairs that it defies logic - and again that country is declared as a strategical ally to entire western world. Short sightedness of western world governments, total stupification of entire governments and their policies regarding the "red menace" and blindness to real time events - not to mention inability to analyze diplomatic data ..... extremely disturbing.

Excellent account showing that when it comes to national interests everything is low priority - no matter what will happen not in 10 years but in mere 4 ahead. Here and now show more is a priority - and let future administrations dig their way out if they can (unfortunately [following Murphy's law] future administrations are progressively less and less capable so problems just pile up).

Highly recommended. show less

The Siege of Mecca is more than a history of a specific incident, but rather it illuminates the political and religious turmoil that was beginning to take shape in the late 70s. I always realized that i was missing pieces in my understanding of the political history of the region, but when I picked up this book, I wasn't expecting to find so many of those connections!

I heard about this incident on a podcast and was very surprised as I had never heard about it before, and I've gone to some lengths to better my understanding of politics of that era. After reading the book I understand now that the Saudi government downplayed and hid the event and the bloodshed around it. And I understand how that decision has echoed.

Marvelous book with show more excellent reporting. It is a difficult read in places, as I found my western "ear" struggled to keep track of the names and relationships. But the author does a good job of keeping things clear. show less

This well researched true account of the 1979 siege of the grand mosque in Mecca reads like a thriller and is hard to put down. It also shows that very little has changed in how the Saudi regime censors and blocks out any event that blights its reputation and puts its ineptitude in the spotlight; the recent Mina'a stampede being a case in point.

This book describes an all but forgotten two-week takeover of the Grand Mosque in Mecca by Islamic fundamentalists back in 1979. The take-over and resulting military clash was an embarrassment to the Royal family entrusted as guardians of Islams holiest shrines, and thus has been purged from historical accounts in Saudi Arabia. The author also describes how and why this lead to anti-American movements throughtout the Middle East. Partly to appease the fundamentalist movement in the Kingdom, the ruling family made concessions to that Islamic movement, which led to funding and spreading of Wahhabi teachings. It's not difficult to look at the events described in this book as the beginnings of the fundamentalist movement which continues to show more spread throughout the middle east today, and which planted the seeds which grew into Al Qaeda. The book was easy to read and provides insights to the political climate which exists today in the region. show less

While fascinating, I came away from this book thinking that it held together a little better than it should have, considering how much of it is based on anonymous sources. It's not that I don't trust the author, the reality is that I simply have nothing to compare this to. Still, something is always better than nothing and it is an enjoyable read.

One problem that I do have with Trofimov's narrative is the author's seeming contempt for the Carter Administration in the wake of the fall of the Shah of Iran, which became intertwined with the events that make up the main focus of this book. While Trofimov does little to hide his disgust for how the House of Saud handled this whole affair (and it would seem to be justly earned), it would be show more nice if he appreciated how much the fall of the Shah was "blowback" from the overthrow of Mossadegh, and how the Shah made his own share of mistakes, which does not come through in this narrative. It's as though the author seems to believe that Jimmy Carter could have waved some magic wand and easily returned the Shah to power, in the face of a popular uprising that the Iranian Army refused to fire upon.

Granted that I'm a little prejudiced in this regard. One of my undergrad instructors at the time of the events described was the noted Persianist Richard W. Cottam, who was a US official in Iran at the time of the overthrown of Mossadegh; he thought it was one of the dumbest moves the United States made during the Cold War. show less

Very interesting and informative look at the attempt by millenarian fundamentalists to take over Mecca in 1979. The reader also gets a a better understanding of the way the the Saudi kingdom works, particularly the relationship between the monarchy and the clergy. Some of the author's attempts at linking this event and the response of the Carter administration to it to wider global political events and trends seem overblown, but otherwise this is fairly insightful.

Journalist Trofimov’s prior book, Faith At War, was a wide-ranging exploration of Islam in a dozen countries. While Islamist fundamentalism, particularly Wahhabism, and the Sunni-Shiite divide remain topics in his new book, The Siege of Mecca has a narrower focus. It is a generally well-paced exploration of the events surrounding and the ramifications of the November 1979 seizure of the Grand Mosque in Mecca — Islam’s holiest site — by a group of heavily armed Islamist fundamentalists espousing a messianic theology. While Trofimov does not succeed in all respects, the book is an excellent and concise history of a crucial step in modern Islamist terrorism, internal weaknesses that very likely are still rife in Saudi Arabia, and show more how the contemporaneous hostage crisis in Iran and miscalculation or misunderstanding of Islam and the Islamic world led the Carter Administration to actions or inactions that reverberate today.

Originally posted here. show less