Kaaba
| The Kaaba | |
|---|---|
الكعبة | |
.jpg) The Kaaba | |
  Location of the Kaaba in Saudi Arabia | |
| Religion | |
| Affiliation | Islam |
| Rite | Tawaf |
| Mosque | |
| Leadership | Abdul-Rahman Al-Sudais: (President of the Affairs of the Two Holy Mosques) |
| Status | Active |
| Location | |
| Location | Great Mosque of Mecca, Mecca, Mecca Province, Hejaz |
| Country | Saudi Arabia |
 Interactive map of The Kaaba | |
| Administration | The Agency of the General Presidency for the Affairs of the Two Holy Mosques |
| Coordinates | 21°25′21″N 39°49′34″E / 21.4225°N 39.82617°E |
| Architecture | |
| Type | Temple[1] |
| Established | Pre-Islamic era |
| Specifications | |
| Length | 12.86 m (42 ft 2 in) |
| Width | 11.03 m (36 ft 2 in) |
| Height (max) | 13.1 m (43 ft 0 in) |
| Materials | Stone; marble; limestone |
The Kaaba (Arabic: الكعبة, romanized: al-Kaʿba, lit. 'the Cube'),[a] also spelled Kaʽba, Kaʽbah or Kabah, sometimes referred to as al-Kaʽba al-Musharrafa (Arabic: الكعبة المشرفة, lit. 'the Honored Ka'ba'),[b] is a stone building at the center of Islam's most important mosque and holiest site, the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.[2][3][4] It is considered by Muslims to be the Baytullah (Arabic: بيت اللَّٰه, lit. 'House of God') and determines the qibla (Arabic: قبلة, lit. 'direction of prayer') for Muslims around the world.
According to Islamic tradition, the Kaaba was rebuilt several times throughout history, most famously by Ibrahim and his son Ismail,[5] when he returned to the valley of Mecca several years after leaving his wife Hajar and Ismail there upon Allah's command. 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.[1] Circling the Kaaba seven times anti-clockwise, known as Tawaf (Arabic: طواف, romanized: ṭawaaf), is a Fard rite for the completion of the Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages.[4] The area around the Kaaba where pilgrims walk is called the Mataaf.
In early Islam, Muslims faced in the general direction of Al-Aqsa Mosque in 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.[6] The Kaaba and the Mataaf are surrounded by pilgrims every day of the Islamic year, except the 9th of Dhu'l-Hijja, known as the Day of Arafah, on which the cloth covering the structure, known as the Kiswah (Arabic: كسوة, romanized: kiswa, 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.[7] According to the Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah, 6,791,100 external pilgrims arrived for the Umrah pilgrimage in 1439 AH (2017/2018 CE).[8]
Today, with the exception of certain heterodox Islamic groups stating that God cannot be assigned a place, such as the Druze, Alevis, Nusayris, and Ismailis, Muslims of all sects —including Sunnis and Shias— perform their prayers facing the Kaaba in Mecca. Historically, one major objection was the Qarmatians, a now-defunct syncretic Shia sect which rejected the Kaaba as the qibla; in 930, they sacked Mecca and for a time took the Kaaba's Black Stone to their centre of power in al-Ahsa, with the intention of starting a new era in Islam.[9][10] The significance of mosque structures from the early Islamic period that face in different directions continues to be a subject of serious debate between revisionist historians and conservatives.
