Misplaced Pages

Kaaba: Difference between revisions

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Browse history interactively← Previous editContent deleted Content addedVisualWikitext
Revision as of 09:19, 10 July 2007 view source124.29.249.34 (talk)No edit summary← Previous edit Latest revision as of 02:35, 23 December 2024 view source Sundostund (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users, File movers, Template editors149,169 editsNo edit summary 
Line 1: Line 1:
{{short description|Building at the center of Islam's most important mosque, the Masjid al-Haram}}
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.
{{About|the Islamic holy site in Mecca|other uses|Kaba (disambiguation)}}
{{redirect|Kaab|other uses|Kaab (disambiguation)}}
{{pp|small=yes}}
{{pp-move}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}
{{Infobox religious building
| building_name = The Kaaba
| native_name = {{lang|ar|ٱلْكَعْبَة}} ({{transl|ar|al-Kaʿba}})
| native_name_lang = ar
| image = The Ka'ba, Great Mosque of Mecca, Saudi Arabia (4).jpg
| caption = The Kaaba
| map_type = Saudi Arabia#West Asia
| map_size =
| map_caption = Location of the Kaaba in Saudi Arabia
| relief = yes
| location = {{nowrap|],}}<br> ], ], ]
| coordinates = {{Wikidatacoord|Q29466|display=inline,title}}
| religious_affiliation = ]
| rite = ]
| region = ]
| municipality =
| leadership = '']'': ]
| website =
| architecture =
| architect =
| architecture_type = Temple{{sfn|Wensinck|Jomier|1978|p=319}}
| established = ]
| administration = The Agency of the General Presidency for the Affairs of the Two Holy Mosques
| founded_by =
| groundbreaking =
| year_completed =
| specifications =
| length = {{cvt|12.86|m|ftin}}
| width = {{cvt|11.03|m|ftin}}
| height_max = {{cvt|13.1|m|ftin}}
| materials = ], ], ]
}}
The '''Kaaba''',{{efn|{{Langx|ar|ٱلْكَعْبَة|lit=the Cube|translit=al-Kaʿba}}{{efn|ALA-LC: {{transl|ar|al-Ka{{ayn}}bah}}; DMG: {{transl|ar|al-Kaʿba}}; Wehr: {{transl|ar|al-kaʿba}}}} {{IPA|ar|al.ˈkaʕ.ba}}, also spelled '''Ka'ba''', '''Ka'bah''' or '''Kabah'''}} sometimes referred to as '''al-Ka'ba al-Musharrafa''',{{efn|{{langx|ar|ٱلْكَعْبَة ٱلْمُشَرَّفَة|lit=the Honored Ka'ba|links=no |translit=al-Kaʿba l-Mušarrafa}},{{efn|ALA-LC: {{transl|ar|al-Ka{{ayn}}bah al-Musharrafah}}; DMG: {{transl|ar|al-Kaʿba al-Mušarrafa}}; Wehr: {{transl|ar|al-kaʿba al-mušarrafa}}}} {{IPA|ar|al.ˈkaʕ.ba‿l.mu.ˈʃar.ra.fa}}}} is a stone building at the center of ]'s most important ] and ], the ] in ], ].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/aug/15/explosives-detectors-mecca-holy-mosque |title=Explosives detectors to be installed at gates of Mecca's Holy Mosque |access-date=23 May 2021 |date=15 August 2011 |website=] |first=Riazat |last=Butt}}</ref><ref name="Al-Azraqi-2003">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GydWAAAAYAAJ&q=%D8%A8%D9%83%D9%87 |title=Akhbar Mecca: History of Mecca |last=Al-Azraqi |year=2003 |isbn=9773411273 |page=262}}</ref>{{sfn|Wensinck|Jomier|1978|p=317}} It is considered by ]s to be the ''Baytullah'' ({{langx|ar|بَيْت ٱللَّٰه|lit=House of God|links=no}}) and is the ] ({{langx|ar|قِبْلَة|links=no}}, direction of ]) for Muslims around the world. The current structure was built after the original building was damaged by a fire during the ] by the ] in 683 ].{{sfn|Wensinck|Jomier|1978|p=319}}


In ], Muslims faced in the general direction of ] as the qibla in their prayers before changing the direction to face the Kaaba, believed by Muslims to be a result of a ]ic verse revelation to ].{{sfn|Mubarakpuri|1976}}
] pilgrims around the Kaaba performing ] (lesser pilgrimage)]]


According to Islam, the Kaaba was rebuilt several times throughout history, most famously by ] and his son ], when he returned to the valley of Mecca several years after leaving his wife ] (]) and Ismail there upon ]'s command. Circling the ''Kaaba'' seven times counterclockwise, known as Tawaf ({{Langx|ar|طواف |translit=tawaaf|links=no}}), is a '']'' (obligatory) rite for the completion of the ] and ] pilgrimages.{{sfn|Wensinck|Jomier|1978|p=317}} The area around the Kaaba where pilgrims walk is called the Mataaf.
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"/>


The Kaaba and the Mataaf are surrounded by pilgrims every day of the ], except the 9th of ], known as the ], on which the cloth covering the structure, known as the ] ({{Langx|ar|كسوة |translit=Kiswah|lit=Cloth|links=no}}), is changed. However, the most significant increase in their numbers is during ] and the ], when millions of pilgrims gather for Tawaf.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/7769689.stm |title=In pictures: Hajj pilgrimage |date=7 December 2008 |work=] |access-date=8 December 2008}}</ref> According to the Saudi ], 6,791,100 external pilgrims arrived for the Umrah ] in the Islamic year {{AH|1439|link=yes}}.<ref>{{cite web |title=Umrah Statistics Bulletin 2018 |url=https://www.stats.gov.sa/sites/default/files/umrah_statistics_bulletin_2018_en.pdf |website=General Authority for Statistics |publisher=Kingdom of Saudi Arabia |access-date=28 May 2022}}</ref>
== 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"/>


==History==
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.
{{see also|Pre-Islamic Arabia|Jahiliyyah}}
]: ''Verhandeling van de godsdienst der Mahometaanen'']]


===Origin===
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.
{{further|Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia}}


====Etymology====
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"/>
The literal meaning of the word ''Ka'bah'' ({{Langx|ar|كعبة}}) is ''cube''.<ref>Hans Wehr, Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, 1994.</ref> In the Qur'an, from the era of the life of ], the Kaaba is mentioned by the following names:
*''al-Bayt'' ({{langx|ar|ٱلْبَيْت|lit=the house|link=yes}}) in 2:125 by Allah{{Cite Quran|2|125}}<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.islamicstudies.info/tafheem.php?sura=2&verse=125&to=126 |title=Surah Al-Baqarah 2:122 - 2:126 - Towards Understanding the Quran |website=Tafheem |publisher=] |access-date=May 30, 2021}}</ref>
*''Baytī'' ({{langx|ar|بَيْتِي|lit=My House|link=no}}) in 22:26 by Allah{{Cite Quran|22|26}}<ref>{{Cite web |title=Surah Al-Haj 22:26-30 - Towards Understanding the Quran |url=https://www.islamicstudies.info/tafheem.php?sura=22&verse=26&to=30 |website=Tafheem |publisher=] |access-date=June 1, 2021}}</ref>
*''Baytik al-Muḥarram'' ({{langx|ar|بَيْتِكَ ٱلْمُحَرَّم|lit=Your Inviolable House|link=no}}) in 14:37 by Ibrahim{{Cite Quran|14|37}}<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.pakrush.com/2021/07/kaaba-meaning-history-and-significance.html | title=Kaaba: Meaning, History and Significance }}</ref>
*''al-Bayt al-Ḥarām'' ({{langx|ar|ٱلْبَيْت ٱلْحَرَام|lit=The Sacred House|link=no}}) in 5:97 by Allah{{Cite Quran|5|97}}
*''al-Bayt al-ʿAtīq'' ({{langx|ar|ٱلْبَيْت ٱلْعَتِيق|lit=The Ancient House|link=no}}) in 22:29 by Allah{{Cite Quran|22|29}}


According to historian ], the name "Kaaba" may have been related to the southern ] or ]n word "''mikrab''", signifying a temple.{{sfn|Wensinck|Jomier|1978|p=318}} Author ] disputes this etymology.{{sfn|Crone|2004}}
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 == ====Background====
]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ee.bilkent.edu.tr/~history/ottoman33.html|title=Ottomans : religious painting|access-date=1 May 2016}}</ref> Muhammad is shown with veiled face, {{Circa|1595}}.]]
=== 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>


Historian ] has cast doubt on the claim that Mecca was a major historical trading outpost.{{sfn|Crone|2004|p=7}}<ref>Holland, Tom (2012). ''In the Shadow of the Sword''; Little, Brown; p. 303</ref> Other scholars such as ] disagree and assert that it was.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Abdullah Alwi Haji Hassan |title=Sales and Contracts in Early Islamic Commercial Law |year=1994 |isbn=978-9694081366 |pages=3 ff|publisher=Islamic Research Institute, International Islamic University }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Bowersock |first=Glen. W. |title=Bowersock, G. W. (2017). The crucible of Islam. Cambridge (Mass.): Harvard University Press. pp. 50 ff. |year=2017}}</ref> Crone later on disregarded some of her theories.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Crone |first1=Patricia |title=Quraysh and the Roman Army: Making Sense of the Meccan Leather Trade. |journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London |date=2007 |volume=70 |issue=1 |pages=63–88 |doi=10.1017/S0041977X0700002X |jstor=40378894 |s2cid=154910558 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40378894}}</ref> She argues that Meccan trade relied on skins, hides, manufactured leather goods, clarified butter, Hijazi woollens, and camels. She suggests that most of these goods were destined for the Roman army, which is known to have required colossal quantities of leather and hides for its equipment.
] 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>


According to ], the ] pilgrimage site was the precursor to the Kaaba.<ref name="Efendi1987">{{cite book|author=Caʻfer Efendi|title=Risāle-i Miʻmāriyye| page= |year=1987 |publisher=Brill Archive |isbn=90-04-07846-0 }}</ref> Prior to Islam, the Kaaba was a holy site for the various ] tribes throughout the ]. Once every lunar year, Bedouin people would make a pilgrimage to Mecca. Setting aside any tribal feuds, they would worship their gods in the Kaaba and trade with each other in the city.<ref>{{cite book |author=Timur Kuran |chapter=Commercial Life under Islamic Rule |title=The Long Divergence : How Islamic Law Held Back the Middle East |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2011 |pages=45–62}}</ref> Various sculptures and paintings were held inside the Kaaba. A statue of ] (the principal idol of Mecca) and statues of other pagan deities are known to have been placed in or around the Kaaba.<ref name="King-2004">{{Cite journal |last=King |first=G. R. D. |date=2004 |title=The Paintings of the Pre-Islamic Kaʿba |journal=Muqarnas |volume=21 |pages=219–229 |jstor=1523357}}</ref> Apart from the paintings of pagan idols decorating the walls, which were destroyed at the behest of Muhammad after his ],<ref name="King-2004" /> there were also paintings of ], of ] holding ], and of ] (]) and his mother ] (]), which Muhammad spared.<ref name="EllenbogenTugendhaft2011" /> Undefined decorations, money and a pair of ram's horns were recorded to be inside the Kaaba.<ref name="King-2004" /> The pair of ram's horns were said to have belonged to the ram sacrificed by Ibrahim in place of his son Ismail as held by Islamic tradition.<ref name="King-2004" />
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>


During its history, the ] at the Kaaba has been struck and smashed by a stone fired from a ],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi. Hırka-i Saadet Dairesi |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/56942620 |title=The sacred trusts : Pavilion of the Sacred Relics, Topkapı Palace Museum, Istanbul |date=2004 |publisher=Light |others=Hilmi Aydın, Talha Uğurluel, Ahmet Doğru |isbn=1-932099-72-7 |location=Somerset, N.J. |oclc=56942620}}</ref> it has been smeared with excrement,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Burton |first=Richard Francis |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781139162302 |title=Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah |date=2009 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-139-16230-2 |location=Cambridge |doi=10.1017/cbo9781139162302 |hdl=2027/coo.31924062544543}}</ref> stolen and ransomed by the ]<ref name="Peters 1994">{{Cite book |last=Peters |first=F. E. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/30671443 |title=Mecca : a literary history of the Muslim Holy Land |date=1994 |publisher=Princeton University Press |others=Mazal Holocaust Collection |isbn=0-691-03267-X |location=Princeton, N.J. |oclc=30671443}}</ref> and smashed into several fragments.<ref name="Peters 1994"/><ref name="King-2004" />
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.


] provides the following narrative on the authority of his grandfather:<ref name="King-2004" />
=== The Muslim view ===
{{blockquote|I have heard that there was set up in ''al-Bayt'' (referring to the Kaaba) a picture ({{Langx|ar|تمثال|lit=Depiction |translit=Timthal}}) of Maryam and 'Isa. said: "Yes, there was set in it a picture of Maryam adorned (''muzawwaqan''); in her lap, her son Isa sat adorned."|al-Azraqi, ''Akhbar Mecca: History of Mecca''<ref name="Al-Azraqi-2003" />}}
]
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>


In her book '']'', ] asserts that the Kaaba was officially dedicated to ], a ] deity, and contained 360 idols which probably represented the days of the year.{{sfn|Armstrong|2000|p=11}} However, by the time of Muhammad's era, it seems that the Kaaba was venerated as the temple of Allah, the High God. Once a year, tribes from all around the Arabian Peninsula would converge on Mecca to perform the Hajj pilgrimage, which was a mark of the widespread conviction that Allah was the same deity worshipped by monotheists. At this time, the Muslims would perform the Salat prayer facing Jerusalem, as instructed by Muhammad, and turning their backs on the pagan associations of the Kabah.{{sfn|Armstrong|2000|p=11}} ], in his translation of the ]'s ], says that the Kaaba itself might be referred to in the feminine form.<ref>{{harvnb|Ibn Ishaq|1955|page=85 footnote 2}}: The text reads 'O God, do not be afraid', the second footnote reads 'The feminine form indicates the Ka'ba itself is addressed'</ref> ] was often performed naked by men and almost naked by women.{{sfn|Ibn Ishaq|1955|pages=88–9}} It is disputed whether Allah and Hubal were the same deity or different. According to a hypothesis by ] and Christian Robin, Hubal was only venerated by ] and the Kaaba was first dedicated to Allah, a supreme god of individuals belonging to different tribes, while the pantheon of the gods of Quraysh was installed in the Kaaba after they conquered Mecca a century before Muhammad's time.<ref>{{cite book |author=Christian Julien Robin |page=|title=Arabia and Ethiopia. In The Oxford Handbook of Late Antiquity |publisher=Oxford University Press USA |year=2012 |isbn=9780195336931 }}</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>
]'' (706 AH, 1307 CE) depicting Muhammad and others moving the black stone into the Kaaba]] <!-- Kindly read Talk:Muhammad/FAQ if you have concerns about this image. Do not try to delete it, as it will be added again shortly afterwards. -->
Imoti contends that there were numerous such Kaaba sanctuaries in Arabia at one time, but this was the only one built of stone.<ref>Imoti, Eiichi. "The Ka'ba-i Zardušt", ''Orient'', XV (1979), The Society for Near Eastern Studies in Japan, pp. 65–69.</ref> The others also allegedly had counterparts of the Black Stone. There was a "Red Stone", in the Kaaba of the South Arabian city of Ghaiman; and the "White Stone" in the Kaaba of al-Abalat (near modern-day ]). Grunebaum, in ''Classical Islam'', points out that the experience of divinity of that period was often associated with the ] of stones, mountains, special rock formations, or "trees of strange growth."{{sfn|Grunebaum|1970|p=24}} Armstrong further says that the Kaaba was thought to be at the center of the world, with the Gate of Heaven directly above it. The Kaaba marked the location where the sacred world intersected with the profane; the embedded Black Stone was a further symbol of this as a ] that had fallen from the sky and linked heaven and earth.{{sfn|Armstrong|1997|p=221}}


