Kaʿba

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KAʿBA

The most important shrine of Islam.

The Kaʿba is a sanctuary consecrated to the worship of God. A simple cubic structure (12.6 m by 13.1 m by 11.3 m by 11.2 m with a height of 13 m), it stands at the center of Mecca. It constitutes the qibla, the direction to which Muslims must orient themselves in prayer, and it is at the heart of the hajj, the pilgrimage prescribed at least once in their lifetime for the faithful. The doors are situated in the northern wall and the whole structure is covered with a black cloth embroidered with golden Qurʾanic calligraphy and replaced with a new one every year.

The Kaʿba in pre-Islamic times was the main temple of Associationist Mecca and a pilgrimage site for all Arabians. Associationism, the pre-Islamic religious tradition of Arabia, and later the Qurʾan itself, attributed the construction of the Kaʿba to Abraham, to whom most Arabian tribes traced their ancestry through his son Ishmael. According to tradition, the Black Stone, which was and to this day remains encased in one of the walls of the Kaʿba, was believed to be the only remnant of the original construction; and some traditions report that it had originally fallen from the sky. The pre-Islamic temple housed symbols of the various deities worshiped in association with the creator Allah, as well as representations of Mary and Jesus and Jewish symbols. Tradition reports that when Mecca surrendered to the Prophet, the latter's first act after granting amnesty to all Meccans was to ride to the Kaʿba, empty it of all representations and re-dedicate it to the worship of the one God.

Although in principle fighting is not allowed in its vicinity, the Kaʿba was destroyed and rebuilt more than once in Muslim history, and the Black Stone stolen but eventually returned. Today, political demonstrations around the Kaʿba and during the hajj are not allowed. Over time, a large mosque (al-Masjid al-Haram) was built around it. Though neither in itself an object of worship nor considered as having a "sacred" nature, the Kaʿba remains to the Muslim the holiest place on earth.