20 November 1979: as morning prayers began, hundreds of hardline Islamist gunmen, armed with rifles smuggled in coffins, stormed the Grand Mosque in Mecca. With... » 

20 November 1979: as morning prayers began, hundreds of hardline Islamist gunmen, armed with rifles smuggled in coffins, stormed the Grand Mosque in Mecca. With thousands of terrified worshippers trapped inside, the result was a bloody siege that lasted two weeks, caused hundreds of deaths, prompted an international diplomatic crisis and unleashed forces that would eventually lead to the rise of al Qaeda. This dramatic story was barely covered in the international media, as Saudi Arabia imposed an information blackout and kept foreign correspondents away. In The Siege of Mecca journalist Yaroslav Trofimov penetrates the veil of silence, interviewing many direct participants in the siege and drawing on secret documents to reveal the truth about the first operation of modern global jihad.

'Trofimov tells this tale with considerable verve and authority ... and sets the siege within a wider historical context' - Michael Burleigh, Literary Review

'A gripping and revealing account of this brutal uprising ... The Siege of Mecca is a marvel of investigative journalism' - Ziauddin Sardar, New Statesman «