KA'BAH. — A building of gray stone, situated in the middle of the sacred enclosure of Mecca, in the form of a cube (k. = “die”). Two walls are 12 m. long, the other two approximately 10 m.; its height is 15 m. A door opens in the northeastern wall. The building rests on a marble base 25 cm. high and projecting outward 30 cm.
Inside there are three wooden columns supporting the roof. In the eastern corner, 1.50 m. above the ground, a black stone of lava or basalt is fixed, measuring approximately 30 cm. in diameter. The walls of the k. are covered with a black brocade cloth (kisswah), bearing inscriptions embroidered in silver and gold; during the annual pilgrimage it is replaced with a white cloth, which hangs down to within 2 m. of the ground.
A pagan place of worship before islām, it contained many other idols and fetishes. In the second year of the Hijra, Muhammad (v.) adapted the veneration of the k. to islām, declaring it the first sanctuary erected by Abraham and Ishmael (Qur’an, 2:121) and ordering that worshipers face it in prayer (ibid., 2:139). At the conquest of Mecca (the eighth year of the Hijra), he purified it of the idols and fetishes, except for the black stone.
The k., like the surrounding buildings, is at the center of the pilgrimage ritual (v. ISLĀM).