Kaaba

The Kaaba (Arabic: ‫ ﻛ َ ْﻌ َﺒﺔ‬kaʿbah

IPA: [kaʕ.ba], "Cube"), also referred to as
al-Kaʿbah al-Musharrafah (Arabic: ‫ْٱﻟﻜ َ ْﻌ َﺒﺔ‬
‫ ْٱﻟ ُﻤ َﺸﺮ َﻓﺔ‬, lit. 'Honorable Ka'bah'), also spelled
Ka'bah, is a building at the center of
Islam's most important mosque, Great
Mosque of Mecca (Arabic: ‫ ْٱﻟ َﻤ ْﺴ ِﺠﺪ ْٱﻟ َﺤ َﺮام‬,
lit. 'The Sacred Mosque'), in the Hejazi city
of Mecca, Saudi Arabia.[1] It is the most
sacred site in Islam.[2] It is considered by
Muslims to be the Bayt Allāh (Arabic: ‫َﺑ ْﻴﺖ‬
ٰ ‫ٱ‬, "House of God"), and has a similar role

to the Tabernacle and Holy of Holies in

Judaism. Its location determines the
qiblah (Arabic: ‫ ِﻗ ْﺒﻠَﺔ‬, direction of prayer).
Wherever they are in the world, Muslims
are expected to face the Kaaba when
performing Salah, the Islamic prayer.
 (Kaʿbah)
‫ﻛ َ ْﻌ َﺒﺔ‬

The Kaaba surrounded by pilgrims

Religion

Affiliation Islam

Location
Location Great Mosque of
Mecca,
Mecca, Hejaz, Saudi
Arabia

Geographic 21°25′21.0″N
coordinates 39°49′34.2″E

Specifications

Length 34f

Height (max) 13.1 m (43 ft)

One of the Five Pillars of Islam requires
every Muslim who is able to do so to
perform the Hajj (Arabic: ‫ َﺣ ّﺞ‬, Pilgrimage)
at least once in their lifetime. Multiple
parts of the hajj require pilgrims to make
Tawaf (Arabic: ‫ َﻃ َﻮاف‬, Circumambulation)
seven times counter-clockwise around the
Kaaba, the first three times fast, at the
edge of the courtyard, and the last four
times slowly, nearer the Kaaba. Tawaf is
also performed by pilgrims during the
ʿUmrah (Arabic: ‫ﻋُ ْﻤ َﺮة‬, Lesser Pilgrimage).[2]
However, the most significant time is
during the hajj, when millions of pilgrims
gather to circle the building during a 5-day
period.[3][4] In 2017, the number of pilgrims
coming from outside the Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia to perform hajj was officially
reported as 1,752,014 and 600,108 Saudi
Arabian residents bringing the total
number of pilgrims to 2,352,122.[5] In the
2019 hajj, The Kingdom reported 2,489,406
foreign pilgrims and 634,379 domestic
pilgrims (total 3,123,785).[6]

Lexicology
The literal meaning of the Arabic word
kaʿbah (‫ )ﻛ َ ْﻌ َﺒﺔ‬is 'cube'.[7] In the Quran, the
Kaaba is also mentioned as al-Bayt
(Arabic: ‫ ْٱﻟ َﺒ ْﻴﺖ‬, lit. 'the house') and Baytī
(Arabic: ‫ َﺑ ْﻴ ِﺘﻲ‬, lit. 'My House') [2:125, 22:26],
Baytik al-Muḥarram (Arabic: ‫ َﺑ ْﻴ ِﺘ َﻚ ْٱﻟ ُﻤ َﺤﺮم‬,
lit. 'Your Inviolable House') [14:37], al-Bayt
al-Ḥarām (Arabic: ‫ ْٱﻟ َﺒ ْﻴﺖ ْٱﻟ َﺤ َﺮام‬, lit. 'The
Sacred House') [5:97], al-Bayt al-ʿAtīq
(Arabic: ‫ ْٱﻟ َﺒ ْﻴﺖ ْٱﻟ َﻌ ِﺘﻴﻖ‬, lit. 'The Ancient House')
[22:29], and. The mosque surrounding the
Kaaba is called al-Masjid al-Haram ("The
Sacred Mosque").
Architecture and interior

