For a few tense moments on Tuesday, September 15, 2026, Mecca was placed on an emergency alert.
Saudi Arabia warned residents of the holy city of a potential danger amid an escalation in attacks by Yemen’s Houthis. The alert was later lifted. On Wednesday, Saudi authorities said their air defences had intercepted and destroyed a Houthi drone south of Mecca before it entered the restricted airspace over the holy city. Saudi officials described the security of the Two Holy Mosques and pilgrims as a “red line.” The Houthis have denied targeting Mecca.
The episode was a reminder of something that once seemed almost unthinkable: the sanctity of Mecca has not always kept it beyond the reach of political violence.
The Siege Of The Grand Mosque
Nearly 47 years ago, on November 20, 1979, the Grand Mosque itself was seized by an armed group in one of the most extraordinary episodes in modern Saudi history.
It was just after the Fajr, or dawn, prayer at Masjid al-Haram, the Grand Mosque surrounding the Kaaba. Thousands of worshippers had gathered for the morning prayer when commotion broke out.
Believers circling the Kaaba
Then came the first shots.
A 40-year-old former Saudi National Guard corporal and religious preacher, Juhayman al-Utaybi, pushed the imam aside and took over the microphone.
Most worshippers had no idea what was happening.
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Juhayman and his followers, numbering roughly 600, quickly spread through the vast mosque complex.
They had smuggled coffins into the mosque, ostensibly as part of the traditional funeral ritual of seeking blessings for the dead. But when the coffins were opened, they contained firearms, which were distributed among the militants.
The Grand Mosque had been seized.
One of the rebels began reading from a prepared statement, announcing the arrival of the Mahdi – the divinely guided figure whose coming is foretold in Islamic tradition.
“Mahdi has arrived,” he declared.
The rebels identified Juhayman’s brother-in-law, Mohammed Abdullah al-Qahtani, as the Mahdi. In the hadiths – reports of what the Prophet Muhammad said or approved – the coming of the Mahdi, or divinely guided one, is foretold.
What Led To The Rebellion
The uprising came at a moment of profound change in Saudi Arabia. Oil wealth had transformed the kingdom, bringing rapid modernisation, new infrastructure and growing Western influence.
Juhayman and his followers opposed what they saw as the Saudi monarchy’s abandonment of Islamic principles and accused the House of Saud of corruption and religious deviation.
Their aim, according to their statements and subsequent accounts, was to challenge the Saudi monarchy and restore what they regarded as a purer Islamic order.
The Saudi authorities were caught off guard.
An explosion at the Grand Mosque during the 1979 siege. Getty Images
The Battle To Free The Kaaba
The idea of an armed takeover inside the Grand Mosque was almost inconceivable. Weapons were prohibited within the sanctuary, and the security personnel stationed inside the complex were lightly armed.
The militants quickly occupied strategic positions, including the mosque’s minarets, rooms, corridors and underground areas. From these positions, they were able to resist the first attempts by Saudi security forces to retake the complex.
A security cordon was thrown around the mosque. Special forces and military units were brought in.
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But there was a major obstacle: Islamic law places particular restrictions on fighting within the sacred precinct of Mecca.
Saudi Arabia’s senior religious authorities eventually issued a religious ruling authorising the use of force to expel the militants.
The battle then intensified.
Saudi forces fought their way into the mosque complex, gradually retaking sections of it. But the rebels withdrew into an extensive network of rooms, cells and underground passages beneath the mosque.
Juhayman al Utaybi, who led the siege. Getty Images
‘Gas Them Out’
The siege dragged on for nearly two weeks.
Saudi Arabia eventually sought outside assistance. France discreetly sent a small team of specialists to help devise a plan to clear the underground areas.
The final assault involved pumping gas into the basement areas where the remaining rebels were hiding. Holes were drilled into the underground complex through which the gas was introduced.
The operation eventually broke the resistance.
By the early hours of December 5, 1979, Juhayman and the remaining rebels surrendered. The force that had begun with roughly 600 men had been reduced to a little over 100.
Juhayman was captured alive.
On January 9, 1980, he and 62 other captured rebels were publicly executed in several Saudi cities, including Mecca and Medina. The executions were carried out simultaneously in different parts of the kingdom and became the largest mass execution in Saudi Arabia’s modern history.
The Aftershocks Of The Siege
But the consequences of the siege extended far beyond the fate of the rebels.
The seizure of the Grand Mosque had exposed a deep challenge to the legitimacy of the Saudi monarchy from within the kingdom’s own religious landscape.
Crown Prince Fahd, who would later become king, responded by moving the country further towards conservative religious policies. The government increased the enforcement of religious rules and sought to counter the charge that the Saudi state had drifted away from Islamic law.
For decades, the social and religious consequences of the 1979 uprising shaped everyday life in Saudi Arabia.
That began to change only in recent years, particularly under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as the kingdom embarked on a programme of social and economic reforms.
And now, nearly half a century after Juhayman’s men turned the Grand Mosque into a battlefield, the holy city has once again found itself at the centre of a security crisis.
The circumstances are radically different. The 1979 siege was an internal armed uprising that lasted two weeks and saw militants occupy Islam’s holiest mosque. The latest episode involves a regional conflict and an aerial threat that Saudi Arabia says was intercepted before reaching Mecca.
But the sensitivity remains the same.
For Saudi Arabia, and for Muslims across the world, Mecca is not simply a city.
It is home to the Kaaba, the focal point of Muslim prayer, and the Grand Mosque – a sanctuary whose security carries a significance far beyond the borders of the kingdom.
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