Etymology and pre-Islamic usage
In Arabic, the literal meaning of the word Ka'ba (Arabic: كعبة) is cube. Therefore, the most popular etymology has been that the Kaaba was named after its kaʿb form.[11] Some have questioned that the cubic sense of kaʿb is pre-Islamic, seeking etymologies elsewhere.[12] One disputed hypothesis suggests that the name "Kaaba" is related to the southern Arabian or Ethiopian word "mikrab", signifying a temple.[13][14] Another relates it to Kʿbt, which is related to the Kaaba of Najran.[15] (See for a word with similar pronunciation: Qubba)
In the pre-Islamic religions of Arabia -spanning from the Levant to Yemen, numerous deities —such as, Al-Lat, Dhu al-Khalasa, and al-Uzza (also occasionally referred to as Chaabou), Dushara, Dhu Samawi etc.— were represented by aniconic cubic stone carvings or by cubic structures regarded as the abodes of these deities; furthermore, the existence of "sacred/haram zones" surrounding these sanctuaries and the widespread use of the name "Ka'b" to denote such sanctity, is well-established.[17] They are primarily known from the Arabian Peninsula, with some exception such as Kaaba of Zoroaster.[18] The Black Stone of the Kaaba has been compared to pre-Islamic religious stones called baetyls, which were often black, thought to be of meteorite origins, and venerated in houses or temples of worship for a particular deity.[19] 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 Tabalah). 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."[20]
Although the cultural heritage of the pagan era was largely eradicated during Islam's struggle to establish Islamic monotheism, historical research has uncovered traces of some sanctuaries that were significant enough to rival the Kaaba in Mecca; nevertheless, the belief that there has always been only one Kaaba has become deeply ingrained in Muslim literary and religious tradition. Today, the Kaaba and the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca are identified as the direction of prayer; however, an archaeological document found in the Taif region suggests that this view is anachronistic from the perspective of traditional Islamic historiography, as a stone inscription discovered there dates the construction of the Masjid al-Haram to the year 78 AH.[21] Furthermore, a Quranic verse recounting Muhammad's night journey —an event often presented today as a miracle— to the Masjid al-Aqsa offers clues suggesting that the *Masjid al-Haram* mentioned in the Quran might differ from the one located in Mecca. Surah Al-Isra 17:1:
Glory be to the One Who took His servant by night from Masjid al-Haram to the Masjid al-Aqsa whose surroundings We have blessed, so that We may show him some of Our signs. Indeed, He alone is the All-Hearing, All-Seeing
History
Mythologies
According to mythological accounts, prior to the creation of the earth, the Divine Throne, Arsh rested upon the waters. Allah sent forth a wind to create a dome at the site of the Kaaba; the earth was created beneath this dome,[22] and stabilized with mountains. Mount Abu Qubays was the first mountain placed upon the earth, and the other mountains spread across the earth from Abu Qubays. Another tradition holds that a thousand years before the creation of the earth, the Kaaba was a white essence resting upon the waters, supported by two angels who were glorifying Allah. The earth was spread out and expanded beneath this essence, and the Kaaba was established as the center of the earth.[23]
A comparative analysis of these narratives reveals that many myths associated with the Kaaba—such as the primordial ocean, the axis mundi, and the omphalos—are motifs shared with other cultures, and it can uncover their possible origins in older cultures.[24]
Before Muhammad
In pre-Islamic Arabic poetry attributed to Zuhayr ibn Abi Sulma, the builders of the Kaaba are said to be the Quraysh and Jurhum tribes.[25] Christian J. Robin argues that the Kaaba may have become prominent in the last decades of the 6th century in the aftermath of the military defeat of Abraha by the Quraysh.[26] However, Peter Webb, based on pre-Islamic poetry, argues that the Kaaba was never a prominent site of pilgrimage and that it largely played a local role in Western Arabia as opposed to a pan-Arabian one.[27]
In Islamic cosmology, the Zurah pilgrimage site was the precursor to the Kaaba.[28] According to Islamic tradition, the pre-Islamic Kaaba was a site of worship for various Arabian Bedouin tribes, who would make pilgrimage once every lunar year, setting aside their tribal feuds.[29] The Kaaba hosted 360 pagan idols (potentially one representing each day of the year) including sculptures and paintings before Islam, notably including a statue of Hubal, the principal idol of Mecca.[30][31] Paintings of angels, of Ibrahim holding divination arrows, and of Isa (Jesus) and his mother Maryam (Mary), which Muhammad spared.[32] Undefined decorations, money and a pair of ram's horns were recorded to be inside the Kaaba.[30] 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.[30] Islamic tradition traces the polytheism of the Kaaba to the descendants of Ishmael who settled around the Zamzam Well and gradually turned it away from its original monotheist practice during the time of Abraham.[33] The Book of Idols by Hisham ibn al-Kalbi describes the origins of idolatry at the Kaaba: about 400 years before the birth of Muhammad, a man named 'Amr ibn Luhay, 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.[34] 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.[35] 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.[36]
Alfred Guillaume, in his translation of the Ibn Ishaq's seerah, says that the Kaaba itself might be referred to in the feminine form.[37] Circumambulation was often performed naked by men and almost naked by women.[33] 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.[38]
Ptolemy and Diodorus Siculus
Writing in the