Kaaba during expansion phase in 2013

The Kaaba is a cuboid stone structure

made of granite. It is approximately 13.1 m
(43 ft) high (some claim 12.03 m (39.5 ft)),
with sides measuring 11.03 m (36.2 ft) by
12.86 m (42.2 ft).[8][9] Inside the Kaaba, the
floor is made of marble and limestone.
The interior walls, measuring 13 m (43 ft)
by 9 m (30 ft), are clad with tiled, white
marble halfway to the roof, with darker
trimmings along the floor. The floor of the
interior stands about 2.2 m (7.2 ft) 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 green 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. (It has
been claimed that this table is used for the
placement of perfumes or other items.)
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. A
golden door—the bāb al-tawbah (also
romanized as Baabut Taubah, and meaning
"Door of Repentance")—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 drawing of the Kaaba. See key in text.

A technical drawing of the Kaaba showing dimensions

and elements
Rukn al-Yamani

Each numbered item in the following list

corresponds to features noted in the
diagram image.

1. Al-Ḥajaru al-Aswad, "the Black Stone",

is located on the Kaaba's eastern
corner. Its northern corner is known
as the Ruknu l-ˤĪrāqī, "the Iraqi corner",
its western as the Ruknu sh-Shāmī,
"the Levantine corner", and its
southern as Ruknu l-Yamanī, "the
Yemeni corner" taught by Imam
Ali.[2][9] The four corners of the Kaaba
roughly point toward the four cardinal
directions of the compass.[2] Its
major (long) axis is aligned 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.[10][11]
2. The entrance is a door set 2.13 m
(7 ft) above the ground on the north-
eastern wall of the Kaaba, which acts
as the façade.[2] In 1979 the 300 kg
gold doors made by chief artist
Ahmad bin Ibrahim Badr, replaced the
old silver doors made by his father,
Ibrahim Badr in 1942.[12] 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
CE.[13]
3. Mīzāb al-Raḥmah, rainwater spout
made of gold. Added in the rebuilding
of 1627 after the previous year's rain
caused three of the four walls to
collapse.
4. Gutter, added in 1627 to protect the
foundation from groundwater.
5. Hatīm (also romanized as hateem), a
low wall originally part of the Kaaba.
 It is a semi-circular wall opposite, but
not connected to, the north-west wall
of the Kaaba. This is 131 cm (52 in) in
height and 1.5 m (4.9 ft) in width, and
is composed of white marble. At one
time the space lying between the
hatīm and the Kaaba belonged to the
Kaaba itself, and for this reason it is
not entered during the tawaf.
. Al-Multazam, the roughly 2 m (6.6 ft)
space along the wall between the
Black Stone and the entry door. It is
sometimes considered pious or
 desirable for a hajji to touch this area
of the Kaaba, or perform dua here.
7. The Station of Ibrahim (Maqam
Ibrahim), a glass and metal enclosure
with what is said to be an imprint of
Abraham'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.[14]
. Corner of the Black Stone (East).
 9. Corner of Yemen (South-West), Rukan
e Yamani. Pilgrims traditionally
acknowledge a large vertical stone
that forms this corner.
10. Corner of Syria (North-West), Arabic
Rukn e Shaami.
11. Corner of Iraq (North-East). This
inside corner, behind a curtain,
contains the Babut Taubah, Door of
Repentance, which leads to a
staircase to the roof.
12. Kiswah, the embroidered covering.
Kiswa is a black silk and gold curtain
which is replaced annually during the
Hajj pilgrimage.[15][16] Two-thirds of
the way up is a band of gold-
embroidered Quranic text, including
the Shahada, the Islamic declaration
of faith.
13. Marble stripe marking the beginning
and end of each
circumambulation.[17]
A panoramic digital reconstruction of
the interior can be seen on Google
Streetview .
A virtual reality model of the interior and
exterior can be seen on Sketchfab
Virtual Reality .
Entrance, golden door—the bāb al-tawbah

Pilgrims performing Tawaf

The Station of Ibrahim (Maqam Ibrahim)

Mizab al-Rahmah
Religious significance

The Kaaba and the Sacred Mosque during Hajj, 2008

The Kaaba is the holiest site in Islam,[18]

and is often called by names such as the
House of God.[19][20]

Qibla …
The Qibla is the direction faced during
prayer.[Quran 2:143–144 ] It is the focal point
for prayer. The direction faced during
prayer is the direction of where the Kaaba
is.

