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The '''Kaaba''' (]: {{lang|ar|الكعبة}} {{ArabDIN|al-Ka‘bah}}; {{IPA2|'kɑʕbɑ}}) , also known as ''{{ArabDIN|al-Kaʿbatu l-Mušarrafah}}'' ({{lang|ar|الكعبة المشرًّفة}}), ''{{ArabDIN|al-Baytu l-ʿAtīq}}'' ({{Ar|البيت العتيق}} "The Primordial House"), or ''{{ArabDIN|al-Baytu l-Ḥarām}}'' ({{lang|ar|البيت الحرام}} "The Sacred House"), is a large ]al building located inside the ] known as ] in ], ]. The mosque was built around the original Kaaba.

<!-- DO NOT REMOVE THIS IMAGE. IT WIL BE REVERTED AND YOU MAY BE BLOCKED. WIKIPEDIA IS NOT CENSORED. -->
] pilgrims around the Kaaba performing ] (lesser pilgrimage)]]

The Kaaba is the ] in ].<ref name="eoi317">Wensinck, A. J; Ka`ba. ] IV p. 317</ref> The ], the direction Muslims face during ], is the direction from their location on ] towards the Kaaba. It is around the Kaaba that ] is performed by ]s during the ] (]) season as well as during the ] (lesser pilgrimage).<ref name="eoi317"/>

== Location and physical attributes ==
The Kaaba is a large masonry structure roughly the shape of a ]. (The name ''Kaaba'' comes from the Arabic word "muka'ab" meaning "cube".) It is made of ] from the hills near ], and stands upon a ten inch (25 cm) ] base, which projects outwards about 0.3 ]s (1-foot).<ref name="eoi317"/> Approximations for the structural dimensions are: 13.10 metres (43 feet) high, with sides measuring 11.03 metres by 12.62 metres.<ref>{{cite book| last = Peterson| first = Andrew| authorlink = | coauthors = | title = Dictionary of Islamic Architecture.| publisher = Routledge | date = 1996| location = London| url = http://archnet.org/library/dictionary/| doi = | id = }}</ref><ref name="eq76">Hawting, G.R; Ka`ba. Encyclopaedia of the Qur'an p. 76</ref> The four corners of the Kaaba roughly face the four points of the compass.<ref name="eoi317"/> In the eastern corner of the Kaaba is the "''Rukn-al-Aswad''" (the ] or ''al-Ħajaru l-Aswad''), generally thought to be a ] remnant; at the northern corner is the "''Rukn-al-Iraqi''" ('The Iraqi corner'); at the west lies "''Rukn-al-Shami''" ('The Levantine corner') and at the south "''Rukn-al-Yamani''" ('The Yemeni corner').<ref name="eoi317"/><ref name="eq76"/>

It is covered by a black silk curtain decorated with gold-embroidered calligraphy. This cloth is known as the ]; it is replaced yearly.<ref>{{cite web| last = | first = | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = 'House of God' Kaaba gets new cloth| work =| publisher = The Age Company Ltd.| date = 2003| url = http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/02/11/1044725746252.html| format = | doi = | accessdate = 2006-08-17}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| last = | first = | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = The Kiswa - (Kaaba Covering)| work =| publisher = Al-Islaah Publications| date = | url = http://members.tripod.com/worldupdates/newupdates10/id43.htm| format = | doi = | accessdate = 2006-08-17}}</ref> The ] is outlined in the weave of the fabric. About two-thirds of the way up runs a gold embroidered band covered with ]ic text.

Entrance to the inside of the Kaaba is gained through a door set 7 feet (2 m) above the ground on the north-eastern wall of the Kaaba, which acts as the façade.<ref name="eoi317"/> It is accessed by a wooden staircase on wheels, usually stored between the arch-shaped gate of Banu Shaybah and the well of ]. Inside the Kaaba, there is a marble floor. The interior walls are clad with marble half-way to the roof; tablets with Qur'anic inscriptions are inset in the marble. The top part of the walls are covered with a green cloth decorated with gold embroidered ]ic verses. The building is believed to be otherwise empty. Caretakers perfume the marble cladding with scented oil, the same oil used to anoint the ] outside.

Although not directly connected to it, there is a semi-circular wall opposite the north-west wall of the Kaaba, known as the ''hatīm''. It is 3 ft (0.9 m) in height and 5 ft (1.5 m) in length, and is composed of ]. The space between the ''hatīm'' and the Kaaba was for a time belonging to the Kaaba itself, and so is generally not entered during the '']'' (ritual circumambulation). It is also thought by some that this space bears the graves of prophet ] and his mother ].<ref name="eoi317"/>

Muslims throughout the world face the Kaaba during prayers, which are five times a day. For most places around the world, coordinates for Mecca suffice. In ], worshippers pray in ] radiating outwards around the Kaaba. Therefore, the focus point is in the middle of the Kaaba.