According to Sarwar, about 400 years before the birth of Muhammad, a man named 'Amr bin Luhayy, who descended from ] and was the king of ], placed an idol of Hubal on the roof of the Kaaba. This idol was one of the chief deities of the ruling ] tribe. The idol was made of red ] and shaped like a human, but with the right hand broken off and replaced with a golden hand. When the idol was moved inside the Kaaba, it had seven arrows in front of it, which were used for ].<ref>Francis E. Peters, ''Muhammad and the origins of Islam'', SUNY Press, 1994, p. 109.</ref> To maintain peace among the perpetually warring tribes, Mecca was declared a sanctuary where no violence was allowed within {{cvt|20|mi|km|sigfig=1|order=flip}} of the Kaaba. This combat-free zone allowed Mecca to thrive not only as a place of pilgrimage, but also as a trading center.{{sfn|Armstrong|1997|pp=221–22}}
Muhammad then entered the Ka`abah and ordered all the pictures to be destroyed. <ref name=uscMSA> - USC MSA</ref>


In ] literature, the Samaritan Book of the Secrets of Moses ('']'') states that Ismail and his eldest son ] built the Kaaba as well as the city of Mecca."<ref>{{cite book |last=Gaster |first=Moses |url=https://archive.org/stream/MN40245ucmf_0#page/n271/mode/2up |title=The Asatir: the Samaritan book of Moses |publisher=The Royal Asiatic Society |year=1927 |location=London |pages=262, 71 |quote=Ishmaelites built Mecca (Baka, Bakh)}}</ref> The ''Asatir'' book was likely compiled in the 10th century CE,<ref>{{cite book |last=Crown |first=Alan David |date=2001 |page= |title=Samaritan Scribes and Manuscripts' |location=Tübingen |publisher=Mohr Siebeck}}</ref> though ] suggested in 1927 that it was written no later than the second half of the 3rd century BCE.<ref>M. Gaster, ''The Asatir: The Samaritan Book of the "Secrets of Moses"'', London (1927), p. 160</ref>
=== At the time of Muhammad ===
<!-- DO NOT REMOVE THIS IMAGE. IT WILL BE REVERTED AND YOU MAY BE BLOCKED. WIKIPEDIA IS NOT CENSORED. -->
<!-- DO NOT REMOVE THIS IMAGE. IT WILL BE REVERTED AND YOU MAY BE BLOCKED. WIKIPEDIA IS NOT CENSORED. -->


==== According to Islamic opinion ====
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}}
], 16th or early 17th century]]


The Qur'an contains several verses regarding the origin of the Kaaba. It states that the Kaaba was the first ] for mankind, and that it was built by Ibrahim and Ismail on Allah's instructions:<ref name="Michigan C 1986">{{cite book |author=Michigan Consortium for Medieval and Early Modern Studies |oclc=13159056 |title=The Meeting of Two Worlds: Cultural Exchange Between East and West During the Period of the Crusades |publisher=Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University |year=1986 |isbn=0918720583 |editor1=Goss, V. P. |volume=21 |page=208 |editor2=Bornstein, C. V.}}</ref><ref name="Abu Sway 2011">{{cite news |author=Mustafa Abu Sway |title=The Holy Land, Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Qur'an, Sunnah and other Islamic Literary Source |publisher=] |url=http://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/Abusway_0.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728001911/http://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/Abusway_0.pdf |archive-date=28 July 2011}}</ref><ref name="Dyrness2013">{{cite book |author=Dyrness, W. A. |oclc=855764827 |title=Senses of Devotion: Interfaith Aesthetics in Buddhist and Muslim Communities |date=29 May 2013 |publisher=] Publishers |isbn=978-1620321362 |volume=7 |page=25}}</ref>
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}}


{{blockquote|Verily, the first House (of worship) appointed for mankind was that at Bakkah (Makkah), full of blessing, and a guidance for mankind.|Quran|] ] (3), ] 96<ref name="Cite quran|3|96|t=y|s=ns">{{Cite quran|3|96 |t=y |s=ns}}</ref><ref>An alternative version is in {{cite web |editor-last1=Pickthall |editor-first1=Muhammad M. |title=The Quran |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2002.02.0002%3Asura%3D3%3Averse%3D96 |access-date=10 January 2018 |quote=Lo! the first Sanctuary appointed for mankind was that at Becca, a blessed place, a guidance to the peoples;}}</ref><ref>Another version is in {{cite web |editor-last1=Shakir |editor-first1=M. H. |title=The Quran |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2002.02.0003%3Asura%3D3%3Averse%3D96 |access-date=10 January 2018 |quote=Most surely the first house appointed for men is the one at Bekka, blessed and a guidance for the nations.}}</ref>}}
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}}


{{blockquote|Behold! We gave the site, to Ibrahim, of the (Sacred) House, (saying): "Associate not anything (in worship) with Me; and sanctify My House for those who compass it round, or stand up, or bow, or prostrate themselves (therein in prayer)."|Quran|Surah ] (22), Ayah 26<ref name="Cite quran|22|26|t=y|s=ns">{{Cite quran|22|26 |t=y |s=ns}}</ref><ref>Another version is in {{cite web |editor-last1=Pickthall |editor-first1=Muhammad M. |title=The Quran |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2002.02.0002%3Asura%3D22%3Averse%3D26 |access-date=10 January 2018 |quote=And (remember) when We prepared for Abraham the place of the (holy) House, saying: Ascribe thou no thing as partner unto Me, and purify My House for those who make the round (thereof) and those who stand and those who bow and make prostration.}}</ref><ref>Another version is in {{cite web |editor-last1=Shakir |editor-first1=M. H. |title=The Quran |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2002.02.0003%3Asura%3D22%3Averse%3D26 |access-date=10 January 2018 |quote=And when We assigned to Ibrahim the place of the House, saying: Do not associate with Me aught, and purify My House for those who make the circuit and stand to pray and bow and prostrate themselves.}}</ref>}}
=== Since Muhammad's time ===
The Kaaba has been repaired and reconstructed many times since Muhammad's day.


{{blockquote|And remember Ibrahim and Ismail raised the foundations of the House (With this prayer): "Our Lord! Accept (this service) from us: For Thou art the All-Hearing, the All-knowing."|Quran|] (2), Ayah 127<ref name="Cite quran|2|127|t=y|s=ns">{{Cite quran|2|127 |t=y |s=ns}}</ref><ref>Another version is in {{cite web |editor-last1=Pickthall |editor-first1=Muhammad M. |title=The Quran |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2002.02.0002%3Asura%3D2%3Averse%3D127 |access-date=10 January 2018 |quote=And when Ibrahim and Ismail were raising the foundations of the House, (Abraham prayed): Our Lord! Accept from us (this duty). Lo! Thou, only Thou, art the Hearer, the Knower.}}</ref><ref>Another version is in {{cite web |editor-last1=Shakir |editor-first1=M. H. |title=The Quran |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2002.02.0003%3Asura%3D2%3Averse%3D127 |access-date=10 January 2018 |quote=And when Ibrahim and Ismail raised the foundations of the House: Our Lord! accept from us; surely Thou art the Hearing, the Knowing:}}</ref>}}
* ], 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.


], in his famous ] ({{transliteration|ar|]}}) of the Quran, mentions two interpretations among the Muslims on the origin of the Kaaba. One is that the temple was a place of worship for {{transliteration|ar|]}} (]s) before the creation of man. Later, a house of worship was built on the location and was lost during the flood in ] (])'s time and was finally rebuilt by Ibrahim and Ismail as mentioned later in the Quran. Ibn Kathir regarded this tradition as weak and preferred instead the narration by ] that although several other temples might have preceded the Kaaba, it was the first {{transliteration|ar|Bayt Allah}} ('House of God'), dedicated solely to him, built by his instruction, and sanctified and blessed by him, as stated in Quran 22:26–29.<ref>{{Cite Tafsir|en:ibn kathir|3|96}}</ref> A ] in ] states that the Kaaba was the first {{transliteration|ar|masjid}} on Earth, and the second was ] in Jerusalem.<ref>{{Hadith USC|bukhari|4|55|585}}</ref>
* 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.


{{quote box
* 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.
|quote=] narrated: I said, "O Allah's Apostle! Which mosque was first built on the surface of the earth?" He said, "Al-Masjid-ul-Haram (in Mecca)." I said, "Which was built next?" He replied "The mosque of Al-Aqsa (in Jerusalem)." I said, "What was the period of construction between the two?" He said, "Forty years." He added, "Wherever (you may be, and) the prayer time becomes due, perform the prayer there, for the best thing is to do so (i.e. to offer the prayers in time)."
|quoted=2
|width = 40%
|align = right
|source=]: Volume 4, Book 55, Hadith Number 585<ref>{{Hadith-usc|bukhari|5|58|226|b=n}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.arabworldbooks.com/Readers2010/articles/aqsa_mosque_history.htm |title=A history of the Al Asqa Mosque |work=Arab World Books}}</ref>}}


{{citation needed span|date=November 2023|reason=The specific details are not directly supported by the reference of Quran 22:26–33.|While Abraham was building the Kaaba, an angel brought to him the Black Stone which he placed in the eastern corner of the structure. Another stone was the {{transliteration|ar|]}}, the Station of Abraham, where Abraham stood for elevation while building the structure. The Black Stone and the {{transliteration|ar|Maqam Ibrahim}} are believed by Muslims to be the only remnant of the original structure made by Abraham as the remaining structure had to be demolished and rebuilt several times over history for its maintenance.}} After the construction was complete, God enjoined the descendants of Ismail to perform an annual pilgrimage: the Hajj and the ], sacrifice of cattle. The vicinity of the temple was also made a sanctuary where bloodshed and war were forbidden.{{cite quran|22|26 |e=33}}
Apart from repair work, the basic shape and structure of the Kaaba have not changed since then.<ref>]. '''', ], ]</ref>


According to Islamic tradition, over the millennia after Ismail's death, his progeny and the local tribes who settled around the ] well gradually turned to polytheism and idolatry. Several idols were placed within the Kaaba representing deities of different aspects of nature and different tribes. Several rituals were adopted in the pilgrimage including doing naked circumambulation.{{sfn|Ibn Ishaq|1955|pages=88–9}} A king named Tubba' is considered the first one to have a door be built for the Kaaba according to sayings recorded in ]'s {{transliteration|ar|Akhbar Makka}}.<ref name="Al Arabiya">{{cite news |date=26 December 2018 |title=IN PICTURES: Six doors of Ka'aba over 5,000 years |publisher=Al Arabiya |url=http://english.alarabiya.net/en/variety/2018/12/26/Oldest-out-of-six-Kaaba-doors-tours-the-world.html |access-date=22 October 2019}}</ref> The interpretation that pre-Islamic Arabs once practiced ] is supported by some literary evidence, being the prevalence of ], whose God was that of ], in pre-Islamic Arab culture.<ref>The Treasury of literature, Sect. 437</ref><ref>The Beginning of History, Volume 3, Sect.10</ref><ref>The Collection of the Speeches of Arabs, volume 1, section 75</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.


====Ptolemy and Diodorus Siculus====
The keys to the Kaaba are held by the ] (بني شيبة) tribe.
Writing in the '']'', Wensinck identifies Mecca with a place called ''Macoraba'' mentioned by ].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Neuwirth |first1=Angelika |url=http://www.aai.uni-hamburg.de/voror/Personal/heidemann/Heidemann_Texte/Heidemann_Quran_in_Context_2010_Representation.pdf |title=The Qur'an in context historical and literary investigations into the Qur'anic milieu |last2=Nicolai Sinai |first2=Michael |publisher=Brill |year=2010 |isbn=9789047430322 |location=Leiden |pages=63,123,83, 295 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151002140559/http://www.aai.uni-hamburg.de/voror/Personal/heidemann/Heidemann_Texte/Heidemann_Quran_in_Context_2010_Representation.pdf |archive-date=2 October 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref>{{sfn|Wensinck|Jomier|1978|p=318}} ] states: "Mecca is mentioned by Ptolemy. The name he gives it allows us to identify it as a South Arabian foundation created around a sanctuary."{{sfn|Grunebaum|1970|p=19}} In '']'', ] argues that the identification of Macoraba with Mecca is false and that Macoraba was a town in southern Arabia in what was then known as ].{{sfn|Crone|2004|pp=134–137}} A recent study has revisited the arguments for Macoraba and found them unsatisfactory.<ref>{{Cite journal |author=Morris, Ian D. |year=2018 |title=Mecca and Macoraba |url=https://islamichistorycommons.org/mem/wp-content/uploads/sites/55/2018/11/UW-26-Morris.pdf |url-status=dead |journal=Al-ʿUṣūr Al-Wusṭā |volume=26 |pages=1–60 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181117022342/https://islamichistorycommons.org/mem/wp-content/uploads/sites/55/2018/11/UW-26-Morris.pdf |archive-date=17 November 2018 |access-date=16 November 2018}}</ref>
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>


] ]s representing the Kaaba, 17th century]]
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>
Based on an earlier report by ], ] mentions a temple along the Red Sea coast, "which is very holy and exceedingly revered by all Arabians".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Siculus |first1=Diodorus |url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/3C*.html |title=Bibliotheca Historica|series=Book 3|chapter=44}}</ref> ] believed that this was the Kaaba.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gibbon |first1=Edward |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.533456 |title=The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire |year=1862 |series=Book 5|pages=223–224}}</ref> However, Ian D. Morris argues that Gibbon had misread the source: Diodorus puts the temple too far north for it to have been Mecca.<ref>{{Cite journal |author=Morris, Ian D. |year=2018 |title=Mecca and Macoraba |url=https://islamichistorycommons.org/mem/wp-content/uploads/sites/55/2018/11/UW-26-Morris.pdf |url-status=dead |journal=Al-ʿUṣūr Al-Wusṭā |volume=26 |pages=1–60, pp. 42–43, n. 200 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181117022342/https://islamichistorycommons.org/mem/wp-content/uploads/sites/55/2018/11/UW-26-Morris.pdf |archive-date=17 November 2018 |access-date=16 November 2018}}</ref>


== Qibla and prayer == ==== Arnobius ====
Christian church father ], in around 300 CE, referred to "an unshapen stone" worshiped in an unspecified location in Arabia.<ref>''Adversus Gentes'', book 6, ch. 11</ref>

==== Khuzistan Chronicle ====
This short ] (Christian origin) chronicle written no later than the 660s CE covers the history up to the Arab conquest and also gives an interesting note on Arabian geography. The section covering the geography starts with a speculation about the origin of the Muslim sanctuary in Arabia:

{{blockquote|Regarding the K'bta (Kaaba) of Ibrahim, we have been unable to discover what it is except that, because the blessed Abraham grew rich in property and wanted to get away from the envy of the Canaanites, he chose to live in the distant and spacious parts of the desert. Since he lived in tents, he built that place for the worship of God and for the offering of sacrifices. It took its present name from what it had been, since the memory of the place was preserved with the generations of their race. Indeed, it was no new thing for the Arabs to worship there, but goes back to antiquity, to their early days, in that they show honor to the father of the head of their people.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Robert G. |first=Hoyland |title=Seeing Islam as others saw it |publisher=The Darwin Press |year=1997 |pages=187}}</ref>}}

This is an early record from the ], of a Christian origin that explicitly mentions the Kaaba, and confirms the idea that not just the Arabs but certain Christians as well, associated the site with Ibrahim in the seventh century. This is the second dateable text mentioning the Kaaba, first being some verses from the ].

