19 Facts About Kaaba

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.

Circling the Kaaba seven times counterclockwise, known as Tawaf, is a Fard rite for the completion of the Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages.

Kaaba argues that Meccan trade relied on skins, hides, manufactured leather goods, clarified butter, Hijazi woollens, and camels.

Kaaba 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.

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.

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Several idols were placed within the Kaaba representing deities of different aspects of nature and different tribes.

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.

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'aybah and that the work was undertaken by a Coptic carpenter called Baqum.

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.

Kaaba 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.

Kaaba performed the Hajj in 632 CE called the Hujjat ul-Wada' since Muhammad prophesied his impending death on this event.

Kaaba did so on the basis of a tradition that the hatim was a remnant of the foundations of the Abrahamic Kaaba, and that Muhammad himself had wished to rebuild it so as to include it.

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.

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

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.

Note: The major 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 roughly align with the sunrise of summer solstice and the sunset of winter solstice.

The keys to the Kaaba are held by the Bani Shaybah tribe, an honor bestowed upon them by Muhammad.

Governor of the Makkah Province and accompanying dignitaries clean the interior of the Kaaba using cloths dipped in Zamzam water scented with Oud perfume.