Kiswah

The kiswah or kiswa (Arabic: كسوة الكعبة, romanized: kiswaht al-ka'bah) is the cloth that covers the Kaaba in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is draped annually, though the date of draping has changed over the years. A procession traditionally accompanies the kiswah to Mecca, a tradition dating back to the 12th century. The term kiswah has multiple translations, with common ones being 'robe' or 'garment'. Due to the iconic designs and the quality of materials used in creating the kiswah, it is considered one of the most sacred objects in Islamic art, ritual, and worship.

The annual practice of covering the Kaaba has pre-Islamic origins and was continued by Muhammad and his successors. Historically, various types of cloth and textiles have been used as draping, but Egyptian produced kiswahs were popularized by early Islamic rulers.

The tradition of covering the Kaaba predates the emergence of Islam, with various Yemeni textiles composing the draping. According to Ibn Hisham, King Tubba Abu Karib As'ad of the Himyarite Kingdom, who would later become a revered figure in Islamic traditions, clothed the Kaaba for the first time during the rule of the Jurhum tribe of Mecca in the early fifth century CE after learning about it from two Jewish rabbis after his conversion to Judaism. Tubba' later covered the Kaaba in a striped red woolen garment, layering it atop the already existing hangings. The Quraysh (Arabic: قُرَيْشٌ), the ruling confederation of tribes in Mecca, later organized funding for the kiswah using annually collected payments from each of the tribes who worshipped there.

Muhammad and the Muslims in Mecca did not participate in the draping of the Kaaba until the conquest of the city at 630 AD (7 AH), as the ruling tribe, the Quraish, did not allow them to do so. When the Muslims took Mecca, they left the old hangings in place, with Muhammad adding his own kiswah of Yemeni origin. Muhammad’s successors would continue the tradition of draping the kiswah, with Umar al-Khattab (Arabic: عمر بن الخطاب) being the first caliph to send an Egyptian kiswah made out of a white linen known as qubati (Arabic: قُبْطِيّ), a type of embroidered linen manufactured by Coptic Christians living in Egypt.

The pre-Islamic hangings covering the Kaaba would remain until the rule of Umayyad caliph Mu'awiya (Arabic: معاوية بن أبي سفيان), who removed the old hangings after receiving complaints that they were religiously impure. A new kiswah was sent by Mu'awiya made out of silk, qubati, and striped wool. Following the original replacement of the old hangings, the caliph sent two kiswahs annually, with one being made out of qubati and the other silk; the silk kiswah is reported to have been draped over the former which would arrive in Mecca at least three months prior. Successive Umayyad caliphs would adhere to the precedent set by Mu'awiya and continue to supply kiswahs made either of Egyptian linen or silk and drape them over the coverings from previous years. Much like their Umayyad predecessors, the Abbasids continued to rely on Egyptian factories for the production of the kiswah. However, the Abbasid caliph Al-Mahdi would establish the precedent of annually removing and replacing the old kiswah after realizing the accumulated weight from the old kiswahs could structurally compromise the Kaaba following his pilgrimage to Mecca in 777 CE.

From the time of the Ayyubids, precisely during the reign of as-Salih Ayyub, the kiswah was manufactured in Egypt, with material sourced locally as well as from Sudan, India, and Iraq. The Amir al-Hajj (commander of the hajj caravan), who was directly designated by the sultans of the Mamluk, and later, Ottoman Empires, transported the kiswah from Egypt to Mecca on an annual basis. Muhammad Ali Pasha of Egypt ordered the expenses for making the kiswah to be met by his state treasury in the early 19th century. Since then, Dar Al-Khoronfosh, a workshop in Cairo's Al-Gamaleya district, had been selected for the task of making the kiswah, and continued this role throughout the reign of the Egyptian monarchy. After the takeover of the Hijaz region, and from 1927 onward, its manufacture was partially moved to Mecca and then fully transferred in 1962, when Egypt ceased production; the facility is now the King Abdulaziz Complex for the Holy Kaaba Kiswa.

The year 2024 was the first in recorded history during which women were involved in the ceremonial replacement of the kiswah. That year, women working for the General Authority for the Care of the Two Holy Mosques were involved in carrying parts of the new kiswah and giving them to men, before the men took them to Mecca.

The procession of the kiswah and its journey to Mecca dates back to 1184 CE from an account by Ibn Jubayr. According to Ibn Jubayr, the kiswah was brought to Mecca via camel from its place of creation along with an elaborate procession of drums and flags. The kiswah was then placed on the roof of the Kaaba once it reached Mecca, still folded. On the 134th day of the month of Dhu al-Hijjah, the Banu Shayba completely unfolded the cloth to fully display the embroideries and their inscriptions.