==== Rock inscriptions ====
Saudi archeologist Mohammed Almaghthawi discovered some rock inscriptions mentioning the Masjid al-Haram and the Kaaba, dating back to the first and second centuries of Islam. One of them reads as follows:

{{blockquote|God suffices and wrote Maysara bin Ibrahim Servant of the Kaaba (Khadim al-Kaaba).<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Juan |first=Cole |date=2020 |title=Hijazi Rock Inscriptions, Love of the Prophet, and Very Early Islam: Essays from Informed Comment |url=https://www.academia.edu/43816376 |journal=Hijazi Rock Inscriptions, Love of the Prophet, and Very Early Islam: Essays from Informed Comment}}</ref>}}

] is of the opinion that the inscription is likely from the second century A.H. ({{circa|718}}–815 CE).<ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-08-22 |title=Early Arabic Inscriptions and the Life of the Prophet: A new Source for History |url=https://www.juancole.com/2018/08/inscriptions-prophet-history.html |access-date=2024-07-15 |website=Informed Comment |language=en-US}}</ref>

===Muhammad's era===
] is seen through a portal in the Kaaba.<ref name="uscmsa">{{cite web |author=University of Southern California |title=The Prophet of Islam – His Biography |url=http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/prophet/profbio.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060721113854/http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/prophet/profbio.html |archive-date=21 July 2006 |access-date=12 August 2006}}</ref>]]
<!----
Please note: WIKIPEDIA DOES NOT CENSOR CONTENT. PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE THE IMAGE ABOVE. IT WILL BE RESTORED. REPEATED REMOVAL OF AN IMAGE THAT CONFORMS TO OUR GUIDELINES MAY RESULT IN YOUR USERNAME BEING BLOCKED. For more information, please visit http://en.wikipedia.org/Wikipedia:NOTCENSORED
----->
During Muhammad's lifetime (570–632 CE), the Kaaba was considered a holy site by the local Arabs. Muhammad took part in the reconstruction of the Kaaba around 600 C.E., after its structure was weakened by a fire, and then damaged by a subsequent flood. Sources including ]'s '']'', one of the biographies of Muhammad (as reconstructed and translated by Guillaume), as well as ]'s chronicle of Mecca, describe Muhammad settling a quarrel between the Meccan clans as to which clan should set the Black Stone in its place. According to Ishaq's biography, Muhammad's solution was to have all the clan elders raise the cornerstone on a cloak, after which Muhammad set the stone into its final place with his own hands.<ref>{{cite book |last=Guillaume |first=A. |title=The Life of Muhammad |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1955 |location=Oxford}} pp. 84–87</ref>{{sfn|Mubarakpuri|1976|loc="Muhammad's Birth and Forty Years prior to Prophethood"}} The ] for the reconstruction of the Kaaba was purchased by Quraysh from a Greek ship that had been wrecked on the ] coast at Shu'aybah. The work was undertaken by a Greek carpenter from the same ship, called Baqum (باقوم Pachomius).<ref>Cyril Glasse, ''New Encyclopedia of Islam'', p. 245. Rowman Altamira, 2001. {{ISBN|0-7591-0190-6}}</ref> Financial constraints during this rebuilding caused Quraysh to exclude six cubits from the northern part of the Kaaba. This portion is what is currently known as Al-Hateem الحطيم or Hijr Ismail حجر اسماعيل.

Muhammad's ] is said to have taken him from the Kaaba to the ] and heavenwards from there.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Surah Al-Isra - 1-111 |url=https://quran.com/al-isra |access-date=2024-02-28 |website=Quran.com |language=en}}</ref>

Muslims initially considered Jerusalem as their qibla, or prayer direction, and faced toward it while offering prayers; however, pilgrimage to the Kaaba was considered a religious duty though its rites were not yet finalized. During the first half of Muhammad's time as a prophet while he was at Mecca, he and his followers were severely persecuted which eventually led to their migration to ] in 622 CE. In 624 CE, Muslims believe the direction of the qibla was changed from the Masjid al-Aqsa to the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, with the revelation of ], verse 144.{{Cite Quran|2|144}}{{sfn|Mubarakpuri|1976|page=}} In 628 CE, Muhammad led a group of Muslims towards Mecca with the intention of performing the ''Umrah'', but was prevented from doing so by the Quraysh. He secured a peace treaty with them, the ], which allowed the Muslims to freely perform pilgrimage at the Kaaba from the following year.{{sfn|Mubarakpuri|1976|page=}}

At the culmination of his mission,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lapidus |first=Ira M. |title=A history of Islamic societies |date=13 October 2014 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9780521514309 |oclc=853114008}}</ref> in 630 CE, after the allies of the Quraysh, the Banu Bakr, violated the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah, Muhammad ]. His first action was to remove statues and images from the ''Kaaba''.<ref name="EllenbogenTugendhaft2011">{{cite book |last1=Ellenbogen |first1=Josh |title=Idol Anxiety |last2=Tugendhaft |first2=Aaron |date=18 July 2011 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=9780804781817 |page=47 |quote=When Muhammad ordered his men to cleanse the ''Kaaba'' of the statues and pictures displayed there, he spared the paintings of the Virgin and Child and of Abraham.}}</ref> According to reports collected by ] and ], Muhammad spared a painting of ] and ], and a fresco of Ibrahim.<ref>{{harvnb|Ibn Ishaq|1955|page=552}}: Quraysh had put pictures in the Ka'ba including two of Jesus son of Mary and Mary (on both of whom be peace!). ... The apostle ordered that the pictures should be erased except those of Jesus and Mary.</ref><ref name="EllenbogenTugendhaft2011" /><ref name="Rogerson2003">{{cite book |last=Rogerson |first=Barnaby |author-link=Barnaby Rogerson |title=The Prophet Muhammad: A Biography |publisher=Paulist Press |year=2003 |isbn=9781587680298 |page=190 |quote=Muhammad raised his hand to protect an icon of the Virgin and Child and a painting of Abraham, but otherwise his companions cleared the interior of its clutter of votive treasures, cult implements, statuettes and hanging charms.}}</ref>

{{blockquote|Narrated Abdullah: When the Prophet entered Mecca on the day of the conquest, there were 360 idols around the Kaaba. The Prophet started striking them with a stick he had in his hand and was saying, "Truth has come and Falsehood has vanished..." (Qur'an 17:81) |]|] |source=Book 59, Hadith 583}}

Al-Azraqi further conveys how Muhammad, after he entered the Kaaba on the day of the conquest, ordered all the pictures erased except that of Maryam:
{{Blockquote|text=Shihab (said) that the Prophet (peace be upon him) entered the Kaaba on the day of the conquest, and in it was a picture of the angels (mala'ika), among others, and he saw a picture of Ibrahim and he said: "May Allah kill those representing him as a venerable old man casting arrows in divination (shaykhan yastaqsim bil-azlam)." Then he saw the picture of Maryam, so he put his hands on it and he said: "Erase what is in it in the way of pictures except the picture of Maryam." |author=]|title=|source=Akhbar Mecca: History of Mecca}}

After the conquest, Muhammad restated the sanctity and holiness of Mecca, including its Great Mosque (Masjid al-Haram), in Islam.<ref name="Grolier_Society_Book_of_History">{{cite book |first1=W. M. Flinders |last1=Petrie |author-link=Flinders Petrie |url=https://archive.org/details/bookofhistoryhis04bryciala |title=The Book of History: A History of All Nations From the Earliest Times to the Present |first2=Hans F. |last2=Helmolt |first3=William |last3=Lee-Warner |author3-link=William Lee-Warner |first4=Stanley |last4=Lane-Poole |first5=Robert Nisbet |last5=Bain |first6=Hugo |last6=Winckler |first7=Archibald H. |last7=Sayce |first8=Alfred Russel |last8=Wallace |first9=Holland |last9=Thompson |first10=W. Stewart |last10=Wallace |display-authors=3 |publisher=The Grolier Society |year=1915 }}</ref> He performed the Hajj in 632 CE called the ] ("Farewell Pilgrimage") since Muhammad prophesied his impending death on this event.{{sfn|Mubarakpuri|1976|page=}}

===After Muhammad===
{{multiple image |width=220 |direction=vertical
|image1=Khalili Collection Hajj and Arts of Pilgrimage arc.pp 0211.04 CROP.jpg |caption1=Photographed in 1880 by ]
|image2=Masjid al-Haram 1.jpg |caption2=In 1907
}}
]) with Islamic inscriptions calligraphed in Arabic with golden threads]]
]
The Kaaba has been repaired and reconstructed many times. The structure was severely damaged by a fire on 3 ] 64 AH (Sunday 31 October 683&nbsp;CE), during the ] in the ] between the ] and ],<ref>{{cite news |title=On this day in 683 AD: The Kaaba, the holiest site in Islam, is burned to the ground |newspaper=The Telegraph |date=31 October 2017 |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/10/31/day-683-ad-kaaba-holiest-site-islam-burned-ground/ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/10/31/day-683-ad-kaaba-holiest-site-islam-burned-ground/ |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |last1=Selwood |first1=Dominic}}{{cbignore}}</ref> an early Muslim who ruled Mecca for many years between the death of ʿAli and the consolidation of power by the ]. 'Abdullah rebuilt it to include the ''hatīm''. He did so on the basis of a tradition (found in several ]s) that the ''hatīm'' was a remnant of the foundations of the Abrahamic Kaaba, and that Muhammad himself had wished to rebuild it so as to include it.<ref name="Ibn Khaldun">{{cite book |last= Ibn Khaldun |first= Abd al-Rahman |author-link= Ibn Khaldun |translator-last1= Rosenthal |translator-first1= Franz |year=1967 |orig-date= 1377 |title= Al-Muqaddimah |trans-title= An Introduction to History |chapter= IV. Countries and cities, and all other forms of sedentary civilization. The conditions occurring there. Primary and secondary considerations in this connection. |title-link= Muqaddimah |series= Bollingen series |volume= 2 |edition= 2 |publisher= Princeton University Press |publication-place= Princeton, N. J. |publication-date= 1980 |pages= 253–255 |ISBN= 0-691-09797-6}}</ref>

The Kaaba was bombarded with stones in the ], in which the Umayyad army was led by ]. The fall of the city and the death of 'Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr allowed the Umayyads under ] to finally reunite all the Islamic possessions and end the long civil war. In 693 CE, 'Abd al-Malik had the remnants of al-Zubayr's Kaaba razed, and rebuilt it on the foundations set by the Quraysh. The Kaaba returned to the cube shape it had taken during Muhammad's time. Its basic shape and structure have not changed since then.<ref name="Ibn Khaldun"/>

During the Hajj of 930 CE, the ] ] ] under ], defiled the Zamzam Well with the bodies of pilgrims and stole the Black Stone, taking it to the oasis in Eastern Arabia known as ], where it remained until the ] ransomed it in 952&nbsp;CE.<ref>{{citation |author=] |translator=Shehzad Saleem |title=The Rituals of Hajj and ‘Umrah |url=http://www.renaissance.com.pk/JanIslamiShari2y5.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100307022435/http://www.renaissance.com.pk/JanIslamiShari2y5.htm |archive-date=7 March 2010}}, ], ]</ref>

After heavy rains and flooding in 1626, the walls of the Kaaba collapsed and the Mosque was damaged. The same year, during the reign of Ottoman Emperor ], the Kaaba was rebuilt with granite stones from Mecca, and the Mosque was renovated.<ref>{{cite web |title=History of the Kaba |url=http://www.bible.ca/islam/islam-kaba-history.htm}}</ref>

In 1916, after ] had launched the ], during the ] between ] and Ottoman forces, the Ottoman troops bombarded the city and hit the Kaaba, setting fire to the protective veil.<ref name="Le Naour-2017">{{Cite book |last=Le Naour |first=Jean-Yves |url=http://www.cairn.info/djihad--9782262070830.htm |title=Djihad 1914-1918 |date=2017 |publisher=Éditions Perrin |isbn=978-2-262-07083-0 |language=fr |doi=10.3917/perri.lenao.2017.01}}</ref><ref name="Murphy-2008">{{Cite book |last=Murphy |first=David |oclc=212855786 |title=The Arab Revolt 1916–18: Lawrence sets Arabia ablaze |date=2008-11-18 |publisher=Bloomsbury USA |isbn=978-1-84603-339-1 |language=en}}</ref> This incident was later exploited by the propaganda of the Great Arab Revolt to attempt to demonstrate the impiety of the Ottomans and the legitimacy of the revolt as a holy war.<ref name="Le Naour-2017" /><ref name="Murphy-2008" />

The Kaaba is depicted on the ] of 500 ] and 2000 ] banknotes.<ref>. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210203093839/https://www.cbi.ir/default_en.aspx |date=3 February 2021 }}. Banknotes & Coins: {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220309064805/https://www.cbi.ir/page/1980.aspx |date=9 March 2022 }}. Accessed 24 March 2009.</ref>

==Architecture and interior==
The Kaaba is a ]-shaped structure made of ]. It is approximately {{cvt|15|m|ftin}} high with sides measuring {{cvt|12|m|ftin}} × {{cvt|10.5|m|ftin}} wide<ref name=Peterson>{{cite book |last1=Peterson |first1=Andrew |title=Dictionary of Islamic Architecture |date=1996 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |location=London |page= }}</ref> (Hawting states {{cvt|10|m|ftin}}.{{sfn|Hawting|2003|page=75}} Inside the Kaaba, the floor is made of ] and ]. The interior walls are clad with tiled, white marble halfway to the roof, with darker trimmings along the floor. The floor of the interior stands about {{cvt|2|m|ftin}} above the ground area where ] is performed.<ref name=Peterson />{{sfn|Hawting|2003|page=75}}

The wall directly adjacent to the entrance of the Kaaba has six tablets inlaid with inscriptions, and there are several more tablets along the other walls. Along the top corners of the walls runs a black cloth embroidered with gold Qur'anic verses. Caretakers anoint the marble cladding with the same scented oil used to anoint the Black Stone outside. Three pillars (some erroneously report two) stand inside the Kaaba, with a small altar or table set between one and the other two. ]-like objects (possible lanterns or ] ]s) hang from the ceiling. The ceiling itself is of a darker colour, similar in hue to the lower trimming. The ''Bāb ut-Tawbah''—on the right wall (right of the entrance) opens to an enclosed staircase that leads to a hatch, which itself opens to the roof. Both the roof and ceiling (collectively dual-layered) are made of ]-capped ].