== History ==
=== Before Islam ===
Little is known of the ] history of the Kaaba. Wensinck, writing in the Encyclopedia of Islam, identifies it with a place called ''Macoraba'' mentioned by the Roman geographer Ptolemy mention of Mecca. Ptolemy's text is believed to date from the ]., before the rise of Islam.<ref name="eoi318">Wensinck, A. J; Ka`ba. Encyclopaedia of Islam IV p. 318 </ref>

] disagrees with most academic historians on most issues concerning the history of early Islam, including the history of the Kabaa. In ''Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam'', Crone writes that she believes that the identification of Macoraba with the kaaba is false, and that Macoraba was a town in southern Arabia, in what was then known as ''Arabia Felix''.<ref>{{cite book| last = Crone| first = Patricia| authorlink = | coauthors = | title = Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam| publisher = Gorgias | date = 2004| location = Piscataway, New Jersey| url =| doi = | id = }} pp. 134-137</ref>

Many accounts, including Muslim accounts, and some accounts written by academic historians, stress the power and importance of the pre-Islamic Mecca. They depict it as a city grown rich on the proceeds of the ]. Crone believes that this is an exaggeration and that Mecca may only have been an outpost trading with nomads for leather, cloth, and camel butter. Crone argues that if Mecca had been a well-known center of trade, it would have been mentioned by later authors such as Procopius, Nonnosus, and the Syrian church chroniclers writing in Syriac. However, the town is absent from any geographies or histories written in the last three centuries before the rise of Islam.<ref>{{cite book| last = Crone| first = Patricia| authorlink = | coauthors = | title = Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam| publisher = Gorgias | date = 2004| location = Piscataway, New Jersey| url =| doi = | id = }} p. 137</ref>

According to The ], "before the rise of Islam it was revered as a sacred sanctuary and was a site of pilgrimage."<ref>Britannica 2002 Deluxe Edition ], "Ka'bah."</ref> According to the ] historian Eduard Glaser, the name "''Kaaba''" may have been related to the southern ] or ]n word "''mikrab''", signifying a temple.<ref name="eoi318"/> Again, Crone disputes this etymology.

=== The Muslim view ===
]
According to the ], the Kaaba was built by ] (]) and his son Ismail (] ). Islamic traditions assert that the Kaaba "reflects" a house in heaven called al-Baytu l-Maˤmur<ref>{{cite web|author=Hajj-e-Baytullah|title=Baytullah - The House of Allah|publisher=|accessmonthday=August 13 |accessyear=2006|url=http://www.ezsoftech.com/hajj/hajj_article1.asp}}</ref> (]: البيت المعمور) and that it was first built by the first man, ]. Ibrahim and Ismail rebuilt the Kaaba on the old foundations. <ref>Azraqi, ''Akhbar Makkah'', vol. 1, pp. 58-66</ref>

When Muhammad conquered Mecca, he destroyed the 360 idols around Kaaba which the Meccan pagans possessed. <ref name=Ahram></ref><ref name=uscMSA> - USC MSA</ref> There was one god for each day of the year. <ref name=Ahram></ref> While destroying each idol, Muhammad recited {{Quran|17|81}} which says "Truth has arrived and falsehood has perished for falsehood is by its nature bound to perish.'" <ref name=Ahram></ref><ref name=uscMSA> - USC MSA</ref>

Muhammad then entered the Ka`abah and ordered all the pictures to be destroyed. <ref name=uscMSA> - USC MSA</ref>

=== At the time of Muhammad ===
] into place, when the Kaaba was rebuilt in the early 600s<br>&nbsp;<br><small>For more information on this image, please see ].</small>]]

At the time of ] (570-632 AD), his tribe the ] was in charge of the Kaaba, which was at that time a shrine to numerous ]. Muhammad earned the enmity of his tribe by claiming their shrine for the religion of Islam that he preached. He wanted the Kaaba to be dedicated to the worship of God (]) alone, and all the other statues evicted. The Quraysh persecuted and harassed him continuously, and he and his followers eventually migrated to ] in 622 AD. After this pivotal migration, or ], the ] became a political and military force. In 630 AD, Muhammad and his followers returned to Mecca as conquerors and the Kaaba was re-dedicated as an Islamic ]. Henceforth, the annual pilgrimage was to be a Muslim rite, the ].{{fact|date=July 2007}}

