Kaaba

The Kaaba (Arabic: ٱلْكَعْبَة, romanized: al-Kaʿba, lit. 'the Cube'), also spelled Kaʽba, Kaʽbah or Kabah, sometimes referred to as al-Kaʽba al-Musharrafa (Arabic: ٱلْكَعْبَة ٱلْمُشَرَّفَة, romanized: al-Kaʿba l-Mušarrafa, lit. 'the Honored Ka'ba'), is a stone building at the center of Islam's most important mosque and holiest site, the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is considered by Muslims to be the Baytullah (Arabic: بَيْت ٱللَّٰه, lit. 'House of God') and determines the qibla (Arabic: قِبْلَة, lit. 'direction of prayer') for Muslims around the world.

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.

According to Islam, the Kaaba was rebuilt several times throughout history, most famously by Ibrahim and his son Ismail, 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. Circling the Kaaba seven times counterclockwise, known as Tawaf (Arabic: طواف, romanized: tawaaf), is a Fard rite for the completion of the Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages. The area around the Kaaba where pilgrims walk is called the Mataaf.

The Kaaba and the Mataaf are surrounded by pilgrims every day of the Islamic year, except the 9th of Dhu al-Hijjah, known as the Day of Arafah, on which the cloth covering the structure, known as the Kiswah (Arabic: كسوة, romanized: Kiswah, 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. 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).

In Arabic, the literal meaning of the word Ka'bah (Arabic: كعبة) is cube. Therefore, the most popular etymology has been that the Kaaba was named after its kaʿb form. Some have questioned that the cubic sense of kaʿb is pre-Islamic, seeking etymologies elsewhere. One disputed hypothesis suggests that the name "Kaaba" is related to the southern Arabian or Ethiopian word "mikrab", signifying a temple. Another relates it to Kʿbt, which is related to the Kaaba of Najran.

The architectural style of the Meccan Kaaba is shared by a number of pre-Islamic religious buildings, which have broadly been labelled as Kaabas. They are primarily known from the Arabian Peninsula, but some have also been found in other regions, including the Kaaba of Zoroaster. Imoti contends that there were numerous such Kaaba sanctuaries in Arabia at one time, although only the Meccan Kaaba was built of stone. 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. Imoti argues that the other Kaabas also allegedly had their own counterparts of the Black Stone. 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."

In Islamic cosmology, the Zurah pilgrimage site was the precursor to the Kaaba.

Patricia Crone has cast doubt on the claim that Mecca was a major historical trading outpost. Other scholars such as Glen Bowersock disagree and assert that it was.