]
]
]
Each numbered item in the following list corresponds to features noted in the diagram image.
# The ''Ḥajar al-Aswad'' ({{Langx|ar|الحجر الأسود|lit=The Black Stone |translit=al-Hajar al-Aswad}}), is located on the Kaaba's eastern corner. It is the location where Muslims start their circumambulation of the Kaaba, known as the ''tawaf''.
# The entrance is a door set {{cvt|2.13|m|ftin|frac=2}} above the ground on the north-eastern wall of the Kaaba, called the ''Bāb ar-Raḥmah'' ({{Langx|ar|باب الرحمة|lit=Door of Mercy |translit=Bāb ar-Raḥmah}}), that also acts as the façade.{{sfn|Wensinck|Jomier|1978|p=317}} In 1979, the {{cvt|300|kg|lb}} gold doors made by artist ], replaced the old silver doors made by his father, Ibrahim Badr, in 1942.<ref>{{cite news |date=9 November 2009 |title=Saudi Arabia's Top Artist Ahmad bin Ibrahim Passes Away |publisher=Khaleej Times |url=http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?col=&section=middleeast&xfile=data/middleeast/2009/November/middleeast_November268.xml |url-status=dead |access-date=15 October 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120930091632/http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?col=&section=middleeast&xfile=data%2Fmiddleeast%2F2009%2FNovember%2Fmiddleeast_November268.xml |archive-date=30 September 2012}}</ref> There is a wooden staircase on wheels, usually stored in the mosque between the arch-shaped gate of ''Banū Shaybah'' and the ]. The oldest surviving door dates back to 1045 AH (1635–6 CE).<ref name="Al Arabiya"/>
# The '']'', commonly shortened to ''Mīzāb'' or ''Meezab'' is a rain spout made of gold. Added when the Kaaba was rebuilt in 1627, after a flood in 1626 caused three of the four walls to collapse.
# This slant structure, covering three sides of the Kaaba, is known as the ''Shadherwaan'' ({{Langx|ar|شاذروان}}) and was added in 1627 along with the ''Mīzāb ar-Raḥmah'' to protect the foundation from rainwater.
# The ''Hatīm'' (also romanized as ''hateem'') and also known as the ''Hijr Ismail'', is a low wall that was part of the original Kaaba. It is a semi-circular wall opposite, but not connected to, the north-west wall of the Kaaba. It is {{cvt|1.31|m|ftin|frac=2}} in height and {{cvt|1.5|m|ftin|0}} in width, and is composed of white marble. The space between the ''hatīm'' and the Kaaba was originally part of the ''Kaaba'', and is thus not entered during the ''tawaf''.
# ''al-Multazam'', the roughly {{cvt|2|m|ft|adj=on|frac=2}} space along the wall between the Black Stone and the entry door. It is sometimes considered pious or desirable for a pilgrim to touch this area of the Kaaba, or perform ] here.
# The Station of Ibrahim ''(])'' is a glass and metal enclosure with what is said to be an imprint of Ibrahim's feet. Ibrahim is said to have stood on this stone during the construction of the upper parts of the Kaaba, raising Ismail on his shoulders for the uppermost parts.<ref>According to ] tradition: ''"God made the stone under Ibrahim's feet into something like clay so that his feet sunk into it. That was a miracle. It was transmitted on the authority of Abu Ja'far al-Baqir (may ]) that he said: Three stones were sent down from ]: the Station of Ibrahim, ], and the Black Stone, which God entrusted Ibrahim with as a white stone. It was whiter than paper, but became black from the sins of ]."'' (The Hajj, ] 1996)</ref>
# The corner of the Black Stone. It faces very slightly southeast from the center of the ''Kaaba.'' The four corners of the Kaaba roughly point toward the four ]s of the ].{{sfn|Wensinck|Jomier|1978|p=317}}
# The ''Rukn al-Yamani'' ({{Langx|ar|الركن اليمني |translit=ar-Rukn al-Yamani|lit=The Yemeni Corner}}), also known as ''Rukn-e-Yamani'' or ''Rukn-e-Yemeni'', is the corner of the ''Kaaba'' facing slightly southwest from the center of the Kaaba.{{sfn|Wensinck|Jomier|1978|p=317}}{{sfn|Hawting|2003|page=76}}
# The ''Rukn ush-Shami'' ({{Langx|ar|الركن الشامي |translit=ar-Rukn ash-Shami|lit=The Levantine Corner}})'','' also known as ''Rukn-e-Shami'', is the corner of the ''Kaaba'' facing very slightly northwest from the center of the Kaaba.{{sfn|Wensinck|Jomier|1978|p=317}}{{sfn|Hawting|2003|page=76}}
# The ''Rukn al-'Iraqi'' ({{Langx|ar|الركن العراقي |translit=ar-Rukn al-'Iraqi|lit=The Iraqi Corner}}), is the corner that faces slightly northeast from the center of the Kaaba.
# ], the embroidered covering. Kiswa is a black silk and gold curtain which is replaced annually during the Hajj pilgrimage.<ref>{{cite web |year=2003 |title='House of God' Kaaba gets new cloth |url=http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/02/11/1044725746252.html |access-date=17 August 2006 |publisher=The Age Company Ltd.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The Kiswa – (Kaaba Covering) |url=http://members.tripod.com/worldupdates/newupdates10/id43.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20030722203309/http://members.tripod.com/worldupdates/newupdates10/id43.htm |archive-date=22 July 2003 |access-date=17 August 2006 |publisher=Al-Islaah Publications}}</ref> Two-thirds of the way up is the ''hizam'', a band of gold-embroidered Quranic text, including the ], the Islamic declaration of faith. The curtain over the door of the Kaaba is especially ornate and is known as the '']'' or ''burqu'''.<ref name="textiles2">{{Cite book |last=Porter |first=Venetia |url= |title=Hajj : journey to the heart of Islam |publisher=The British Museum |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-674-06218-4 |editor-last=Porter |editor-first=Venetia |location=Cambridge, Mass. |pages=257–258 |chapter=Textiles of Mecca and Medina |oclc=709670348}}</ref> The ''hizam'' and ''sitara'' have inscriptions embroidered in gold and silver wire,<ref name="textiles2"/> including verses from the ] and supplications to ].<ref name=":02">{{Cite web |last=Ghazal |first=Rym |date=28 August 2014 |title=Woven with devotion: the sacred Islamic textiles of the Kaaba |url=https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/woven-with-devotion-the-sacred-islamic-textiles-of-the-kaaba-1.258782 |access-date=2021-01-07 |website=The National |language=en}}</ref><ref name="daralkiswa">{{Cite book |last=Nassar |first=Nahla |url= |title=The Hajj : collected essays |publisher=The British Museum |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-86159-193-0 |editor-last=Porter |editor-first=Venetia |location=London |pages=176–178 |chapter=Dar al-Kiswa al-Sharifa: Administration and Production |oclc=857109543 |editor-last2=Saif |editor-first2=Liana}}</ref>
# Marble stripe marking the beginning and end of each circumambulation.<ref>Key to numbered parts translated from, accessed 2 December</ref>
Note: The major (long) axis of the Kaaba has been observed to align with the rising of the star ] toward which its southern wall is directed, while its minor axis (its east–west facades) roughly align with the sunrise of ] and the sunset of ].<ref>{{cite book |page= |title=Ancient astronomy: an encyclopedia of cosmologies and myth |author=Clive L. N. Ruggles |edition=Illustrated |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-85109-477-6 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |page= |title=Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots of Modern Science—from the Babylonians to the Maya |author=Dick Teresi |edition=Reprint, illustrated |publisher=Simon and Schuster |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-7432-4379-7}}</ref>
{{gallery|mode=slideshow|height=150|align=center
|File:Gate of Ka-bah.JPG|The ''Bāb at-Tawbah'', "Door of Repentance"
|File:Kaaba mirror edit jj.jpg|The Kaaba with the signature minarets. A similar view is printed on the obverse side of 500-] (approximately 133 ]) notes in Saudi Arabia.
|File:Maqam Ibrahim, Makkah.jpg|The Station of Ibrahim (''Maqam Ibrahim'')
|File:Meezab -e- rehmat.jpg|The ''Mīzāb al-Raḥmah''
}}

== Written marble documents inside the Kaaba ==
Inside the Kaaba, there were nine engraved marble stones, all written in the ], except for one which is written in prominent ] script. In the eastern wall between the door and the Gate of Repentance another document was added by the custodian of the Two Holy Mosques at the time ], regarding his expansion of the mosque, thus bringing the number of documents to ten, all of which are inscribed on white marble.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Holy Kaaba |url=https://gph.gov.sa/index.php/ar/about-the-two-holy-mosques-ar/grand-mosque-ar/2020-05-28-09-37-55/95-2020-05-28-09-32-8}}</ref>

Islamic sanctities received great attention from the ] during the period in which they ruled the Islamic world (784{{ndash}}924{{nbsp}}AH, 1382–1517{{nbsp}}CE), with the Kaaba receiving significant attention. Of the ten marble slabs chronicling the architectural contributions of various rulers to ], two of the slabs pertain to ].<ref>{{Cite web |title=بدائع الزهور في وقائع الدهور |url=https://www.goodreads.com/work/13010160 |access-date=2023-04-14 |website=Goodreads |language=en}}</ref>
]
One of these two records the achievements of one of the most notable circassians, ]. The document, dated to 1423 (CE), attests to a wide reconstruction and restoration process in the mosque by the Sultan.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Alsheerf |first=Prof Adnan |date=2011-01-01 |title=أعمال الأشرف برسباي بالمسجد الحرام في ضوء نقش مؤرخ بسنة 826هـ/1423م محفوظ بالكعبة المشرفة دراسة أثرية حضارية |url=https://www.academia.edu/38302836 |journal=كتاب المؤتمر الرابع عشر للاتحاد العام للاثاريين العرب}}</ref>
The inscription on the slab reads: <blockquote><span lang="AR" dir="ltr">بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم ربنا تقبل منا انك انت السميع العليم تقرب الى الله تعالى بتجديد رخام هذا البيت المعظم المشرف العبد الفقير الى الله تعالى السلطان الملك الاشرف ابو النصر برسباي خادم الحرمين الشريفين بلغه الله اماله و زين بالصالحات اعماله بتاريخ سنة ست و عشرين و ثمان مئه</span></blockquote>

This translates to:<blockquote> "In the name of God, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful. Our Lord, accept from us that you are the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing. Draw nearer to God Almighty by renewing the marble of this noble and honorable house. The poor servant of God Almighty, the honorable Sultan King Abu al-Nasr Barsbay, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques. May God reach his hopes and adorn his deeds with good deeds. The year eight hundred and twenty-six AH" </blockquote>
]
The other of the two circassian slabs is dedicated to Barsbays son, ], known for his great architectural achievements throughout the ]. Dated to 1479 (CE), the document attests to a wide reconstruction and restoration process undertaken by Sultan ] for ].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bāsalāmah |first=Ḥusayn ʻAbd Allāh |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P9ptAAAAMAAJ |title=تاريخ الكعبة المعظمة: عمارتها وكسوتها وسدانتها |date=2000 |publisher=مكتبة الثقافة الدينية، |isbn=978-977-5250-63-6 |language=ar}}</ref>

The inscription reads:<blockquote><span lang="AR" dir="ltr">بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم ربنا تقبل منا انك انت السميع العليم أمر بتجيد ترخيم داخل البيت مولانا السلطان الأشرف أبو النصر قايتباي خلد الله ملكه يارب العالمين بتاريخ مستهل رجب الفرد عام أربع و ثمانين و ثمانمائة من الهجرة</span></blockquote>

Which translates to: <blockquote>"In the name of God, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful. Our Lord, accept from us that You are the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing. He commanded the perfection of melodious chanting inside the house. Our Lord, the honorable and victorious Sultan Qaytbay, may God immortalize his kingdom, Lord of the worlds, on the first of the month of Rajab in the year eight hundred and eighty-four AH." </blockquote>

==Significance in Islam==
The ''Kaaba'' is the ],<ref>{{Citation |last1=Wright |first1=Lyn |last2=Kramer |first2=John |last3=Fusco |first3=Angela. |title=Dad's house, mom's house |date=2012 |publisher=National Film Board of Canada |oclc=812009749}}</ref> and is often called by names such as the ''Bayt Allah'' ({{Langx|ar|بيت الله|lit=House of Allah |translit=Bayt Allah}}).<ref>''The Basis for the Building Work of God'' p. 37, Witness Lee, 2003</ref><ref>Al-Muwatta Of Iman Malik Ibn Ana, p. 186, Anas, 2013</ref> and ''Bayt Allah al-Haram'' ({{Langx|ar|بيت الله الحرام |translit=Bayt Allah il-Haram|lit=The Sacred House of Allah}}).

=== Tawaf ===
{{Further|Hajj|Umrah}}
] (video)]]
] during Hajj, 2008]]

''Ṭawāf'' ({{langx|ar|طَوَاف|lit=going about}}) is one of the Islamic rituals of pilgrimage and is compulsory during both the ] and Umrah. Pilgrims ] the Kaaba (the ] in Islam) seven times in a ] direction; the first three at a hurried pace on the outer part of the ''Mataaf'' and the latter four times closer to the Kaaba at a leisurely pace.<ref>{{citation |author=Ruqaiyyah Maqsood |title=World Faiths, teach yourself – Islam |year=1994 |url=https://archive.org/details/islam0000maqs/page/76 |page= |publisher=Hodder & Stoughton |isbn=0-340-60901-X}}</ref> The circling is believed to demonstrate the unity of the believers in the worship of the ], as they move in harmony together around the Kaaba, while supplicating to ].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Shariati |first=Ali |title=HAJJ: Reflection on Its Rituals |publisher=Islamic Publications International |year=2005 |isbn=1-889999-38-5}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Denny |first=Frederick Mathewson |title=An Introduction to Islam |publisher=] |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-13814477-7}}</ref> To be in a state of ] (ablution) is mandatory while performing tawaf as it is considered to be a form of worship ('']'').

Tawaf begins from the corner of the Kaaba with the ]. If possible, Muslims are to kiss or touch it, but this is often not possible because of the large crowds. They are also to chant the ] and ] each time they complete one revolution. Hajj pilgrims are generally advised to "make ṭawāf" at least twice – once as part of the Hajj, and again before leaving Mecca.<ref name="AtoZ2">{{Cite book |last=Mohamed |first=Mamdouh N. |url=https://archive.org/details/hajjumrahfromtoz00moha |title=Hajj to Umrah: From A to Z |publisher=Mamdouh Mohamed |year=1996 |isbn=0-915957-54-X |url-access=registration}}</ref>

The five types of ṭawāf are:
*''Ṭawāf al-Qudūm'' (arrival ṭawāf) is performed by those not residing in Mecca once reaching the Holy City.
*''Ṭawāf aṭ-Ṭaḥīyah'' (greeting ṭawāf) is performed after entering ''al-Masjid al-Haram'' at any other times and is ].
*''Ṭawāf al-'Umrah'' (Umrah ṭawāf) refers to the ṭawāf performed specifically for Umrah.
*''Ṭawāf al-Wadā''' ("farewell ṭawāf") is performed before leaving Mecca.
*''Ṭawāf az-Zīyārah'' (ṭawāf of visiting), ''Ṭawāf al-'Ifāḍah'' (ṭawāf of compensation) or ''Ṭawāf al-Ḥajj'' (Hajj ṭawāf) is performed after completing the Hajj.