Islamic histories also mention a reconstruction of the Kaaba around 600 AD. A story found in ]'s ''Sirat Rasul Allah'' (as reconstructed and translated by Guillaume) shows Muhammad settling a quarrel between Meccan clans as to which clan should set the ] cornerstone in place. His solution was to have all the clan elders raise the cornerstone on a cloak, and then Muhammad set the stone into its final place with his own hands.<ref>{{cite book| last = Guillaume| first = A.| authorlink = | coauthors = | title = The Life of Muhammad | publisher = Oxford University Press | date = 1955 | location = Oxford| doi = | id = }} pp. 84-87</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=University of Southern California|title=The Prophet of Islam - His Biography|publisher=|accessdate=August 12|accessyear=2006|url=http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/prophet/profbio.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.witness-pioneer.org/vil/Books/SM_tsn/ch1s6.html | title = Muhammad's Birth and Forty Years prior to Prophethood|work=Ar-Raheeq Al-Makhtum (The Sealed Nectar): Memoirs of the Noble Prophet|accessdate=2007-05-04|author=Saifur Rahman al-Mubarakpuri, translated by Issam Diab|date=1979}}</ref> Ibn Ishaq says that the timber for the reconstruction of the Kaaba came from a Greek ship that had been wrecked on ] coast at Shu'ayba.{{cn|date=July 2007}}

It is also claimed by the ] that the Kaaba is the birth place of ], the fourth ] and the cousin and son-in-law of the ] Muhammad.{{cn|date=July 2007}}

=== Since Muhammad's time ===
The Kaaba has been repaired and reconstructed many times since Muhammad's day.

* ], an early Muslim who ruled Mecca for many years between the death of ] and the consolidation of ] power, is said to have demolished the old Kaaba and rebuilt it to include the ''hatīm'', a semi-circular wall now outside the Kaaba. He did so on the basis of a tradition (found in several ]s<ref>] 1506, 1508;] 1333</ref>) that the ''hatīm'' was a remnant of the foundations of the Abrahamic Kaaba, and that Muhammad himself had wished to rebuild so as to include it.

* This structure was destroyed (or partially destroyed) in 683, during the war between ] and Umayyad forces commanded by ]. ] used stone-throwing catapults against the Meccans. This episode has been depicted by many Muslim chroniclers as a black mark against the Ummayad caliph ], who ordered the campaign against Mecca. Yazid died in 683, the year his forces attacked the Hijaz.

* The Ummayads under ] finally reunited all the former Islamic possessions and ended the long civil war (see ]). In 693 he had the remnants of al-Zubayr's Kaaba razed, and rebuilt on the foundations set by the Quraysh.<ref>] 1509; ] 1333</ref> The Kaaba returned to the cube shape it had taken during Muhammad's lifetime.

Apart from repair work, the basic shape and structure of the Kaaba have not changed since then.<ref>]. '''', ], ]</ref>

== Cleaning ==
The building is opened twice a year for a ceremony known as "the cleaning of the Kaaba." This ceremony takes place roughly fifteen days before the start of the month of ] and the same period of time before the start of the annual pilgrimage.

The keys to the Kaaba are held by the ] (بني شيبة) tribe.
Members of the tribe greet visitors to the inside of the Kaaba on the occasion of the cleaning ceremony. A small number of dignitaries and foreign diplomats are invited to participate in the ceremony. The governor of Mecca leads the honored guests who ritually clean the structure, using simple brooms. Washing of the Kaaba is done with a mixture of ] and ].<ref>, Retrieved November 30 2006.</ref>

Tradition has it that when the ] on the corner of the shrine came to earth, it was white. It turned black under the burden of millions of sins.<ref></ref>

== Qibla and prayer ==
{{main|Qibla}}
]
For any ] on the Earth, the ] is the direction to the Kaaba. Muslims are ordered to face this direction during prayer (] 2:143-144). While it may appear to some non-Muslims that Muslims ] the Kaaba, the Kaaba is simply the focal point for prayer.

Like Jews, the earliest Muslims prayed facing Jerusalem. According to Islamic tradition, when Muhammad was praying in the ] (in ]), he was ordered by God to change the qibla direction from Jerusalem to Mecca and the Kaaba. Various theories are advanced as to the reason for the change, and most historians find it was the reluctance of the Jews of Medina to convert to his religion that prompted the move.

Muslim groups in the United States differ as to how the qibla should be oriented - some believe that the direction should be calculated as a straight line drawn on a flat map, like the familiar ] of the globe; others say that the direction is determined by the shortest line on the globe of the earth, or a ]. At times this controversy has lead to heated disputes. Flat-map Muslims in the United States pray east and slightly south; great-circle Muslims face in a north-easterly direction. In both cases, the ''exact'' orientation will vary from city to city.

Some Muslims carry ]es that tell them which direction to face no matter where they are. This method requires one to align the north arrow with a particular point on the compass corresponding to one's location. Once so aligned, one simply turns toward the direction indicated by the compass's Qibla pointer, which is often in the shape of a minaret. "Qibla numbers" for various locations are listed in an accompanying booklet and also .

== See also ==
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==References==
{{reflist}}

{{commons}}
==External links==
=== Muslim articles on the Kaaba ===
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===Pictures, movies, models and Maps===
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* National Geographic documentary about Mecca

===Qibla===
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Revision as of 12:48, 9 July 2007