Ali Ahmad Mulla

Ali Ahmad Ali Mulla is muezzin of the Masjid al-Haram and head of its muezzins, the best-known contemporary muezzin of the Meccan sanctuary; his voice is recognised around the world, and some call him 'the Bilal of the Haram'. ^{1 2}

He was born in Mecca in 1366 AH. The sources differ on the Gregorian year: Wikidata gives 5 July 1945, the English article 5 July 1947, and the Arabic article pairs 1366 AH with 1945 in its text and 1947 in its infobox. The museum gives the accounts and does not choose. ^{1 2 3}

He studied in Shaykh Ashur's circle in the Haram and at the Rahmaniyya primary school on the Mas'a, spent the fourth and fifth grades at the Thaghr model school in Jeddah, and graduated around 1390–1391 AH from the capital's model institute with a diploma in art education; the English article adds that he then taught at the Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr intermediate school. ^{1 2}

Most of his family gave the call at the Haram: his grandfather Ali Abd al-Rahman Mulla, his father, his uncles Siddiq and Abd al-Rahman, his cousins Abd al-Latif, Abdullah and Abd al-Malik, his maternal grandfather Abdullah Khoja and his maternal uncle Abd al-Hafiz Khoja. He became head of the muezzins after his cousin Abd al-Malik al-Mulla died. His son Atef gave his first adhan at the Haram on 4 April 2022. ^{1 2}

He began calling the adhan at the Haram at fourteen, standing in for absent relatives. The Arabic article and the list of Haramain muezzins give his formal appointment as 1975; the English article gives 1984. ^{1 2 4}

He knew the minaret call before loudspeakers: the Rayyis family timed the adhan and called it from the Shafi'i station, and the seven muezzins took it up from the minarets, a practice that lasted until about 1400 AH. His first adhan, the two dawn calls, was from the Bab al-Ziyada minaret, which had no microphone. ^{1 2}

During the seizure of the Haram in 1979 the call to prayer stopped for twenty-three days; when the siege was lifted he gave the first sunset adhan, in the presence of King Khalid bin Abdulaziz. ¹

He was the first to call the adhan at the mosques built abroad by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, accompanying Prince Abd al-Aziz bin Fahd — the first in Venezuela, the last in Gibraltar — and once called it at the Prophet's Mosque. He collects stamps, coins and old papers, photographs and films, and chairs the board of the al-Awali youth club. ^{1 2}

Wikidata listed articles on him in ten Wikipedia editions on 6 November 2026 (nine languages plus Simple English), among them Arabic, English, Bengali, Indonesian, Urdu and Hausa. ³

• Arabic Wikipedia article, revision of 28 September 2026. ¹

• English Wikipedia article, revision of 13 June 2026. ²

• Wikidata item Q4724579. ³

• List of the muezzins of the Two Holy Mosques, revision of 23 September 2026. ⁴