The Tawaf has its origins in the religion of the Najranite pagans, who walked around the Kaaba in an act of devotion to their creator god, Allah (not to be confused with the monotheistic god of Islam by the same name). This practice was adopted by Mohammad after some reform.<ref>{{cite book|chapter-url=https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/epdf/10.1142/9781783269150_0002|chapter=The Historical Development of Paganism in Najran during the Pre- and Early Islamic Era (524–641 CE)|doi=10.1142/9781783269150_0002 |title=Proceedings of the Eighth Saudi Students Conference in the UK|year=2016 |last1=Al-Nahee |first1=Owed Abdullah |pages=13–24 |isbn=978-1-78326-914-3}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.academia.edu/41324836 |title=Kaaba a house built under the Sun|first=Reza|last=Assasi}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Francis E. |last=Peters|title=Muhammad and the Origins of Islam}}</ref>

===As the Qibla===
{{main|Qibla}} {{main|Qibla}}
The ''Qibla'' is the direction faced during prayer.{{cite quran|2|143 |e=144}} The direction faced during prayer is the direction of the Kaaba, relative to the person praying. Apart from praying, Muslims generally consider facing the Qibla while reciting the ] to be a part of good etiquette.
]
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.


==Cleaning==
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.
The building is opened biannually for the ceremony of "The Cleaning of the Sacred Kaaba" ({{Langx|ar|تنظيف الكعبة المشرفة |translit=Tanzif al-Ka'bat al-Musharrafah|lit=Cleaning of the Sacred Cube}}). The ceremony takes place on the 1st of ], the eighth month of the ], around thirty days before the start of the month of ] and on the 15th of ], the first month. The keys to the ''Kaaba'' are held by the ]h ({{Langx|ar|بني شيبة}}) tribe, an honor bestowed upon them by Muhammad.<ref>{{cite news |title=الرسول شرّف بني شيبة بحمل مفتاح الكعبة حتى قيام الساعة |url=http://www.alkhaleej.ae/supplements/page/6c992375-dbb6-4376-bc85-89a282d01554 |publisher=]}}</ref> Members of the tribe greet visitors to the inside of the Kaaba on the occasion of the cleaning ceremony.<ref>{{cite web |title=Kaaba |url=http://enc.slider.com/Enc/Kaaba |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120707172635/http://enc.slider.com/Enc/Kaaba |archive-date=7 July 2012 |access-date=15 October 2010}}</ref>


The Governor of the ] and accompanying dignitaries clean the interior of the Kaaba using cloths dipped in ] scented with ]. Preparations for the washing start a day before the agreed date, with the mixing of Zamzam water with several luxurious perfumes including Tayef rose, 'oud and ]. Zamzam water mixed with rose perfume is splashed on the floor and is wiped with ]. Usually, the entire process is completed in two hours.<ref>{{Cite web |date=17 October 2016 |title=This is how the Kaaba is washed |url=https://english.alarabiya.net/en/variety/2016/10/17/Prince-Khaled-cleans-the-Holy-Kaaba.html |access-date=8 July 2020 |website=Al Arabiya English |language=en}}</ref>
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.


==See also==
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 .
{{portal|Islam|Saudi Arabia}}
*]
*'']'', the ] where Muhammad is believed to have been born
*]
*]


{{clear}}
== See also ==

*]
==Notes==
{{notelist}}


==References== ==References==
{{reflist}} {{reflist}}


==Bibliography==
{{commons}}
* {{cite book
==External links==
|last=Armstrong |first=Karen |author-link=Karen Armstrong
=== Muslim articles on the Kaaba ===
|date=1997
*
|title=Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths
*
|publisher=HarperCollins
*
|isbn=9780345391681
*
|url={{google books URL|TZltAAAAMAAJ}}
*
}}
*
* {{cite book
*
|last=Armstrong |first=Karen |author-link=Karen Armstrong
|date=2000
|title=]
|isbn=0-8129-6618-X
|publisher=Random House Publishing
}}
* {{cite books
|last=Crone |first=Patricia |author-link=Patricia Crone
|date=2004
|orig-date=1987
|title=Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam
|location=Piscataway, New Jersey
|publisher=Gorgias
|isbn=1-59333-102-9
|url=https://api.pageplace.de/preview/DT0400.9781463209933_A38591042/preview-9781463209933_A38591042.pdf
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Grunebaum | first=G. E. von |author-link=Gustave E. von Grunebaum
|year=1970
|title=Classical Islam: A History 600 A.D. to 1258 A.D.
|url=https://archive.org/details/classicalislamhi0089grun
|url-access=registration
|publisher=Aldine Publishing Company
|isbn=978-0-202-30767-1
}}
* {{cite encyclopedia
|last=Hawting |first=G. R. |author-link=G. R. Hawting
|title=Kaʿba
|encyclopedia=]
|volume=3: J-O
|date=2003
|pages=75-80
|url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopaedia-of-the-quran-6-volumes-jane-dammen-mc-auliffe/page/n1291
}}
*] ''The book of Idols'', translated with introduction and notes by Nabih Amin Faris 1952
* {{Cite book
|last=Ibn Ishaq |first=Muhammad |author-link=Ibn Ishaq
|translator-last=Guillaume |translator-first=Alfred |translator-link=Alfred Guillaume
|title=Sirat Rasul Allah
|trans-title=The Life of Muhammad
|date=1955
|publisher=Oxford University Press
|isbn=9780196360331
|location=Oxford
|url=https://archive.org/stream/TheLifeOfMohammedGuillaume/The_Life_Of_Mohammed_Guillaume
}}
*Mohamed, Mamdouh N. (1996). ''Hajj to Umrah: From A to Z''. Amana Publications. {{ISBN|0-915957-54-X}}.
* {{Cite book
|last=Mubarakpuri |first=Safiur Rahman |author-link=Safiur Rahman Mubarakpuri
|lang=ar
|translator-first=Issam |translator-last=Diab
|date=1976
|title=Ar-Raheeq Al-Makhtum
<!-- |title-link=Ar-Raheeq Al-Makhtum -->
|trans-title=The Sealed Nectar
|url=https://www.muslim-library.com/dl/books/English_ArRaheeq_AlMakhtum_THE_SEALED_NECTAR.pdf
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180324152212/https://www.muslim-library.com/dl/books/English_ArRaheeq_AlMakhtum_THE_SEALED_NECTAR.pdf
|archive-date=March 24, 2018
}}
*Peterson, Andrew (1997). ''Dictionary of Islamic Architecture'' London: Routledge.
* {{Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition
|volume=4
|first1 = A. J. |last1 = Wensinck
|first2 = J. |last2 = Jomier
|title = Ka‘ba
|pages = 317–322
}}{{sfn whitelist|CITEREFWensinckJomier1978}}
* ''The Book of History, a History of All Nations From the Earliest Times to the Present'', Viscount Bryce (Introduction), The Grolier Society.


==External links==
===Pictures, movies, models and Maps===
{{Commons and category|Kaaba}}
*
{{NIE Poster|year=1905}}
*
* {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090501200859/http://www.kabahinfo.net/ |date=1 May 2009 }}
* National Geographic documentary about Mecca
*

*
===Qibla===
{{Characters and names in the Quran}}
*
{{Hajj topics}}
*
{{Holiest sites in Shia Islam}}
*
{{Authority control}}

{{coor title dms|21|25|21|N|39|49|34|E|type:landmark_scale:2000}}
]
]
]


]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]

Latest revision as of 02:35, 23 December 2024

Building at the center of Islam's most important mosque, the Masjid al-Haram This article is about the Islamic holy site in Mecca. For other uses, see Kaba (disambiguation). "Kaab" redirects here. For other uses, see Kaab (disambiguation).

The Kaaba
ٱلْكَعْبَة (al-Kaʿba)
The Kaaba
Religion
AffiliationIslam
RegionMecca Province
RiteTawaf
LeadershipPresident of the Affairs of the Two Holy Mosques: Abdul-Rahman Al-Sudais
Location
LocationGreat Mosque of Mecca,
Mecca, Hejaz, Saudi Arabia
Kaaba is located in Saudi ArabiaKaabaLocation of the Kaaba in Saudi ArabiaShow map of Saudi ArabiaKaaba is located in West and Central AsiaKaabaKaaba (West and Central Asia)Show map of West and Central Asia
AdministrationThe Agency of the General Presidency for the Affairs of the Two Holy Mosques
Geographic coordinates21°25′21.0″N 39°49′34.2″E / 21.422500°N 39.826167°E / 21.422500; 39.826167
Architecture
TypeTemple
Date establishedPre-Islamic era
Specifications
Length12.86 m (42 ft 2 in)
Width11.03 m (36 ft 2 in)
Height (max)13.1 m (43 ft 0 in)
MaterialsStone, Marble, Limestone

The Kaaba, sometimes referred to as al-Ka'ba al-Musharrafa, is a stone building at the center of Islam's most important mosque and holiest site, the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is considered by Muslims to be the Baytullah (Arabic: بَيْت ٱللَّٰه, lit.'House of God') and is the qibla (Arabic: قِبْلَة, direction of prayer) for Muslims around the world. The current structure was built after the original building was damaged by a fire during the siege of Mecca by the Umayyads in 683 CE.

In early Islam, Muslims faced in the general direction of Jerusalem as the qibla in their prayers before changing the direction to face the Kaaba, believed by Muslims to be a result of a Quranic verse revelation to Muhammad.

According to Islam, the Kaaba was rebuilt several times throughout history, most famously by Ibrahim and his son Ismail, when he returned to the valley of Mecca several years after leaving his wife Hajar (Hagar) and Ismail there upon Allah's command. Circling the Kaaba seven times counterclockwise, known as Tawaf (Arabic: طواف, romanized: tawaaf), is a Fard (obligatory) rite for the completion of the Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages. The area around the Kaaba where pilgrims walk is called the Mataaf.

The Kaaba and the Mataaf are surrounded by pilgrims every day of the Islamic year, except the 9th of Dhu al-Hijjah, known as the Day of Arafah, on which the cloth covering the structure, known as the Kiswah (Arabic: كسوة, romanized: Kiswah, lit.'Cloth'), is changed. However, the most significant increase in their numbers is during Ramadan and the Hajj, when millions of pilgrims gather for Tawaf. According to the Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah, 6,791,100 external pilgrims arrived for the Umrah pilgrimage in the Islamic year AH 1439 (2017/2018 CE).

History

See also: Pre-Islamic Arabia and Jahiliyyah
View of the Kaaba, 1718. Adriaan Reland: Verhandeling van de godsdienst der Mahometaanen

Origin

Further information: Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia

Etymology

The literal meaning of the word Ka'bah (Arabic: كعبة) is cube. In the Qur'an, from the era of the life of Muhammad, the Kaaba is mentioned by the following names:

  • al-Bayt (Arabic: ٱلْبَيْت, lit.'the house') in 2:125 by Allah
  • Baytī (Arabic: بَيْتِي, lit.'My House') in 22:26 by Allah
  • Baytik al-Muḥarram (Arabic: بَيْتِكَ ٱلْمُحَرَّم, lit.'Your Inviolable House') in 14:37 by Ibrahim
  • al-Bayt al-Ḥarām (Arabic: ٱلْبَيْت ٱلْحَرَام, lit.'The Sacred House') in 5:97 by Allah
  • al-Bayt al-ʿAtīq (Arabic: ٱلْبَيْت ٱلْعَتِيق, lit.'The Ancient House') in 22:29 by Allah

According to historian Eduard Glaser, the name "Kaaba" may have been related to the southern Arabian or Ethiopian word "mikrab", signifying a temple. Author Patricia Crone disputes this etymology.

Background

"Muhammad at the Ka'ba" from the Siyer-i Nebi. Muhammad is shown with veiled face, c. 1595.

Historian Patricia Crone has cast doubt on the claim that Mecca was a major historical trading outpost. Other scholars such as Glen Bowersock disagree and assert that it was. Crone later on disregarded some of her theories. She argues that Meccan trade relied on skins, hides, manufactured leather goods, clarified butter, Hijazi woollens, and camels. She suggests that most of these goods were destined for the Roman army, which is known to have required colossal quantities of leather and hides for its equipment.

According to Islamic cosmology, the Zurah pilgrimage site was the precursor to the Kaaba. Prior to Islam, the Kaaba was a holy site for the various Bedouin tribes throughout the Arabian Peninsula. Once every lunar year, Bedouin people would make a pilgrimage to Mecca. Setting aside any tribal feuds, they would worship their gods in the Kaaba and trade with each other in the city. Various sculptures and paintings were held inside the Kaaba. A statue of Hubal (the principal idol of Mecca) and statues of other pagan deities are known to have been placed in or around the Kaaba. Apart from the paintings of pagan idols decorating the walls, which were destroyed at the behest of Muhammad after his conquest of Mecca, there were also paintings of angels, of Ibrahim holding divination arrows, and of Isa (Jesus) and his mother Maryam (Mary), which Muhammad spared. Undefined decorations, money and a pair of ram's horns were recorded to be inside the Kaaba. The pair of ram's horns were said to have belonged to the ram sacrificed by Ibrahim in place of his son Ismail as held by Islamic tradition.

During its history, the Black Stone at the Kaaba has been struck and smashed by a stone fired from a catapult, it has been smeared with excrement, stolen and ransomed by the Qarmatians and smashed into several fragments.

al-Azraqi provides the following narrative on the authority of his grandfather:

I have heard that there was set up in al-Bayt (referring to the Kaaba) a picture (Arabic: تمثال, romanizedTimthal, lit.'Depiction') of Maryam and 'Isa. said: "Yes, there was set in it a picture of Maryam adorned (muzawwaqan); in her lap, her son Isa sat adorned."

— al-Azraqi, Akhbar Mecca: History of Mecca

In her book Islam: A Short History, Karen Armstrong asserts that the Kaaba was officially dedicated to Hubal, a Nabatean deity, and contained 360 idols which probably represented the days of the year. However, by the time of Muhammad's era, it seems that the Kaaba was venerated as the temple of Allah, the High God. Once a year, tribes from all around the Arabian Peninsula would converge on Mecca to perform the Hajj pilgrimage, which was a mark of the widespread conviction that Allah was the same deity worshipped by monotheists. At this time, the Muslims would perform the Salat prayer facing Jerusalem, as instructed by Muhammad, and turning their backs on the pagan associations of the Kabah. Alfred Guillaume, in his translation of the Ibn Ishaq's seerah, says that the Kaaba itself might be referred to in the feminine form. Circumambulation was often performed naked by men and almost naked by women. It is disputed whether Allah and Hubal were the same deity or different. According to a hypothesis by Uri Rubin and Christian Robin, Hubal was only venerated by Quraysh and the Kaaba was first dedicated to Allah, a supreme god of individuals belonging to different tribes, while the pantheon of the gods of Quraysh was installed in the Kaaba after they conquered Mecca a century before Muhammad's time.

Miniature from Jami' al-tawarikh (706 AH, 1307 CE) depicting Muhammad and others moving the black stone into the Kaaba

Imoti contends that there were numerous such Kaaba sanctuaries in Arabia at one time, but this was the only one built of stone. The others also allegedly had counterparts of the Black Stone. There was a "Red Stone", in the Kaaba of the South Arabian city of Ghaiman; and the "White Stone" in the Kaaba of al-Abalat (near modern-day Tabala). Grunebaum, in Classical Islam, points out that the experience of divinity of that period was often associated with the fetishism of stones, mountains, special rock formations, or "trees of strange growth." Armstrong further says that the Kaaba was thought to be at the center of the world, with the Gate of Heaven directly above it. The Kaaba marked the location where the sacred world intersected with the profane; the embedded Black Stone was a further symbol of this as a meteorite that had fallen from the sky and linked heaven and earth.

