The Kaaba in Mecca, Saudi Arabia is the holiest site in Islam. It was originally constructed by Abraham and Ishmael as a place of monotheistic worship. Over time, it housed pagan idols until Muhammad cleansed it of idolatry in the 7th century CE. Since then, it has undergone many renovations to accommodate growing numbers of pilgrims. Today, it remains a cubical structure draped in cloth and is the focal point for Muslims' five daily prayers and the hajj pilgrimage, one of the five pillars of Islam.

1. The Kaaba
Mecca, Saudi Arabia pre-Islamic, rededicated by Muhammad in 631-32 C.E.

2. The
Kaaba, granite masonry, covered with silk curtain and calligraphy in gold and silver-wrapped
thread, pre-Islamic monument, rededicated by Muhammad in 631-32 C.E., multiple renovations,
Mecca, Saudi Arabia (photo: The Kaaba in the Masjid el Haram, 2010)
Prayerand pilgrimage
Pilgrimage to a holy site is a core principle of almost all faiths. The Kaaba, meaning cube in
Arabic, is a square building, elegantly draped in a silk and cotton veil. Located in Mecca, Saudi
Arabia, it is the holiest shrine in Islam.
In Islam, Muslims pray five times a day and after 624 C.E., these prayers were directed towards
Mecca and the Kaaba rather than Jerusalem; this direction (or qibla in Arabic), is marked in all
mosques and enables the faithful to know in what direction they should pray. The Qur‘an
established the direction of prayer.
All Muslims aspire to undertake the hajj, or the annual pilgrimage, to the Kaaba once in their life
if they are able. Prayer five times a day and the hajj are two of the five pillars of Islam, the most
fundamental principles of the faith.
Upon arriving in Mecca, pilgrims gather in the courtyard of the Masjid al-Haram around the
Kaaba. They then circumambulate (tawaf in Arabic) or walk around the Kaaba, during which
they hope to kiss and touch the Black Stone (al-Hajar al-Aswad), embedded in the eastern corner
of the Kaaba.

3. View of
pilgrims performing Tawaf (circumambulating) the Kaaba from the gate of Abdul Aziz
Thehistoryandform ofthe Kaaba
The Kaaba was a sanctuary in pre-Islamic times. Muslims believe that Abraham (known as
Ibrahim in the Islamic tradition), and his son, Ismail, constructed the Kaaba. Tradition holds that
it was originally a simple unroofed rectangular structure. The Quraysh tribe, who ruled Mecca,
rebuilt the pre-Islamic Kaaba in c. 608 C.E. with alternating courses of masonry and wood. A
door was raised above ground level to protect the shrine from intruders and flood waters.
Muhammad was driven out of Mecca in 620 C.E. to Yathrib, which is now known as Medina.
Upon his return to Mecca in 629/30 C.E., the shrine became the focal point for Muslim worship
and pilgrimage. The pre-Islamic Kaaba housed the Black Stone and statues of pagan gods.
Muhammad reportedly cleansed the Kaaba of idols upon his victorious return to Mecca,
returning the shrine to the monotheism of Ibrahim. The Black Stone is believed to have been
given to Ibrahim by the angel Gabriel and is revered by Muslims. Muhammad made a final
pilgrimage in 632 C.E., the year of his death, and thereby established the rites of pilgrimage.
Modifications
The Kaaba has been modified extensively throughout its history. The area around the Kaaba was
expanded in order to accommodate the growing number of pilgrims by the second caliph, ‘Umar
(ruled 634-44). The Caliph ‘Uthman (ruled 644-56) built the colonnades around the open plaza
where the Kaaba stands and incorporated other important monuments into the sanctuary.
During the civil war between the caliph Abd al-Malik and Ibn Zubayr who controlled Mecca, the
Kaaba was set on fire in 683 C.E. Reportedly, the Black Stone broke into three pieces and Ibn

