 On 20 November 1979, two hundred armed dissidents led by Juhayman al-Otaibi, seized the Grand Mosque, claiming the Saudi royal family no longer represented pure Islam and that the Masjid al-Haramand the Ka'bah, must be held by those of true faith.The rebels seized tens of thousands of pilgrims as hostages and barricaded themselves in the mosque.The siege lasted two weeks, and resulted in several hundred deaths and significant damage to the shrine, especially the Safa-Marwah gallery.