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Kiswah

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For the town in Syria, see Al-Kiswah.
Kiswah as pictured on May 7, 2016.
The 1910 kiswa covering the Kaaba in Mecca

Kiswah (Arabic: كسوة الكعبة, kiswat al-ka'bah) is the cloth that covers the Kaaba in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is draped annually on the 9th day of the month of Dhu al-Hijjah, the day pilgrims leave for the plains of Mount Arafat during the Hajj.[1] The term kiswah is Arabic for 'pall', the cloth draped over a casket.

Textiles of the Kaaba

The textile covering of the Kaaba has multiple parts, which are the most sacred objects in Islamic art.[2] The kiswa is the overall covering and the hizam is a belt circling it, about two thirds of the way up. The curtain over the door of the Kaaba is the sitara, also known as a burqu'. There are other textiles inside, including the Bab al-Tawba, a curtain over the door that leads to the roof.[3] The earliest known sitara was made in 1544 in Egypt and the earliest Ottoman hizam was made for Selim II in the late 16th century. The basic designs of the hizam and sitara have continued to the present, although the inscriptions embroidered in gold and silver wire have become more ornate over time.[3] These inscriptions include verses from the Quran and supplications to Allah, as well as the names of the rulers who commissioned the textiles.[4][5] At 5.75 metres by 3.5 metres, the sitara is assembled by sewing together four separate textile panels; the hizam is similarly assembled by connecting four or eight panels.[5] Another textile remade each year is the green silk bag which holds the key to the Kaaba: a tradition introduced in 1987.[4] Along with these textiles, the workshops send ropes for attaching the kiswa to the Kaaba and spare silk in case the kiswa needs to be repaired.[5] The textiles were manufactured all over the Islamic world in different eras, until a dedicated workshop was established in Mecca in 1927.[4]

Current

Every year, the old kiswa is removed, cut into small pieces, and given to certain individuals, visiting foreign Muslim dignitaries and organizations. Some of them sell their share as souvenirs of the Hajj. In earlier times, the Caliph Umar bin al-Khattab would cut it into pieces and distribute them among pilgrims who used them as shelter from the heat of Mecca.[citation needed]

The present cost of making the kiswa amounts to SAR 17,000,000 (~4,500,000 USD). The cover is 658m2 and is made of 670 kg of silk. The embroidery contains 15 kg of gold threads. It consists of 47 pieces of cloth and each piece is 14m long and 101 cm wide. The kiswa is wrapped around the Kaaba and fixed to its base with copper rings. The manually designed embroidery of the Quranic verses are slowly being aided by computers, thus increasing the speed of production.[6]

History

Curtain for the door of the Kaaba, made in Cairo, 1606AD (Khalili Collection of Hajj and the Arts of Pilgrimage)

King Tubba Abu Karab As'ad of the Himyarite Kingdom clothed Kaaba for the first time, during the rule of the Jurhum tribe of Mecca.[1][7]

The Kiswah in the reign of Muhammad

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, Quraish, did not allow them to do so. When Mecca was taken by the Muslims, they decided to leave the Kiswah as it was until a woman lighting incense in the Kaaba accidentally set fire to the Kiswah. Muhammad then draped it with a white Yemeni cloth.[1]

Under the Kings

Many notable Kings have had their share of ruling over the Kiswah. Muawiyah I used to drape the Kaaba twice a year, along with the help of Abd-Allah ibn al-Zubayr, and Abd al-Malik. They brought the traditional silk covering into effect.

Al-Nasir, the Abbasid King, established the current practise of dressing the Kaaba with only one Kiswah at a time, superseding the former custom of allowing old Kiswah to accumulate one over the other. When Al-Nasir performed Hajj in 160 AH, he saw that the accumulated Kiswah could cause damage to the Kaaba itself, and therefore decreed that only one Kiswah should drape the Kaaba at any one time.

The King Al-Ma'mun, draped the Kaaba three times a year, each time with a different colour: red on the eighth of Dhu al-Hijjah, white gabati on the first of Rajab, and another red brocade on the twenty-ninth of Ramadan. Later on, Al-Nasir draped the Kaaba with green; both he and Al-Ma'mun disagreed on the frequent colour changes and switched to black, the only colour that has since been used for Kiswah. Black Kiswah supported by Tradition of Prophet to Mourning, some associated it with Battle of Karbala however saying of Prophet to wrap Kaaba with black cloth after 100 Years or before when events of Sorrow took start.[citation needed]

Location of manufacture

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.[8] 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.[9] In 1844 production was moved to new factories in Istanbul.[3] From 1927 onward, its manufacture was moved to Saudi Arabia.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Qiswa, Kiswah & Kaaba". www.aulia-e-hind.com. Retrieved 2016-07-18.
  2. ^ Kern, Karen M.; Rosenfield, Yael; Carò, Federico; Shibayama, Nobuko (December 2017). "The Sacred and the Modern: The History, Conservation, and Science of the Madina Sitara". Metropolitan Museum Journal. 52: 72–93. doi:10.1086/696548. ISSN 0077-8958.
  3. ^ a b c Porter, Venetia (2012). "Textiles of Mecca and Medina". In Porter, Venetia (ed.). Hajj : journey to the heart of Islam. Cambridge, Mass.: The British Museum. pp. 257–258. ISBN 978-0-674-06218-4. OCLC 709670348.
  4. ^ a b c Ghazal, Rym (28 August 2014). "Woven with devotion: the sacred Islamic textiles of the Kaaba". The National. Retrieved 2021-01-07.
  5. ^ a b c Nassar, Nahla (2013). "Dar al-Kiswa al-Sharifa: Administration and Production". In Porter, Venetia; Saif, Liana (eds.). The Hajj : collected essays. London: The British Museum. pp. 176–178. ISBN 978-0-86159-193-0. OCLC 857109543.
  6. ^ Islamic Voice article Kiswa: Dressing up God's Abode Vol 14-02 No:158 * FEBRUARY 2000 / Shawwal 1420H
  7. ^ Ibn Hishām, ʻAbd al-Malik, -834. (1955). The life of Muhammad;. Ibn Isḥāḳ, Muḥammad, -approximately 768. London: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-636034-X. OCLC 3705122.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  8. ^ a b "Saudi Aramco World : A Gift from the Kingdom". www.saudiaramcoworld.com. Retrieved 2016-07-18.
  9. ^ Dunn, Robert (1986), The Adventures of Ibn Battuta, a Muslim Traveler of the Fourteenth Century, University of California Press, p. 266, ISBN 9780520057715
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