4. Zubayr reassembled it with silver. He rebuilt the Kaaba in wood and stone, following Ibrahim’s
original dimensions and also paved the space around the Kaaba. After regaining control of
Mecca, Abd al-Malik restored the part of the building that Muhammad is thought to have
designed. None of these renovations can be confirmed through study of the building or
archaeological evidence; these changes are only outlined in later literary sources.
Reportedly under the Umayyad caliph al-Walid (ruled 705-15), the mosque that encloses the
Kaaba was decorated with mosaics like those of the Dome of the Rock and the Great Mosque of
Damascus. By the seventh century, the Kaaba was covered with kiswa, a black cloth that is
replaced annually during the hajj.
Under the early Abbasid Caliphs (750-1250), the mosque around the Kaaba was expanded and
modified several times. According to travel writers, such as the Ibn Jubayr, who saw the Kaaba
in 1183, it retained the eighth century Abbasid form for several centuries. From 1269-1517, the
Mamluks of Egypt controlled the Hijaz, the highlands in western Arabia where Mecca is located.
Sultan Qaitbay (ruled 1468-96) built a madrasa (a religious school) against one side of the
mosque. Under the Ottoman sultans, Süleyman I (ruled 1520-1566) and Selim II (ruled 1566-74),
the complex was heavily renovated. In 1631, the Kaaba and the surrounding mosque were
entirely rebuilt after floods had demolished them in the previous year. This mosque, which is
what exists today, is composed of a large open space with colonnades on four sides and with
seven minarets, the largest number of any mosque in the world. At the center of this large plaza
sits the Kaaba, as well as many other holy buildings and monuments.
The last major modifications were carried out in the 1950s by the government of Saudi Arabia to
accommodate the increasingly large number of pilgrims who come on the hajj. Today the
mosque covers almost forty acres.
The
Kaaba at al-Haram Mosque,

5. TheKaaba today
Today, the Kaaba is a cubical structure, unlike almost any other religious structure. It is fifteen
meters tall and ten and a half meters on each side; its corners roughly align with the cardinal
directions. The door of the Kaaba is now made of solid gold; it was added in 1982. The kiswa, a
large cloth that covers the Kaaba, which used to be sent from Egypt with the hajj caravan, today
is made in Saudi Arabia. Until the advent of modern transportation, all pilgrims undertook the
often dangerous hajj, or pilgrimage, to Mecca in a large caravan across the desert, leaving from
Damascus, Cairo, or other major cities in Arabia, Yemen or Iraq.
The numerous changes to the Kaaba and its associated mosque serve as good reminder of how
often buildings, even sacred ones, were renovated and remodeled either due to damage or to the
changing needs of the community.
Only Muslims may visit the holy cities of Mecca and Medina today.

6. About chronological periods in the Islamic world
Studying the Art of the Islamic world is challenging, partially because of the large geographic
and chronological scope of Islam. Islam has been a major religion and cultural force for over
fourteen centuries and continues to be so today. At present the Arts of the Islamic World Section
is organized into three chronological periods: Early, Medieval and Late. These chronological
divisions are modern creations that help scholars to organize information and works of art to
interpret them better. It also helps students to understand how works of art and architecture relate
to each other in time and space. There were dynasties and empires that controlled different lands
and whose periods of rule stretched across these chronological divisions.
TheDome
ofthe Rock(Qubbatal-Sakhra),Umayyad,stonemasonry, woodenroof,decoratedwith
glazedceramictile, mosaics,andgilt aluminumandbronzedome,691-2, withmultiple
renovations,patrontheCaliphAbdal-Malik,Jerusalem
EarlyPeriod(c. 640-900C.E.)
After Muhammad’s death in 634, there were four rightfully guided caliphs who succeeded
Muhammad. However, from 656 there were conflicts over succession, and two civil wars (656-
661 and 680-692) broke out within the community of Muslims. Out of these wars emerged the
Umayyad Dynasty, whose capital was Damascus in modern-day Syria. Responsible for the first
great monuments of Islamic art and architecture, Umayyad rulers built the Dome of the Rock in
Jerusalem, the Great Mosque of Damascus, and the so-called Desert Palaces in Syro-Palestine .
The Umayyads ruled as caliphs until 750 C.E., when they were overthrown by the Abbasids. The
Abbasids, like the Umayyads before them, ruled as caliphs over much of the Islamic world until
861. Their capital was at Baghdad, and later they ruled from the palace-city of Samarra in Iraq
for parts of the ninth century. After 861, the Abbasids lost control of large parts of their empire
through a series of uprisings in which provincial governors asserted their independence. A series