Pilgrimage …

The Sacred Mosque is the focal point of

the Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages[21] that
occur in the month of Dhu al-Hijjah in the
Islamic calendar and at any time of the
year, respectively. The Hajj pilgrimage is
one of the Pillars of Islam, required of all
able-bodied Muslims who can afford the
trip. In recent times, about 1.8 million
Muslims perform the Hajj every year.[22]

Some of the rituals performed by pilgrims

are symbolic of historical incidents. For
example, the incident of Hagar's search for
water is emulated by Muslims as they run
between the two hills of Safa and Marwah.

The Hajj is associated with the life of the

Islamic prophet Muhammad from the 7th
century, but the ritual of pilgrimage to
Mecca is considered by Muslims to
stretch back thousands of years to the
time of Prophet Ibrahim.

History

View of the Kaaba, 1718. Adriaan Reland:

Verhandeling van de godsdienst der Mahometaanen

Islamic views on origin …

The Quran contains several verses
regarding the origin of the Kaaba. It states
that the Kaaba was the first House of
Worship, and that it was built by Ibrahim
and Ismail on Allah's instructions.[23][24][25]

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[26][27][28]

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[29][30][31]

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[32][33][34]
Ibn Kathir, the famous commentator on
the Quran, mentions two interpretations
among the Muslims on the origin of the
Kaaba. One is that the shrine was a place
of worship for Angels before the creation
of man. Later, a house of worship was
built on the location which was lost during
the flood in Noah's time and was finally
rebuilt by Abraham and Ishmael 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 "House of God", dedicated
solely to Him, built by His instruction and
sanctified and blessed by Him as stated in
Quran 22:26–29.[35] A Hadith in Sahih al-
Bukhari states that the Kaaba was the First
Mosque on Earth, and the Second Mosque
was the Temple in Jerusalem.[36]

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-e-Ibrahim (literally the Station of
Abraham) where Abraham stood for
elevation while building the structure. The
Black Stone and the Maqam-e-Ibrahim are
believed by Muslims to be the only
remnant of the original structure made by
Abraham as naturally the remaining
structure had to be demolished and rebuilt
several times over history for maintenance
purposes. After the construction was
complete, God enjoined the descendants
of Ishmael to perform an annual
pilgrimage: the Hajj and the Korban,
sacrifice of cattle. The vicinity of the
shrine was also made a sanctuary where
bloodshed and war were forbidden.
[Quran 22:26–33 ]

According to Islamic tradition, over the

millennia after Ishmael's death, his
progeny and the local tribes who settled
around the oasis of Zam-Zam 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 (Hajj)
including doing naked
circumambulation.[37] 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 Kitab Akhbar
Makka.[38]

Other views on origin …

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.[39] However, by the time of
Muhammad's era, it seems that the Kaaba
was venerated as the shrine of Allah, the
High God. Once a year, tribes from all
around the Arabian peninsula, whether
Christian or pagan, would converge on
Mecca to perform the Hajj, marking the
widespread conviction that Allah was the
same deity worshiped by monotheists.[39]
Alfred Guillaume, in his translation of the
sira of Ibn Ishaq, an early biographer of
Muhammad, says that the Kaaba itself
might be referred to in the feminine
form.[40] Circumambulation was often
performed naked by men and almost
naked by women.[37] It is disputed whether
Allah and Hubal were the same deity or
different. Per 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 Kaaba after they
conquered Mecca a century before
Muhammad's time.[41]

Ptolemy …

This section contains information of unclear or

questionable importance or relevance Learn
to the more

Writing in the Encyclopedia of Islam,

Wensinck identifies Mecca with a place
called Macoraba mentioned by
Ptolemy.[42][43] 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.[44] 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.[45] A recent
study has revisited the arguments for
Macoraba and found them
unsatisfactory.[46]
Ottoman tiles representing the Kaaba, 17th century.

