The Kaaba, or Cube, is a building that houses a meteorite. They put a black cloth on the building and make pilgrimages to it. Why do they honor this meteorite? I looked in a religion book but it doesn’t say, just that it is very ancient.
By “they” you mean Muslims?
Not sure. Isn’t it believed that their Prophet called it down from heave4n?
*Islamic folklore says that when Adam first arrived at the future site of Mecca, he found the Stone that had also just arrived from Heaven. (It wasn’t the Black Stone yet, it was still white. Folklore says it was the sins of the people who touched it over the years that turned it black. A symbolic way of describing the fate of pure heavenly things in this world of corruption.) He took it as the symbol of his soul, and built a structure to hold it, around which he circumambulated. Many years later, Abraham and his son Isma‘il built the Ka‘bah and included the Black Stone within one of the corners of the wall. It isn’t inside the Ka‘bah, it’s embedded in an outside corner. The southeast corner, to the left of the door. It’s a little bigger than a person’s head. Its color is actually a dark reddish-brown, nearly black. It is held in by a silver collar in the shape of a vulva. The Prophet said of the Black Stone: “It is the right hand of Allah on the earth.” As for what that might mean, all I can think of is that visitors kiss it as one kisses a person’s right hand to show reverence. When ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab approached the Black Stone, he addressed it: “O Stone, I know thou art but a stone, with no power to help or to harm. Had I not seen Allah’s Messenger kissing thee, I would not now kiss thee.”
What Muslim Guy says, of course, but Brewer states that the present Kaaba is built in 1626, and I am curious to know if Muslim Guy confirms this.
IIRC, nothing says that the Black Stone is a meteorite. That’s merely an assumption made by many Western commentators after learning hat the stone was brought down from heaven by Gabriel. The most comlete commentary on the topic is an article that apeared in the journal Popular strnomy in the 1940s.
In the 1970s a Muslim scientist made the ilgrimage and took secial care to examine the Stone in its frame. His verdict was that it was emphatically not a meteorite. The resul were published (anonymusly, of course) in the journal Meteorites.
Re-built, sure. It’s been rebuilt many times over the centuries. It stands at the lowest part of the valley, and if a rainstorm floods the valley, it’s the Ka‘bah that gets the floodwater. There have been times when the flooding caused such structural damage that it needed rebuilding. They have used the original design at every rebuilding, and the original materials as far as possible.
One such flood damage led to its rebuilding in the time of Muhammad, when he was a young man, before he became a prophet. He set the Black Stone into place with his own hands.
There were four clans disputing over which one would have the honor of raising the Stone into place. Tempers heated until swords were drawn. Cooler heads prevailed and it was agreed that the next person to walk in would decide how to resolve the four-way dispute. It was young Muhammad. He spread out a blanket on the ground and put the Stone in the middle. Representatives from the clans each grasped a corner so they all shared the honor of lifting it. Then Muhammad set it into place.
In 683 this Ka‘bah was destroyed by the forces of the evil Caliph Yazid in the course of suppressing a rebellion. It had been built of wood and burned to the ground and the Black Stone was damaged by the heat. The Ka‘bah is now built of granite.
Are there any pictures or drawings of what the structure under the cloth looks like? I ask not out if irreverence, but because it would be interesting to know what very early architecture form the area would be like.
There are pictures and drawings of the Kaaba. Most show it partly uncovered, but I don’t know of any that show it completely uncovered. Look for books on the Pilgrimage – there are several with color pictures. And, of course, there are Burton’s sketches in his “Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Meccah and al-Medina”.
I’ll bet there are pictures on-line. Somewhere.
The American Museum of Natural History has an exhibit case in the Hall of Man in Asia that shows the Kaaba, along with an actual section of the covering once used on the Kaaba.
I’ve been to Mecca. I’ve touched the wall of the Ka‘bah and kissed the Black Stone. Architecturally, it is very plain. Just gray granite blocks. Nothin’ fancy. The black kiswah (covering) with its calligraphy embroidered in silver and gold thread, is very ornate and beautiful. They make a new one every year. The old one is cut up and pieces distributed as gifts.