According to Sarwar, about 400 years before the birth of Muhammad, a man named 'Amr bin Luhayy, who descended from Qahtan and was the king of Hijaz, placed an idol of Hubal on the roof of the Kaaba. This idol was one of the chief deities of the ruling Quraysh tribe. The idol was made of red agate and shaped like a human, but with the right hand broken off and replaced with a golden hand. When the idol was moved inside the Kaaba, it had seven arrows in front of it, which were used for divination. To maintain peace among the perpetually warring tribes, Mecca was declared a sanctuary where no violence was allowed within 30 km (20 mi) of the Kaaba. This combat-free zone allowed Mecca to thrive not only as a place of pilgrimage, but also as a trading center.

In Samaritan literature, the Samaritan Book of the Secrets of Moses (Asatir) states that Ismail and his eldest son Nebaioth built the Kaaba as well as the city of Mecca." The Asatir book was likely compiled in the 10th century CE, though Moses Gaster suggested in 1927 that it was written no later than the second half of the 3rd century BCE.

According to Islamic opinion

The Kaaba and Masjid al-Haram depicted on a talismanic shirt, 16th or early 17th century

The Qur'an contains several verses regarding the origin of the Kaaba. It states that the Kaaba was the first House of Worship for mankind, and that it was built by Ibrahim and Ismail on Allah's instructions:

Verily, the first House (of worship) appointed for mankind was that at Bakkah (Makkah), full of blessing, and a guidance for mankind.

— Quran, Surah Al Imran (3), Ayah 96

Behold! We gave the site, to Ibrahim, of the (Sacred) House, (saying): "Associate not anything (in worship) with Me; and sanctify My House for those who compass it round, or stand up, or bow, or prostrate themselves (therein in prayer)."

— Quran, Surah Al-Hajj (22), Ayah 26

And remember Ibrahim and Ismail raised the foundations of the House (With this prayer): "Our Lord! Accept (this service) from us: For Thou art the All-Hearing, the All-knowing."

— Quran, Al-Baqarah (2), Ayah 127

Ibn Kathir, in his famous exegesis (tafsir) of the Quran, mentions two interpretations among the Muslims on the origin of the Kaaba. One is that the temple was a place of worship for mala'ikah (angels) before the creation of man. Later, a house of worship was built on the location and was lost during the flood in Nuh (Noah)'s time and was finally rebuilt by Ibrahim and Ismail as mentioned later in the Quran. Ibn Kathir regarded this tradition as weak and preferred instead the narration by Ali ibn Abi Talib that although several other temples might have preceded the Kaaba, it was the first Bayt Allah ('House of God'), dedicated solely to him, built by his instruction, and sanctified and blessed by him, as stated in Quran 22:26–29. A hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari states that the Kaaba was the first masjid on Earth, and the second was Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem.

Abu Dhar narrated: I said, "O Allah's Apostle! Which mosque was first built on the surface of the earth?" He said, "Al-Masjid-ul-Haram (in Mecca)." I said, "Which was built next?" He replied "The mosque of Al-Aqsa (in Jerusalem)." I said, "What was the period of construction between the two?" He said, "Forty years." He added, "Wherever (you may be, and) the prayer time becomes due, perform the prayer there, for the best thing is to do so (i.e. to offer the prayers in time)."

Sahih al-Bukhari: Volume 4, Book 55, Hadith Number 585

While Abraham was building the Kaaba, an angel brought to him the Black Stone which he placed in the eastern corner of the structure. Another stone was the Maqam Ibrahim, the Station of Abraham, where Abraham stood for elevation while building the structure. The Black Stone and the Maqam Ibrahim are believed by Muslims to be the only remnant of the original structure made by Abraham as the remaining structure had to be demolished and rebuilt several times over history for its maintenance. After the construction was complete, God enjoined the descendants of Ismail to perform an annual pilgrimage: the Hajj and the Qurban, sacrifice of cattle. The vicinity of the temple was also made a sanctuary where bloodshed and war were forbidden.

According to Islamic tradition, over the millennia after Ismail's death, his progeny and the local tribes who settled around the Zamzam well gradually turned to polytheism and idolatry. Several idols were placed within the Kaaba representing deities of different aspects of nature and different tribes. Several rituals were adopted in the pilgrimage including doing naked circumambulation. A king named Tubba' is considered the first one to have a door be built for the Kaaba according to sayings recorded in Al-Azraqi's Akhbar Makka. The interpretation that pre-Islamic Arabs once practiced Abrahamic religions is supported by some literary evidence, being the prevalence of Ishmael, whose God was that of Abraham, in pre-Islamic Arab culture.

Ptolemy and Diodorus Siculus

Writing in the Encyclopedia of Islam, Wensinck identifies Mecca with a place called Macoraba mentioned by Ptolemy. G. E. von Grunebaum states: "Mecca is mentioned by Ptolemy. The name he gives it allows us to identify it as a South Arabian foundation created around a sanctuary." In Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam, Patricia Crone argues that the identification of Macoraba with Mecca is false and that Macoraba was a town in southern Arabia in what was then known as Arabia Felix. A recent study has revisited the arguments for Macoraba and found them unsatisfactory.

Ottoman tiles representing the Kaaba, 17th century

Based on an earlier report by Agatharchides of Cnidus, Diodorus Siculus mentions a temple along the Red Sea coast, "which is very holy and exceedingly revered by all Arabians". Edward Gibbon believed that this was the Kaaba. However, Ian D. Morris argues that Gibbon had misread the source: Diodorus puts the temple too far north for it to have been Mecca.

Arnobius

Christian church father Arnobius, in around 300 CE, referred to "an unshapen stone" worshiped in an unspecified location in Arabia.

Khuzistan Chronicle

This short Nestorian (Christian origin) chronicle written no later than the 660s CE covers the history up to the Arab conquest and also gives an interesting note on Arabian geography. The section covering the geography starts with a speculation about the origin of the Muslim sanctuary in Arabia:

Regarding the K'bta (Kaaba) of Ibrahim, we have been unable to discover what it is except that, because the blessed Abraham grew rich in property and wanted to get away from the envy of the Canaanites, he chose to live in the distant and spacious parts of the desert. Since he lived in tents, he built that place for the worship of God and for the offering of sacrifices. It took its present name from what it had been, since the memory of the place was preserved with the generations of their race. Indeed, it was no new thing for the Arabs to worship there, but goes back to antiquity, to their early days, in that they show honor to the father of the head of their people.

This is an early record from the Rashidun caliphate, of a Christian origin that explicitly mentions the Kaaba, and confirms the idea that not just the Arabs but certain Christians as well, associated the site with Ibrahim in the seventh century. This is the second dateable text mentioning the Kaaba, first being some verses from the Quran.

Rock inscriptions

Saudi archeologist Mohammed Almaghthawi discovered some rock inscriptions mentioning the Masjid al-Haram and the Kaaba, dating back to the first and second centuries of Islam. One of them reads as follows:

God suffices and wrote Maysara bin Ibrahim Servant of the Kaaba (Khadim al-Kaaba).

Juan Cole is of the opinion that the inscription is likely from the second century A.H. (c. 718–815 CE).

Muhammad's era

The Black Stone is seen through a portal in the Kaaba.

During Muhammad's lifetime (570–632 CE), the Kaaba was considered a holy site by the local Arabs. Muhammad took part in the reconstruction of the Kaaba around 600 C.E., after its structure was weakened by a fire, and then damaged by a subsequent flood. Sources including Ibn Ishaq's Sirat Rasūl Allāh, one of the biographies of Muhammad (as reconstructed and translated by Guillaume), as well as Al-Azraqi's chronicle of Mecca, describe Muhammad settling a quarrel between the Meccan clans as to which clan should set the Black Stone in its place. According to Ishaq's biography, Muhammad's solution was to have all the clan elders raise the cornerstone on a cloak, after which Muhammad set the stone into its final place with his own hands. The timber for the reconstruction of the Kaaba was purchased by Quraysh from a Greek ship that had been wrecked on the Red Sea coast at Shu'aybah. The work was undertaken by a Greek carpenter from the same ship, called Baqum (باقوم Pachomius). Financial constraints during this rebuilding caused Quraysh to exclude six cubits from the northern part of the Kaaba. This portion is what is currently known as Al-Hateem الحطيم or Hijr Ismail حجر اسماعيل.

Muhammad's Isra' is said to have taken him from the Kaaba to the Masjid al-Aqsa and heavenwards from there.

Muslims initially considered Jerusalem as their qibla, or prayer direction, and faced toward it while offering prayers; however, pilgrimage to the Kaaba was considered a religious duty though its rites were not yet finalized. During the first half of Muhammad's time as a prophet while he was at Mecca, he and his followers were severely persecuted which eventually led to their migration to Medina in 622 CE. In 624 CE, Muslims believe the direction of the qibla was changed from the Masjid al-Aqsa to the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, with the revelation of Surah 2, verse 144. In 628 CE, Muhammad led a group of Muslims towards Mecca with the intention of performing the Umrah, but was prevented from doing so by the Quraysh. He secured a peace treaty with them, the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah, which allowed the Muslims to freely perform pilgrimage at the Kaaba from the following year.

At the culmination of his mission, in 630 CE, after the allies of the Quraysh, the Banu Bakr, violated the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah, Muhammad conquered Mecca. His first action was to remove statues and images from the Kaaba. According to reports collected by Ibn Ishaq and al-Azraqi, Muhammad spared a painting of Mary and Jesus, and a fresco of Ibrahim.

Narrated Abdullah: When the Prophet entered Mecca on the day of the conquest, there were 360 idols around the Kaaba. The Prophet started striking them with a stick he had in his hand and was saying, "Truth has come and Falsehood has vanished..." (Qur'an 17:81)

— Muhammad al-Bukhari, Sahih al-Bukhari, Book 59, Hadith 583

Al-Azraqi further conveys how Muhammad, after he entered the Kaaba on the day of the conquest, ordered all the pictures erased except that of Maryam:

Shihab (said) that the Prophet (peace be upon him) entered the Kaaba on the day of the conquest, and in it was a picture of the angels (mala'ika), among others, and he saw a picture of Ibrahim and he said: "May Allah kill those representing him as a venerable old man casting arrows in divination (shaykhan yastaqsim bil-azlam)." Then he saw the picture of Maryam, so he put his hands on it and he said: "Erase what is in it in the way of pictures except the picture of Maryam."

— al-Azraqi, Akhbar Mecca: History of Mecca

After the conquest, Muhammad restated the sanctity and holiness of Mecca, including its Great Mosque (Masjid al-Haram), in Islam. He performed the Hajj in 632 CE called the Hujjat ul-Wada' ("Farewell Pilgrimage") since Muhammad prophesied his impending death on this event.

After Muhammad

Photographed in 1880 by Muhammad SadiqIn 1907
Textile cover of the Kaaba (called Kiswah) with Islamic inscriptions calligraphed in Arabic with golden threads
The Kaaba during an expansion phase in 2013

The Kaaba has been repaired and reconstructed many times. The structure was severely damaged by a fire on 3 Rabi' I 64 AH (Sunday 31 October 683 CE), during the first siege of Mecca in 683 in the war between the Umayyads and 'Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr, an early Muslim who ruled Mecca for many years between the death of ʿAli and the consolidation of power by the Umayyads. 'Abdullah rebuilt it to include the hatīm. He did so on the basis of a tradition (found in several hadith collections) that the hatīm was a remnant of the foundations of the Abrahamic Kaaba, and that Muhammad himself had wished to rebuild it so as to include it.

The Kaaba was bombarded with stones in the second siege of Mecca in 692, in which the Umayyad army was led by al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf. The fall of the city and the death of 'Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr allowed the Umayyads under 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan to finally reunite all the Islamic possessions and end the long civil war. In 693 CE, 'Abd al-Malik had the remnants of al-Zubayr's Kaaba razed, and rebuilt it on the foundations set by the Quraysh. The Kaaba returned to the cube shape it had taken during Muhammad's time. Its basic shape and structure have not changed since then.

During the Hajj of 930 CE, the Shi'ite Qarmatians attacked Mecca under Abu Tahir al-Jannabi, defiled the Zamzam Well with the bodies of pilgrims and stole the Black Stone, taking it to the oasis in Eastern Arabia known as al-Aḥsāʾ, where it remained until the Abbasids ransomed it in 952 CE.

After heavy rains and flooding in 1626, the walls of the Kaaba collapsed and the Mosque was damaged. The same year, during the reign of Ottoman Emperor Murad IV, the Kaaba was rebuilt with granite stones from Mecca, and the Mosque was renovated.

In 1916, after Hussein bin Ali had launched the Great Arab Revolt, during the Battle of Mecca between Arab and Ottoman forces, the Ottoman troops bombarded the city and hit the Kaaba, setting fire to the protective veil. This incident was later exploited by the propaganda of the Great Arab Revolt to attempt to demonstrate the impiety of the Ottomans and the legitimacy of the revolt as a holy war.

The Kaaba is depicted on the reverse of 500 Saudi riyal and 2000 Iranian rial banknotes.

Architecture and interior

The Kaaba is a cuboid-shaped structure made of stones. It is approximately 15 m (49 ft 3 in) high with sides measuring 12 m (39 ft 4 in) × 10.5 m (34 ft 5 in) wide (Hawting states 10 m (32 ft 10 in). Inside the Kaaba, the floor is made of marble and limestone. The interior walls are clad with tiled, white marble halfway to the roof, with darker trimmings along the floor. The floor of the interior stands about 2 m (6 ft 7 in) above the ground area where tawaf is performed.

The wall directly adjacent to the entrance of the Kaaba has six tablets inlaid with inscriptions, and there are several more tablets along the other walls. Along the top corners of the walls runs a black cloth embroidered with gold Qur'anic verses. Caretakers anoint the marble cladding with the same scented oil used to anoint the Black Stone outside. Three pillars (some erroneously report two) stand inside the Kaaba, with a small altar or table set between one and the other two. Lamp-like objects (possible lanterns or crucible censers) hang from the ceiling. The ceiling itself is of a darker colour, similar in hue to the lower trimming. The Bāb ut-Tawbah—on the right wall (right of the entrance) opens to an enclosed staircase that leads to a hatch, which itself opens to the roof. Both the roof and ceiling (collectively dual-layered) are made of stainless steel-capped teak wood.

A technical drawing of the Kaaba showing dimensions and elements
Rukn al-Yamani (The Yemeni Corner)

Each numbered item in the following list corresponds to features noted in the diagram image.