Diodorus Siculus …

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".[47] Edward Gibbon
believed that this was the Kaaba.[48]
However, Gibbon had misread the source:
Diodorus puts the temple too far north for
it to have been Mecca.[49]

Others …

Imoti contends that there were numerous

such Kaaba sanctuaries in Arabia at one
time, but this was the only one built of
stone.[50] The others also allegedly had
counterparts of the Black Stone. There
was a "red stone", the deity of the south
Arabian city of Ghaiman, and the "white
stone" in the Kaaba of al-Abalat (near the
city of Tabala, south of Mecca).
Grunebaum in Classical Islam points out
that the experience of divinity of that
period was often associated with stone
fetishes, mountains, special rock
formations, or "trees of strange growth."[51]

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.[52]

According to Sarwar,[53] about 400 years

before the birth of Muhammad, a man
named "Amr bin Lahyo bin Harath bin Amr
ul-Qais bin Thalaba bin Azd bin Khalan bin
Babalyun bin Saba", who was descended
from Qahtan and was the king of Hijaz had
placed a Hubal idol onto the roof of the
Kaaba. This idol was one of the chief
deities of the ruling tribe Quraysh. 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.[54]

To maintain peace among the perpetually

warring tribes, Mecca was declared a
sanctuary where no violence was allowed
within 20 miles (32 km) of the Kaaba. This
combat-free zone allowed Mecca to thrive
not only as a place of pilgrimage, but also
as a trading center.[55]

Many Muslim and 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 spice
trade. 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, or the Syrian church
chroniclers writing in Syriac. The town is
absent, however, from any known
geographies or histories written in the
three centuries before the rise of Islam.[56]

According to the Encyclopædia Britannica,

"before the rise of Islam it was revered as
a sacred sanctuary and was a site of
pilgrimage."[57] According to German
historian Eduard Glaser, the name "Kaaba"
may have been related to the southern
Arabian or Ethiopian word "mikrab",
signifying a temple.[43] Again, Crone
disputes this etymology.

In Samaritan literature, the Samaritan

Book of the Secrets of Moses (Asatir)
claims that Ishmael and his eldest son
Nebaioth built the Kaaba as well as the city
of Mecca.[58] "The Secrets of Moses" or
Asatir book was suggested by some
opinion to have been compiled in the 10th
century,[59] while another opinion in 1927
suggested that it was written no later than
the second half of the 3rd century BCE.[60]

Pre-Islamic Era …

Prior to the spread of Islam throughout the

Arabian Peninsula, the Kaaba was a holy
site for the various Bedouin tribes of the
area. Once every lunar year, the Bedouin
tribes would make a pilgrimage to Mecca.
Setting aside any tribal feuds, they would
worship their pagan gods in the Kaaba and
trade with each other in the city.[61] Various
sculptures and paintings were held inside
the Kaaba. A statue of Hubal, the principal
idol of Mecca, and other pagan deities
were in or around the Kaaba.[62] There
were paintings of idols decorating the
walls. A picture of the Prophet Isa and his
mother, Maryam, was situated inside the
Kaaba and later found by the Prophet
Muhammad after his conquest of Mecca.
The iconography portrayed a seated
Maryam with her child on her lap.[62] This
description, which would later become a
universal iconography in later times, is
similar to Christian art and its portrayal of
the seated Virgin Mary holding a young
Jesus in her lap. The iconography in the
Kaaba also included paintings of other
prophets and angels. It is possible the
paintings of the prophets and angels were
figures associated with the Prophet Isa
and Maryam. Inside the Kaaba, undefined
decorations, money and a pair of ram's
horns were recorded to be there. The pair
of ram's horns were said to have belonged
to the ram sacrificed by the Prophet
Ibrahim in place of his son, the Prophet
ismaeel.

Al-Azraqi provides the following narrative

on the authority of his grandfather, whose
own source was Da'ud b.'Abd al-Rahman,
who said that Ibn Jurayj had said that
Sulayman b.Musa al-Shami asked 'Ata' b.
Abi Rabah the following:[62]

I have heard that there was set

up in al-Bayt (the Ka'ba) a
picture (timthal) of Maryam and
 Isa. ['Ata'] said: "Yes, there was
set in it a picture of Maryam
adorned (muzawwaqan); in her
lap, her son Isa sat adorned."[1]

-al-Azraqi, Akhbar Mecca: History of Mecca

Muhammad's era …
The Black Stone is seen through a portal in the
Kaaba[63]

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 after its
structure was damaged due to floods
around 600 CE. Ibn Ishaq's Sirat Rasūl
Allāh, one of the biographies of
Muhammad (as reconstructed and
translated by Guillaume), describes
Muhammad settling a quarrel between
Meccan clans as to which clan should set
the Black Stone cornerstone in 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.[64][65] Ibn Ishaq says that the timber
for the reconstruction of the Kaaba came
from a Greek ship that had been wrecked
on the Red Sea coast at Shu'ayba and that
the work was undertaken by a Coptic
carpenter called Baqum.[66] Muhammad's
night journey is said to have taken him
from the Kaaba to the Al-Aqsa Masjid 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, the direction of the qiblah was
changed from Jerusalem to the Kaaba in
Mecca.[67] In 628 CE, Muhammad led a
group of Muslims towards Mecca with the
intention of performing the minor
pilgrimage (Umrah) at the Kaaba, although
he wasn't allowed by the people of Mecca.
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.[68]

