The Siege of Mecca: The Forgotten Uprising - Hardcover

Trofimov, Yaroslav

4.2

2,319 ratings by Goodreads

9781846140600: The Siege of Mecca: The Forgotten Uprising

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1846140609 ISBN 13: 9781846140600

Publisher: Allen Lane, 2007

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The Siege of Mecca is an astonishing work of reportage; a gripping account of one of the most dramatic events of the twentieth century. And, until now, one of the most shrouded in secrecy.

On the morning of 20th November 1979, the first of a new Muslim century, with world attention focused on Tehran as the hostage crisis entered a third week, hundreds of gunmen, from more than a dozen countries, armed with rifles smuggled inside coffins, stormed the Grand Mosque in Mecca. These men were defiling Islam’s holiest shrine and launching the first operation of global jihad in modern times. Led by a Saudi preacher named Juhayman al Uteybi, they believed the Saudi royal family had become corrupt and sought a return to the glory of uncompromising Islam. With nearly 100,000 worshippers trapped inside the holy compound, Mecca’s bloody siege lasted two weeks, causing hundreds of deaths and inflaming Muslim rage around the world.The Saudi royal family proved haplessly incapable of dislodging the occupiers. In desperation they enlisted the help of French commandos led by the battle-hardened Captain Paul Barril, who prepared the final assault and supplied poison gas that finally knocked out the insurgents. Though most captured gunmen were quickly beheaded, the royal family responded to this unprecedented challenge by compromising with the rebels’ supporters among the kingdom’s most senior clerics, helping them nurture and export Juhayman’s violent brand of Islam around the world. This dramatic story was barely covered in the international media in 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 scores of direct participants in the siege, including former terrorists, for the first time and drawing on hundreds of documents that have been declassified on his request. He reveals how Saudi reaction to the uprising in Mecca set free the forces that would eventually lead to the attacks of 9/11, and to the events unfolding in the world today.

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Review:

Advance Praise for "The Siege of Mecca" "Yaroslav Trofimov has written a spellbinding thriller. Packed with vivid, previously undisclosed details, it illuminates a little-known hostage crisis in the closed-off heart of the Muslim world that helped give rise to Al Qaeda. Once I started reading, I couldn't put the book down."--Rajiv Chandrasekaran, author of "Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone" "As Yaroslav Trofimov amply and skillfully demonstrates, the most radioactive particle in the world today is not North Korea, Iran, or, for that matter, the United States. It is, rather, the terrifying bundle of contradictions otherwise known as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The most formative event in the modern history of this secretive and at times morally disgusting petrocracy is vivisected by Trofimov to unsettling effect, and he reminds us of why anything that has happened or will happen there is a matter of great concern to the world." --Tom Bissell, author of "God Lives in St. Petersburg "and "The Father of All Things"

About the Author:

Yaroslav Trofimov, a staff foreign correspondent of The Wall Street Journal since 1999, has extensively reported from the Middle East, Africa, Central Asia, and the Balkans. He is also the author of Faith at War: A Journey on the Frontlines of Islam, from Baghdad to Timbuktu.

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