Juhayman ibn Muhammad ibn Sayf al-Otaybi was a Saudi religious dissident and ex-soldier who led the Ikhwan during their Grand Mosque seizure in 1979. He and his followers besieged and took over the Grand Mosque of Mecca on 20 November 1979 and held it for two weeks. During this time, he called for an uprising against the House of Saud and also proclaimed that the Mahdi had arrived in the form of one of the Ikhwan's leading officials. The incident led to widespread unrest, culminating in large-scale anti-American riots throughout the Muslim world, particularly after Iranian religious cleric Ruhollah Khomeini of the Islamic Revolution falsely claimed over a radio broadcast that Juhayman's insurgency at the holiest Islamic site had been orchestrated by the United States and Israel.

The Ikhwan, commonly known as Ikhwan man ata'a Allah, was a religious militia made up of traditionally nomadic tribesmen which formed a significant military force of the ruler Ibn Saud and played an important role in establishing him as ruler of most of the Arabian Peninsula in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.