Qualla: Grand Mosque seizure https://qualla.com/grand-mosque-seizure en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:29 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/g/u/3/grand-mosque-seizure-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Grand Mosque seizure https://qualla.com/grand-mosque-seizure Grand Mosque seizure: Introduction https://qualla.com/grand-mosque-seizure/ Photo credit Qrmoo3, CC BY-SA 4.0. The 50,000 worshippers had come for dawn prayer on the last day of the Islamic year 1399 - 20 November 1979 - and Sheikh Mohammed al-Subayil was preparing to lead them when the gates slammed shut. Men pulled rifles from beneath their pilgrim robes. Two policemen, armed only with wooden canes for keeping pilgrim crowds in line, were shot dead at the doors. Some of the worshippers were released. Others were herded into the sanctuary and held there. In the minarets, snipers took up positions above the Kaaba itself, the black-draped cube that is the focal point of prayer for almost two billion Muslims. What followed was two weeks of fighting inside a place where Islamic law does not allow even a plant to be uprooted without sanction.

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/g/u/3/grand-mosque-seizure-wp/sgu3-grand-mosque-seizure-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Grand Mosque seizure: The Millennium, the Preacher, and the Mahdi https://qualla.com/grand-mosque-seizure/ Photo credit Qrmoo3, CC BY-SA 4.0. Juhayman al-Otaybi came from a prominent Najdi family - his grandfather had ridden with Ibn Saud in the Ikhwan, the very militia that helped build the Saudi state. Juhayman had been a corporal in the Saudi National Guard and a student of Sheikh Abd al-Aziz Ibn Baz, later Grand Mu...

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/g/u/3/grand-mosque-seizure-wp/sgu3-grand-mosque-seizure-the-millennium-the-preacher-and-the-mahdi.mp3 0:06 2 full Grand Mosque seizure: The Hostages in the Sanctuary https://qualla.com/grand-mosque-seizure/ Photo credit Qrmoo3, CC BY-SA 4.0. Among the hostages were pilgrims from dozens of countries - people who had saved for years, in some cases whose entire villages had pooled funds to send them. Many were elderly. Some were children traveling with parents. The militants' initial assault killed worshippers and polic...

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/g/u/3/grand-mosque-seizure-wp/sgu3-grand-mosque-seizure-the-hostages-in-the-sanctuary.mp3 0:06 3 full Grand Mosque seizure: French Commandos, Converted at the Gate https://qualla.com/grand-mosque-seizure/ Photo credit Qrmoo3, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Saudis called Paris. France dispatched three commandos from the elite GIGN, who reportedly converted to Islam in a formal ceremony before approaching the holy city - non-Muslims are forbidden in Mecca. They brought a type of gas designed to dull aggression and obstruct breath...

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/g/u/3/grand-mosque-seizure-wp/sgu3-grand-mosque-seizure-french-commandos-converted-at-the-gate.mp3 0:06 4 full Grand Mosque seizure: The Final Count https://qualla.com/grand-mosque-seizure/ Photo credit Qrmoo3, CC BY-SA 4.0. The official toll was 255 killed - pilgrims, troops, and militants combined - with another 560 injured, though diplomats at the time believed the real number higher. Military casualties alone were 127 dead and 451 injured. Among the dead: Muhammad al-Qahtani, the declared Mahdi, ...

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/g/u/3/grand-mosque-seizure-wp/sgu3-grand-mosque-seizure-the-final-count.mp3 0:06 5 full Grand Mosque seizure: What Came After https://qualla.com/grand-mosque-seizure/ Photo credit Qrmoo3, CC BY-SA 4.0. Ayatollah Khomeini, in revolutionary Iran, told radio listeners the attack was "the work of criminal American imperialism and international Zionism." It was not true - the militants were Saudi Sunni millenarians, ideological opposites of Khomeini's Shia theocracy - but the rumor ...

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/g/u/3/grand-mosque-seizure-wp/sgu3-grand-mosque-seizure-what-came-after.mp3 0:06 6 full