7. of local dynasties, such as the Aghlabids (800-909) and Tulunids (868-905) in North Africa, and
the Buyids (945-1055) in Central Asia, emerged and ruled, developing regional artistic styles.
Medieval Period(c.900-1517C.E.)
Court of the Lions, The Alhambra, Sabika hill, Granada,
Spain, begun 1238
)By the tenth century, there was fragmentation and individual dynasties sprang up. These
dynasties had varying degrees of control over different parts of the lands where Islam was the
dominant or a major religion.
In North Africa and the Near East, certain major dynasties, such as the Fatimids (909-1171),
emerged and ruled an area that includes present-day Egypt, Sicily, Algeria, Tunisia, and parts of
Syria. It is also at this time that some of the major Turkic dynasties and people from Central
Asia came to the forefront of politics and artistic creativity in the Islamic world. The Seljuqs
were Central Asian nomads who ruled eastern Islamic lands and eventually controlled Iran, Iraq
and much of Anatolia, although this empire was short-lived. The main branch of the Seljuqs, the
Great Seljuqs, maintained control over Iran.
It was also the time of the European Christian crusades, which aimed to retake the Holy Land
from the Muslims. A series of small Christian Kingdoms emerged in the twelfth century, as did
Muslim dynasties, such as the Ayyubids (1179-1260), whose most famous leader, Salah al-Din
(r.1169-93), known in Europe as Saladin, ended the Fatimid dynasty. Eventually the slave
soldiers, upon whom the Ayyubid dynasty depended for their military protection, overthrew the
last Ayyubid sultan in 1249/50. These slaves, known in Arabic as mamluk, literally meaning
“owned,” became known as the Mamluks and they controlled Syria and Egypt until 1517.

8. The Mamluks also had to face one of the greatest threats to their reign early on: The invading
Mongols. The Mongols and their great leader, Genghis Khan (c. 1162-1227), are almost always
associated with blood-thirsty conquest and destruction, but his legacy included the Yuan dynasty
in China (1279-1368), the Chaghatay khanate in Central Asia (c. 1227–1363), the Golden Horde
in southern Russia, extending into Europe (ca. 1227–1502), and the Ilkhanid dynasty in Greater
Iran (1256–1353). The Pax Mongolica ("Mongolian Peace") includes a great flowering of the
arts.
The Ilkhanids, who ruled over Iran, parts of Iraq and Central Asia, oversaw great artistic
development in manuscripts, such as those that recounted the Shahnama (or Book of Kings), the
famous Persian epic. They were important patrons of architecture. The Ilkhanid dynasty
disintegrated in 1335 and local dynasties came to power in Iraq and Iran.
In 1370, the last great dynasty emerged from Central Asia: the Timurids (c. 1370-1507). They
were named for their leader, Timur (also known as Tamerlane), who conquered and controlled
all of Central Asia, greater Iran, and Iraq, as well as parts of southern Russia and the Indian
subcontinent. The Timurids were outstanding builders of monumental architecture. Herat, in
present-day Afghanistan, became the capital and cultural center of the Timurid empire.
While artistic production and architecture flourished in Asia under different Islamic dynasties, it
also bloomed in the western Islamic lands. The most famous of these dynasties is probably the
Nasrids (1232-1492) of the southern Iberian Peninsula and western North Africa, whose most
important artistic achievement is the remarkable Alhambra, a palace-fortress complex in
Granada, in present-day Spain.
Taj
Mahal, Agra, India
Later Period(c. 1517 –1924C.E.)
This period is the era of the last great Islamic Empires. The Ottoman Empire, which had started
as a small Turkic state in Anatolia in the early fourteenth century, emerged in the second half of
the fifteenth century as a major military and political force. The Ottomans conquered
Constantinople in 1453 and the Mamluk Empire in 1517. They dominated much of Anatolia, the
Balkans, the Near East and North Africa until the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire after World
War I. The Ottomans are famous for their domed architecture and pencil minarets, many of
which were built by the great architect, Sinan (1539–1588) for Sultan Süleyman (r. 1520–66).
This period is considered the peak of Ottoman art and culture.

9. The Safavids, who established Shia Islam as the dominant faith of Iran, ruled from 1501–1722
and were the greatest dynasty to emerge from Iran. Architecture, paintings, manuscripts and
carpets all flourished under the Safavids. Shah ‘Abbas (r. 1587–1629) was the greatest patron of
the arts and the Safavid Dynasty’s most outstanding ruler. In the eighteenth century, a period of
turmoil in Persia, the Qajar dynasty (1779–1924) rose to power and established peace and their
rule saw the beginning of modernity in Iran.
The other great dynasty that oversaw a remarkable artistic and architectural output was the
Mughals. Founded by Babur (c. 1526–1858), the Mughals ruled over the largest Islamic state in
the Indian subcontinent. While there had been earlier sultanates in what is today northern Indian
and Pakistan, the emperors of the Mughal dynasty were patrons of some of the greatest works of
Islamic art, such as illuminated manuscripts and painting, and architecture, including the Taj
Mahal.