  1. The Ḥajar al-Aswad (Arabic: الحجر الأسود, romanizedal-Hajar al-Aswad, lit.'The Black Stone'), is located on the Kaaba's eastern corner. It is the location where Muslims start their circumambulation of the Kaaba, known as the tawaf.
  2. The entrance is a door set 2.13 m (7 ft 0 in) above the ground on the north-eastern wall of the Kaaba, called the Bāb ar-Raḥmah (Arabic: باب الرحمة, romanizedBāb ar-Raḥmah, lit.'Door of Mercy'), that also acts as the façade. In 1979, the 300 kg (660 lb) gold doors made by artist Ahmad bin Ibrahim Badr, replaced the old silver doors made by his father, Ibrahim Badr, in 1942. There is a wooden staircase on wheels, usually stored in the mosque between the arch-shaped gate of Banū Shaybah and the Zamzam Well. The oldest surviving door dates back to 1045 AH (1635–6 CE).
  3. The Mīzāb ar-Raḥmah, commonly shortened to Mīzāb or Meezab is a rain spout made of gold. Added when the Kaaba was rebuilt in 1627, after a flood in 1626 caused three of the four walls to collapse.
  4. This slant structure, covering three sides of the Kaaba, is known as the Shadherwaan (Arabic: شاذروان) and was added in 1627 along with the Mīzāb ar-Raḥmah to protect the foundation from rainwater.
  5. The Hatīm (also romanized as hateem) and also known as the Hijr Ismail, is a low wall that was part of the original Kaaba. It is a semi-circular wall opposite, but not connected to, the north-west wall of the Kaaba. It is 1.31 m (4 ft 3+1⁄2 in) in height and 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) in width, and is composed of white marble. The space between the hatīm and the Kaaba was originally part of the Kaaba, and is thus not entered during the tawaf.
  6. al-Multazam, the roughly 2 m (6+1⁄2 ft) space along the wall between the Black Stone and the entry door. It is sometimes considered pious or desirable for a pilgrim to touch this area of the Kaaba, or perform dua here.
  7. The Station of Ibrahim (Maqam Ibrahim) is a glass and metal enclosure with what is said to be an imprint of Ibrahim's feet. Ibrahim is said to have stood on this stone during the construction of the upper parts of the Kaaba, raising Ismail on his shoulders for the uppermost parts.
  8. The corner of the Black Stone. It faces very slightly southeast from the center of the Kaaba. The four corners of the Kaaba roughly point toward the four cardinal directions of the compass.
  9. The Rukn al-Yamani (Arabic: الركن اليمني, romanizedar-Rukn al-Yamani, lit.'The Yemeni Corner'), also known as Rukn-e-Yamani or Rukn-e-Yemeni, is the corner of the Kaaba facing slightly southwest from the center of the Kaaba.
  10. The Rukn ush-Shami (Arabic: الركن الشامي, romanizedar-Rukn ash-Shami, lit.'The Levantine Corner'), also known as Rukn-e-Shami, is the corner of the Kaaba facing very slightly northwest from the center of the Kaaba.
  11. The Rukn al-'Iraqi (Arabic: الركن العراقي, romanizedar-Rukn al-'Iraqi, lit.'The Iraqi Corner'), is the corner that faces slightly northeast from the center of the Kaaba.
  12. Kiswah, the embroidered covering. Kiswa is a black silk and gold curtain which is replaced annually during the Hajj pilgrimage. Two-thirds of the way up is the hizam, a band of gold-embroidered Quranic text, including the Shahada, the Islamic declaration of faith. The curtain over the door of the Kaaba is especially ornate and is known as the sitara or burqu'. The hizam and sitara have inscriptions embroidered in gold and silver wire, including verses from the Quran and supplications to Allah.
  13. Marble stripe marking the beginning and end of each circumambulation.

Note: The major (long) axis of the Kaaba has been observed to align with the rising of the star Canopus toward which its southern wall is directed, while its minor axis (its east–west facades) roughly align with the sunrise of summer solstice and the sunset of winter solstice.

  • The Bāb at-Tawbah, "Door of Repentance" The Bāb at-Tawbah, "Door of Repentance"
  • The Kaaba with the signature minarets. A similar view is printed on the obverse side of 500-riyal (approximately 133 USD) notes in Saudi Arabia. The Kaaba with the signature minarets. A similar view is printed on the obverse side of 500-riyal (approximately 133 USD) notes in Saudi Arabia.
  • The Station of Ibrahim (Maqam Ibrahim) The Station of Ibrahim (Maqam Ibrahim)
  • The Mīzāb al-Raḥmah The Mīzāb al-Raḥmah

Written marble documents inside the Kaaba

Inside the Kaaba, there were nine engraved marble stones, all written in the Thuluth script, except for one which is written in prominent Kufic script. In the eastern wall between the door and the Gate of Repentance another document was added by the custodian of the Two Holy Mosques at the time Fahd of Saudi Arabia, regarding his expansion of the mosque, thus bringing the number of documents to ten, all of which are inscribed on white marble.

Islamic sanctities received great attention from the Circassian sultans during the period in which they ruled the Islamic world (784–924 AH, 1382–1517 CE), with the Kaaba receiving significant attention. Of the ten marble slabs chronicling the architectural contributions of various rulers to Al-Masjid al-Haram, two of the slabs pertain to Circassian sultans.

Sultan Barsbay inscription on the slab in Kaaba

One of these two records the achievements of one of the most notable circassians, Sultan Barsbay. The document, dated to 1423 (CE), attests to a wide reconstruction and restoration process in the mosque by the Sultan.

The inscription on the slab reads:

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم ربنا تقبل منا انك انت السميع العليم تقرب الى الله تعالى بتجديد رخام هذا البيت المعظم المشرف العبد الفقير الى الله تعالى السلطان الملك الاشرف ابو النصر برسباي خادم الحرمين الشريفين بلغه الله اماله و زين بالصالحات اعماله بتاريخ سنة ست و عشرين و ثمان مئه

This translates to:

"In the name of God, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful. Our Lord, accept from us that you are the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing. Draw nearer to God Almighty by renewing the marble of this noble and honorable house. The poor servant of God Almighty, the honorable Sultan King Abu al-Nasr Barsbay, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques. May God reach his hopes and adorn his deeds with good deeds. The year eight hundred and twenty-six AH"

Sultan Barsbay portrait
The Circassian Sultan Barsbay

The other of the two circassian slabs is dedicated to Barsbays son, Sultan Qaitbay, known for his great architectural achievements throughout the Islamic world. Dated to 1479 (CE), the document attests to a wide reconstruction and restoration process undertaken by Sultan Sultan Qaitbay for Al-Masjid Al-Haram.

The inscription reads:

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم ربنا تقبل منا انك انت السميع العليم أمر بتجيد ترخيم داخل البيت مولانا السلطان الأشرف أبو النصر قايتباي خلد الله ملكه يارب العالمين بتاريخ مستهل رجب الفرد عام أربع و ثمانين و ثمانمائة من الهجرة

Which translates to:

"In the name of God, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful. Our Lord, accept from us that You are the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing. He commanded the perfection of melodious chanting inside the house. Our Lord, the honorable and victorious Sultan Qaytbay, may God immortalize his kingdom, Lord of the worlds, on the first of the month of Rajab in the year eight hundred and eighty-four AH."

Significance in Islam

The Kaaba is the holiest site in Islam, and is often called by names such as the Bayt Allah (Arabic: بيت الله, romanizedBayt Allah, lit.'House of Allah'). and Bayt Allah al-Haram (Arabic: بيت الله الحرام, romanizedBayt Allah il-Haram, lit.'The Sacred House of Allah').

Tawaf

Further information: Hajj and Umrah
Pilgrims perform Tawaf around the Kaaba during Umrah (video)
The Kaaba and the Masjid Al-Haram during Hajj, 2008

Ṭawāf (Arabic: طَوَاف, lit.'going about') is one of the Islamic rituals of pilgrimage and is compulsory during both the Hajj and Umrah. Pilgrims go around the Kaaba (the most sacred site in Islam) seven times in a counterclockwise direction; the first three at a hurried pace on the outer part of the Mataaf and the latter four times closer to the Kaaba at a leisurely pace. The circling is believed to demonstrate the unity of the believers in the worship of the One God, as they move in harmony together around the Kaaba, while supplicating to God. To be in a state of Wudu (ablution) is mandatory while performing tawaf as it is considered to be a form of worship ('ibadah).

Tawaf begins from the corner of the Kaaba with the Black Stone. If possible, Muslims are to kiss or touch it, but this is often not possible because of the large crowds. They are also to chant the Basmala and Takbir each time they complete one revolution. Hajj pilgrims are generally advised to "make ṭawāf" at least twice – once as part of the Hajj, and again before leaving Mecca.

The five types of ṭawāf are:

  • Ṭawāf al-Qudūm (arrival ṭawāf) is performed by those not residing in Mecca once reaching the Holy City.
  • Ṭawāf aṭ-Ṭaḥīyah (greeting ṭawāf) is performed after entering al-Masjid al-Haram at any other times and is mustahab.
  • Ṭawāf al-'Umrah (Umrah ṭawāf) refers to the ṭawāf performed specifically for Umrah.
  • Ṭawāf al-Wadā' ("farewell ṭawāf") is performed before leaving Mecca.
  • Ṭawāf az-Zīyārah (ṭawāf of visiting), Ṭawāf al-'Ifāḍah (ṭawāf of compensation) or Ṭawāf al-Ḥajj (Hajj ṭawāf) is performed after completing the Hajj.

The Tawaf has its origins in the religion of the Najranite pagans, who walked around the Kaaba in an act of devotion to their creator god, Allah (not to be confused with the monotheistic god of Islam by the same name). This practice was adopted by Mohammad after some reform.

As the Qibla

Main article: Qibla

The Qibla is the direction faced during prayer. The direction faced during prayer is the direction of the Kaaba, relative to the person praying. Apart from praying, Muslims generally consider facing the Qibla while reciting the Quran to be a part of good etiquette.

Cleaning

The building is opened biannually for the ceremony of "The Cleaning of the Sacred Kaaba" (Arabic: تنظيف الكعبة المشرفة, romanizedTanzif al-Ka'bat al-Musharrafah, lit.'Cleaning of the Sacred Cube'). The ceremony takes place on the 1st of Sha'baan, the eighth month of the Islamic calendar, around thirty days before the start of the month of Ramadan and on the 15th of Muharram, the first month. The keys to the Kaaba are held by the Banī Shaybah (Arabic: بني شيبة) tribe, an honor bestowed upon them by Muhammad. Members of the tribe greet visitors to the inside of the Kaaba on the occasion of the cleaning ceremony.

The Governor of the Makkah Province and accompanying dignitaries clean the interior of the Kaaba using cloths dipped in Zamzam water scented with Oud perfume. Preparations for the washing start a day before the agreed date, with the mixing of Zamzam water with several luxurious perfumes including Tayef rose, 'oud and musk. Zamzam water mixed with rose perfume is splashed on the floor and is wiped with palm leaves. Usually, the entire process is completed in two hours.

See also

Notes

  1. ALA-LC: al-Kaʻbah; DMG: al-Kaʿba; Wehr: al-kaʿba
  2. Arabic: ٱلْكَعْبَة, romanizedal-Kaʿba, lit.'the Cube' Arabic pronunciation: [al.ˈkaʕ.ba], also spelled Ka'ba, Ka'bah or Kabah
  3. ALA-LC: al-Kaʻbah al-Musharrafah; DMG: al-Kaʿba al-Mušarrafa; Wehr: al-kaʿba al-mušarrafa
  4. Arabic: ٱلْكَعْبَة ٱلْمُشَرَّفَة, romanized: al-Kaʿba l-Mušarrafa, lit.'the Honored Ka'ba', Arabic pronunciation: [al.ˈkaʕ.ba‿l.mu.ˈʃar.ra.fa]

