Toward the Seizure of the Grand Mosque in Mecca: The Writings and Ideology of Juhaymān al-ʿUtaybī and the Ikhwān

Abstract

Abstract This article seeks to explain how the pietist movement led by Juhaymān al-ʿUtaybī culminated in the seizure of the Grand Mosque in Mecca in November 1979, a pivotal event in the history of modern Saudi Arabia that contributed to the increasingly conservative orientation of Saudi policy in subsequent decades. It assesses the distinct ideology espoused by Juhaymān and his followers by examining the series of writings issued by the group in the year and a half leading up to the mosque takeover. The article provides the first comprehensive survey of these rasāʾil , focusing on the three most salient themes therein: (1) the appeal to the Wahhābī heritage, (2) the rejection of Saudi royal family rule, and (3) apocalypticism. While all three were critical components of Juhaymān’s ideology, it was his apocalyptic convictions—spelled out here in detail for the first time—that led him and his followers to stage the takeover of the Grand Mosque. The event was therefore not a “rebellion” or “uprising” in any mundane sense. The list of political demands allegedly issued by one of the militants on the first day of the mosque takeover is shown to have been almost certainly a fabrication.