At the culmination of his mission,[69] in

630 CE, Muhammad conquered Mecca.
His first action was to remove statues and
images from the Kaaba.[70] According to
reports collected by Ibn Ishaq and al-
Azraqi, Muhammad spared a painting of
Mary and Jesus, and a fresco of Abraham;
but according to Ibn Hisham, all pictures
were erased.[71][70][72]

Narrated Abdullah: When the

Prophet entered Mecca on the
day of the Conquest, there were
360 idols around the Ka'bah.
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)"
 — Sahih Al-Bukhari, Book
59, Hadith 583

al-Azraqi further conveys how Muhammad,

after he entered the Kaaba on the day on
the conquest, ordered all the pictures
erased except that of Maryam.

...Shihab (said) that the Prophet

(peace be upon him) entered the
Ka'ba the day of the conquest,
and in it was a picture of the
angels (mala'ika) and 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 bi 'l-azlam)." Then he
saw the picture of Maryam, so
he put his hands on it and he
said: "Erase what is in it [the
Ka'ba] in the way of pictures
except the picture of
Maryam."[62]
-al-Azraqi, Akhbar Mecca: History of Mecca

After the conquest Muhammad restated

the sanctity and holiness of Mecca,
including its Great Mosque, in Islam.[73] He
performed a lesser Pilgrimage (Umrah) in
629 CE, followed by the Greater Pilgrimage
(Hajj) in 632 CE called the Farewell
Pilgrimage since Muhammad prophesied
his impending death on this event.[74]

After Muhammad …
The site of Kaaba in 1880

The Kaaba in 1907

Kaaba 1910

The Kaaba has been repaired and

reconstructed many times since
Muhammad's day. The structure was
severely damaged by fire on 3 Rabi I
(Sunday, 31 October 683 CE), during the
first siege of Mecca in the war between
the Umayyads and Abd-Allah ibn al-
Zubayr,[75] an early Muslim who ruled
Mecca for many years between the death
of ʿAli and the consolidation of Umayyad
power. Ibn al-Zubayr rebuilt it to include
the hatīm.[76] He did so on the basis of a
tradition (found in several hadith
collections[77]) 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.

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 Ibn al-Zubayr allowed the
Umayyads under ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwan
to finally reunite all the Islamic
possessions and end the long civil war. In
693 CE, ʿAbdu l-Malik had the remnants of
al-Zubayr's Kaaba razed, and rebuilt on the
foundations set by the Quraysh.[78] The
Kaaba returned to the cube shape it had
taken during Muhammad's time.
During the Hajj of 930 CE, the Qarmatians
attacked Mecca, defiled the Zamzam Well
with the bodies of pilgrims and stole the
Black Stone, taking it to the oasis region of
Eastern Arabia known as al-Aḥsāʾ, where it
remained until the Abbasids ransomed it in
952 CE. The basic shape and structure of
the Kaaba have not changed since then.[79]

After heavy rains and flooding in 1629, 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.[80] The Kaaba's
appearance has not changed since then.

The Kaaba is depicted on the reverse of

500 Saudi Riyal, and the 2000 Iranian rial
banknotes.[81]

Cleaning
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Play media

The Kaaba during Hajj

The building is opened twice a year for a

ceremony known as "the cleaning of the
Kaaba." This ceremony takes place
approximately thirty days before the start
of the month of Ramadan and thirty days
before the start of Hajj. The keys to the
Kaaba are held by the Banī Shaybah (‫)ﺑﻨﻲ ﺷﻴﺒﺔ‬
tribe. Members of the tribe greet visitors to
the inside of the Kaaba on the occasion of
the cleaning ceremony. A small number of
dignitaries and foreign diplomats are
invited to participate in the ceremony. The
governor of Mecca leads the guests who
ritually clean the structure, using a
broom.[82]

See also
Al-Aqsa Mosque
Al-Masjid al-Nabawi
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