References

  1. ^ Wensinck & Jomier 1978, p. 319.
  2. Butt, Riazat (15 August 2011). "Explosives detectors to be installed at gates of Mecca's Holy Mosque". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 May 2021.
  3. ^ Al-Azraqi (2003). Akhbar Mecca: History of Mecca. p. 262. ISBN 9773411273.
  4. ^ Wensinck & Jomier 1978, p. 317.
  5. Mubarakpuri 1976.
  6. "In pictures: Hajj pilgrimage". BBC News. 7 December 2008. Retrieved 8 December 2008.
  7. "Umrah Statistics Bulletin 2018" (PDF). General Authority for Statistics. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Retrieved 28 May 2022.
  8. Hans Wehr, Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, 1994.
  9. "Surah Al-Baqarah 2:122 - 2:126 - Towards Understanding the Quran". Tafheem. Islamic Foundation UK. Retrieved 30 May 2021.
  10. "Surah Al-Haj 22:26-30 - Towards Understanding the Quran". Tafheem. Islamic Foundation UK. Retrieved 1 June 2021.
  11. "Kaaba: Meaning, History and Significance".
  12. ^ Wensinck & Jomier 1978, p. 318.
  13. Crone 2004.
  14. "Ottomans : religious painting". Retrieved 1 May 2016.
  15. Crone 2004, p. 7.
  16. Holland, Tom (2012). In the Shadow of the Sword; Little, Brown; p. 303
  17. Abdullah Alwi Haji Hassan (1994). Sales and Contracts in Early Islamic Commercial Law. Islamic Research Institute, International Islamic University. pp. 3 ff. ISBN 978-9694081366.
  18. Bowersock, Glen. W. (2017). Bowersock, G. W. (2017). The crucible of Islam. Cambridge (Mass.): Harvard University Press. pp. 50 ff.
  19. Crone, Patricia (2007). "Quraysh and the Roman Army: Making Sense of the Meccan Leather Trade". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. 70 (1): 63–88. doi:10.1017/S0041977X0700002X. JSTOR 40378894. S2CID 154910558.
  20. Caʻfer Efendi (1987). Risāle-i Miʻmāriyye. Brill Archive. p. 49. ISBN 90-04-07846-0.
  21. Timur Kuran (2011). "Commercial Life under Islamic Rule". The Long Divergence : How Islamic Law Held Back the Middle East. Princeton University Press. pp. 45–62.
  22. ^ King, G. R. D. (2004). "The Paintings of the Pre-Islamic Kaʿba". Muqarnas. 21: 219–229. JSTOR 1523357.
  23. ^ Ellenbogen, Josh; Tugendhaft, Aaron (18 July 2011). Idol Anxiety. Stanford University Press. p. 47. ISBN 9780804781817. When Muhammad ordered his men to cleanse the Kaaba of the statues and pictures displayed there, he spared the paintings of the Virgin and Child and of Abraham.
  24. Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi. Hırka-i Saadet Dairesi (2004). The sacred trusts : Pavilion of the Sacred Relics, Topkapı Palace Museum, Istanbul. Hilmi Aydın, Talha Uğurluel, Ahmet Doğru. Somerset, N.J.: Light. ISBN 1-932099-72-7. OCLC 56942620.
  25. Burton, Richard Francis (2009). Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/cbo9781139162302. hdl:2027/coo.31924062544543. ISBN 978-1-139-16230-2.
  26. ^ Peters, F. E. (1994). Mecca : a literary history of the Muslim Holy Land. Mazal Holocaust Collection. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-03267-X. OCLC 30671443.
  27. ^ Armstrong 2000, p. 11.
  28. Ibn Ishaq 1955, p. 85 footnote 2: The text reads 'O God, do not be afraid', the second footnote reads 'The feminine form indicates the Ka'ba itself is addressed'
  29. ^ Ibn Ishaq 1955, pp. 88–9.
  30. Christian Julien Robin (2012). Arabia and Ethiopia. In The Oxford Handbook of Late Antiquity. Oxford University Press USA. p. 304–305. ISBN 9780195336931.
  31. Imoti, Eiichi. "The Ka'ba-i Zardušt", Orient, XV (1979), The Society for Near Eastern Studies in Japan, pp. 65–69.
  32. Grunebaum 1970, p. 24.
  33. Armstrong 1997, p. 221.
  34. Francis E. Peters, Muhammad and the origins of Islam, SUNY Press, 1994, p. 109.
  35. Armstrong 1997, pp. 221–22.
  36. Gaster, Moses (1927). The Asatir: the Samaritan book of Moses. London: The Royal Asiatic Society. pp. 262, 71. Ishmaelites built Mecca (Baka, Bakh)
  37. Crown, Alan David (2001). Samaritan Scribes and Manuscripts'. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck. p. 27.
  38. M. Gaster, The Asatir: The Samaritan Book of the "Secrets of Moses", London (1927), p. 160
  39. Michigan Consortium for Medieval and Early Modern Studies (1986). Goss, V. P.; Bornstein, C. V. (eds.). The Meeting of Two Worlds: Cultural Exchange Between East and West During the Period of the Crusades. Vol. 21. Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University. p. 208. ISBN 0918720583. OCLC 13159056.
  40. Mustafa Abu Sway. "The Holy Land, Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Qur'an, Sunnah and other Islamic Literary Source" (PDF). Central Conference of American Rabbis. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 July 2011.
  41. Dyrness, W. A. (29 May 2013). Senses of Devotion: Interfaith Aesthetics in Buddhist and Muslim Communities. Vol. 7. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 25. ISBN 978-1620321362. OCLC 855764827.
  42. Quran 3:96 
  43. An alternative version is in Pickthall, Muhammad M. (ed.). "The Quran". Retrieved 10 January 2018. Lo! the first Sanctuary appointed for mankind was that at Becca, a blessed place, a guidance to the peoples;
  44. Another version is in Shakir, M. H. (ed.). "The Quran". Retrieved 10 January 2018. Most surely the first house appointed for men is the one at Bekka, blessed and a guidance for the nations.
  45. Quran 22:26 
  46. Another version is in Pickthall, Muhammad M. (ed.). "The Quran". Retrieved 10 January 2018. And (remember) when We prepared for Abraham the place of the (holy) House, saying: Ascribe thou no thing as partner unto Me, and purify My House for those who make the round (thereof) and those who stand and those who bow and make prostration.
  47. Another version is in Shakir, M. H. (ed.). "The Quran". Retrieved 10 January 2018. And when We assigned to Ibrahim the place of the House, saying: Do not associate with Me aught, and purify My House for those who make the circuit and stand to pray and bow and prostrate themselves.
  48. Quran 2:127 
  49. Another version is in Pickthall, Muhammad M. (ed.). "The Quran". Retrieved 10 January 2018. And when Ibrahim and Ismail were raising the foundations of the House, (Abraham prayed): Our Lord! Accept from us (this duty). Lo! Thou, only Thou, art the Hearer, the Knower.
  50. Another version is in Shakir, M. H. (ed.). "The Quran". Retrieved 10 January 2018. And when Ibrahim and Ismail raised the foundations of the House: Our Lord! accept from us; surely Thou art the Hearing, the Knowing:
  51. Tafsir Ibn Kathir 3:96
  52. Sahih al-Bukhari, 4:55:585
  53. Sahih al-Bukhari, 5:58:226
  54. "A history of the Al Asqa Mosque". Arab World Books.
  55. ^ "IN PICTURES: Six doors of Ka'aba over 5,000 years". Al Arabiya. 26 December 2018. Retrieved 22 October 2019.
  56. The Treasury of literature, Sect. 437
  57. The Beginning of History, Volume 3, Sect.10
  58. The Collection of the Speeches of Arabs, volume 1, section 75
  59. Neuwirth, Angelika; Nicolai Sinai, Michael (2010). The Qur'an in context historical and literary investigations into the Qur'anic milieu (PDF). Leiden: Brill. pp. 63, 123, 83, 295. ISBN 9789047430322. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 October 2015.
  60. Grunebaum 1970, p. 19.
  61. Crone 2004, pp. 134–137.
  62. Morris, Ian D. (2018). "Mecca and Macoraba" (PDF). Al-ʿUṣūr Al-Wusṭā. 26: 1–60. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 November 2018. Retrieved 16 November 2018.
  63. Siculus, Diodorus. "44". Bibliotheca Historica. Book 3.
  64. Gibbon, Edward (1862). The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Book 5. pp. 223–224.
  65. Morris, Ian D. (2018). "Mecca and Macoraba" (PDF). Al-ʿUṣūr Al-Wusṭā. 26: 1–60, pp. 42–43, n. 200. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 November 2018. Retrieved 16 November 2018.
  66. Adversus Gentes, book 6, ch. 11
  67. Robert G., Hoyland (1997). Seeing Islam as others saw it. The Darwin Press. p. 187.
  68. Juan, Cole (2020). "Hijazi Rock Inscriptions, Love of the Prophet, and Very Early Islam: Essays from Informed Comment". Hijazi Rock Inscriptions, Love of the Prophet, and Very Early Islam: Essays from Informed Comment.
  69. "Early Arabic Inscriptions and the Life of the Prophet: A new Source for History". Informed Comment. 22 August 2018. Retrieved 15 July 2024.
  70. University of Southern California. "The Prophet of Islam – His Biography". Archived from the original on 21 July 2006. Retrieved 12 August 2006.
  71. Guillaume, A. (1955). The Life of Muhammad. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 84–87
  72. Mubarakpuri 1976, "Muhammad's Birth and Forty Years prior to Prophethood".
  73. Cyril Glasse, New Encyclopedia of Islam, p. 245. Rowman Altamira, 2001. ISBN 0-7591-0190-6
  74. "Surah Al-Isra - 1-111". Quran.com. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
  75. Mubarakpuri 1976, p. 130.
  76. Mubarakpuri 1976, p. 213.
  77. Lapidus, Ira M. (13 October 2014). A history of Islamic societies. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521514309. OCLC 853114008.
  78. Ibn Ishaq 1955, p. 552: Quraysh had put pictures in the Ka'ba including two of Jesus son of Mary and Mary (on both of whom be peace!). ... The apostle ordered that the pictures should be erased except those of Jesus and Mary.
  79. Rogerson, Barnaby (2003). The Prophet Muhammad: A Biography. Paulist Press. p. 190. ISBN 9781587680298. Muhammad raised his hand to protect an icon of the Virgin and Child and a painting of Abraham, but otherwise his companions cleared the interior of its clutter of votive treasures, cult implements, statuettes and hanging charms.
  80. Petrie, W. M. Flinders; Helmolt, Hans F.; Lee-Warner, William; et al. (1915). The Book of History: A History of All Nations From the Earliest Times to the Present. The Grolier Society.
  81. Mubarakpuri 1976, p. 298.
  82. Selwood, Dominic (31 October 2017). "On this day in 683 AD: The Kaaba, the holiest site in Islam, is burned to the ground". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 11 January 2022.
  83. ^ Ibn Khaldun, Abd al-Rahman (1967) . "IV. Countries and cities, and all other forms of sedentary civilization. The conditions occurring there. Primary and secondary considerations in this connection.". Al-Muqaddimah [An Introduction to History]. Bollingen series. Vol. 2. Translated by Rosenthal, Franz (2 ed.). Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press (published 1980). pp. 253–255. ISBN 0-691-09797-6.
  84. Javed Ahmad Ghamidi, The Rituals of Hajj and ‘Umrah, translated by Shehzad Saleem, archived from the original on 7 March 2010, Mizan, Al-Mawrid
  85. "History of the Kaba".
  86. ^ Le Naour, Jean-Yves (2017). Djihad 1914-1918 (in French). Éditions Perrin. doi:10.3917/perri.lenao.2017.01. ISBN 978-2-262-07083-0.
  87. ^ Murphy, David (18 November 2008). The Arab Revolt 1916–18: Lawrence sets Arabia ablaze. Bloomsbury USA. ISBN 978-1-84603-339-1. OCLC 212855786.
  88. "Central Bank of Iran". Archived 3 February 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Banknotes & Coins: 2000 Rials Archived 9 March 2022 at the Wayback Machine. Accessed 24 March 2009.
  89. ^ Peterson, Andrew (1996). Dictionary of Islamic Architecture. London: Taylor & Francis. p. 142.
  90. ^ Hawting 2003, p. 75.
  91. "Saudi Arabia's Top Artist Ahmad bin Ibrahim Passes Away". Khaleej Times. 9 November 2009. Archived from the original on 30 September 2012. Retrieved 15 October 2010.
  92. According to Muslim tradition: "God made the stone under Ibrahim's feet into something like clay so that his feet sunk into it. That was a miracle. It was transmitted on the authority of Abu Ja'far al-Baqir (may peace be upon him) that he said: Three stones were sent down from the Garden: the Station of Ibrahim, the rock of the children of Israel, and the Black Stone, which God entrusted Ibrahim with as a white stone. It was whiter than paper, but became black from the sins of the children of Adam." (The Hajj, F.E. Peters 1996)
  93. ^ Hawting 2003, p. 76.
  94. "'House of God' Kaaba gets new cloth". The Age Company Ltd. 2003. Retrieved 17 August 2006.
  95. "The Kiswa – (Kaaba Covering)". Al-Islaah Publications. Archived from the original on 22 July 2003. Retrieved 17 August 2006.
  96. ^ Porter, Venetia (2012). "Textiles of Mecca and Medina". In Porter, Venetia (ed.). Hajj : journey to the heart of Islam. Cambridge, Mass.: The British Museum. pp. 257–258. ISBN 978-0-674-06218-4. OCLC 709670348.
  97. Ghazal, Rym (28 August 2014). "Woven with devotion: the sacred Islamic textiles of the Kaaba". The National. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  98. Nassar, Nahla (2013). "Dar al-Kiswa al-Sharifa: Administration and Production". In Porter, Venetia; Saif, Liana (eds.). The Hajj : collected essays. London: The British Museum. pp. 176–178. ISBN 978-0-86159-193-0. OCLC 857109543.
  99. Key to numbered parts translated from, accessed 2 December
  100. Clive L. N. Ruggles (2005). Ancient astronomy: an encyclopedia of cosmologies and myth (Illustrated ed.). ABC-CLIO. p. 202. ISBN 978-1-85109-477-6.
  101. Dick Teresi (2003). Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots of Modern Science—from the Babylonians to the Maya (Reprint, illustrated ed.). Simon and Schuster. p. 137. ISBN 978-0-7432-4379-7.
  102. "The Holy Kaaba".
  103. "بدائع الزهور في وقائع الدهور". Goodreads. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
  104. Alsheerf, Prof Adnan (1 January 2011). "أعمال الأشرف برسباي بالمسجد الحرام في ضوء نقش مؤرخ بسنة 826هـ/1423م محفوظ بالكعبة المشرفة دراسة أثرية حضارية". كتاب المؤتمر الرابع عشر للاتحاد العام للاثاريين العرب.
  105. Bāsalāmah, Ḥusayn ʻAbd Allāh (2000). تاريخ الكعبة المعظمة: عمارتها وكسوتها وسدانتها (in Arabic). مكتبة الثقافة الدينية،. ISBN 978-977-5250-63-6.
  106. Wright, Lyn; Kramer, John; Fusco, Angela. (2012), Dad's house, mom's house, National Film Board of Canada, OCLC 812009749
  107. The Basis for the Building Work of God p. 37, Witness Lee, 2003
  108. Al-Muwatta Of Iman Malik Ibn Ana, p. 186, Anas, 2013
  109. Ruqaiyyah Maqsood (1994), World Faiths, teach yourself – Islam, Hodder & Stoughton, p. 76, ISBN 0-340-60901-X
  110. Shariati, Ali (2005). HAJJ: Reflection on Its Rituals. Islamic Publications International. ISBN 1-889999-38-5.
  111. Denny, Frederick Mathewson (2010). An Introduction to Islam. Prentice Hall. ISBN 978-0-13814477-7.
  112. Mohamed, Mamdouh N. (1996). Hajj to Umrah: From A to Z. Mamdouh Mohamed. ISBN 0-915957-54-X.
  113. Al-Nahee, Owed Abdullah (2016). "The Historical Development of Paganism in Najran during the Pre- and Early Islamic Era (524–641 CE)". Proceedings of the Eighth Saudi Students Conference in the UK. pp. 13–24. doi:10.1142/9781783269150_0002. ISBN 978-1-78326-914-3.
  114. Assasi, Reza. "Kaaba a house built under the Sun".
  115. Peters, Francis E. Muhammad and the Origins of Islam.
  116. "الرسول شرّف بني شيبة بحمل مفتاح الكعبة حتى قيام الساعة". Al Khaleej.
  117. "Kaaba". Archived from the original on 7 July 2012. Retrieved 15 October 2010.
  118. "This is how the Kaaba is washed". Al Arabiya English. 17 October 2016. Retrieved 8 July 2020.

Bibliography

External links

People and things in the Quran
Characters
Non-humans
Animals
Related
Non-related
Malāʾikah (Angels)
Muqarrabun
Jinn (Genies)
Shayāṭīn (Demons)
Others
Prophets
Mentioned
Ulul-ʿAzm
('Those of the
Perseverance
and Strong Will')
Debatable ones
Implied
People of Prophets
Good ones
People of
Joseph
People of
Aaron and Moses
Evil ones
Implied or
not specified
Groups
Mentioned
Tribes,
ethnicities
or families
Aʿrāb (Arabs
or Bedouins)
Ahl al-Bayt
('People of the
Household')
Implicitly
mentioned
Religious
groups
Locations
Mentioned
In the
Arabian Peninsula
(excluding Madyan)
Sinai Region
or Tīh Desert
In Mesopotamia
Religious
locations
Implied
Events, incidents, occasions or times
Battles or
military expeditions
Days
Months of the
Islamic calendar
Pilgrimages
  • Al-Ḥajj (literally 'The Pilgrimage', the Greater Pilgrimage)
  • Al-ʿUmrah (The Lesser Pilgrimage)
Times for prayer
or remembrance
Times for Duʿāʾ ('Invocation'), Ṣalāh and Dhikr ('Remembrance', including Taḥmīd ('Praising'), Takbīr and Tasbīḥ):
  • Al-ʿAshiyy (The Afternoon or the Night)
  • Al-Ghuduww ('The Mornings')
    • Al-Bukrah ('The Morning')
    • Aṣ-Ṣabāḥ ('The Morning')
  • Al-Layl ('The Night')
  • Aẓ-Ẓuhr ('The Noon')
  • Dulūk ash-Shams ('Decline of the Sun')
    • Al-Masāʾ ('The Evening')
    • Qabl al-Ghurūb ('Before the Setting (of the Sun)')
      • Al-Aṣīl ('The Afternoon')
      • Al-ʿAṣr ('The Afternoon')
  • Qabl ṭulūʿ ash-Shams ('Before the rising of the Sun')
    • Al-Fajr ('The Dawn')
Implied
  • Ghadir Khumm
  • Laylat al-Mabit
  • First Pilgrimage
  • Other
    Holy books
    Objects
    of people
    or beings
    Mentioned idols
    (cult images)
    Of Israelites
    Of Noah's people
    Of Quraysh
    Celestial
    bodies
    Maṣābīḥ (literally 'lamps'):
    • Al-Qamar (The Moon)
    • Kawākib (Planets)
      • Al-Arḍ (The Earth)
    • Nujūm (Stars)
      • Ash-Shams (The Sun)
    Plant matter
  • Baṣal (Onion)
  • Fūm (Garlic or wheat)
  • Shaṭʾ (Shoot)
  • Sūq (Plant stem)
  • Zarʿ (Seed)
  • Fruits
    Bushes, trees
    or plants
    Liquids
    • Māʾ (Water or fluid)
      • Nahr (River)
      • Yamm (River or sea)
    • Sharāb (Drink)
    Note: Names are sorted alphabetically. Standard form: Islamic name / Biblical name (title or relationship)
    Hajj
    Every year, from the eighth to the twelfth day of Dhu al-Hijjah.
    Preparation Diagram indicating the order of Hajj rituals
    Sequence
    Mosques
    Related
    History
    Holiest sites in Shia Islam
    Saudi Arabia
    Iraq
    Iran
    Syria
    Lebanon
    Palestine
    Categories: