Kaaba

(noun)

A sacred building in the city of Mecca that housed the tribal idols until the rise of Islam in 7th century, when it became the center of Islam's most sacred mosque.

Related Terms

Examples of Kaaba in the following topics:

  • Culture and Religion in Pre-Islamic Arabia

    • Gods and goddesses were worshipped at local shrines, such as the Kaaba in Mecca.
    • Many of the physical descriptions of the pre-Islamic gods are traced to idols, especially near the Kaaba, which is believed to have contained up to 360 of them.
    • Idols were housed in the Kaaba, an ancient sanctuary in the city of Mecca.
    • For example, in addition to the animistic idols, the pre-Islamic Kaaba housed statues of Jesus and his holy mother, Mary.
    • The Kaaba is a cube-shaped building in Mecca held to be sacred both by Muslims and pre-Islamic polytheistic tribes.

  • Arabian Cities

    • The most important of these cities was Mecca, which was an important center of trade in the area, as well as the location of the Kaaba (or Ka'ba), one of the most revered shrines in polytheistic Arabia.
    • After the rise of Islam, the Kaaba became the most sacred place in Islam.
    • The Greek historian Diodorus Siculus, who lived between 60 BCE and 30 BCE, wrote about the isolated region of Arabia in his work Bibliotheca historica, describing a holy shrine that Muslims see as Kaaba at Mecca: "And a temple has been set up there, which is very holy and exceedingly revered by all Arabians."
    • Some time in the 5th century, the Kaaba was a place to worship the deities of Arabia's pagan tribes.

  • Early Life of Muhammad

    • According to a text collected by historian Ibn Ishaq, Muhammad was involved with a well-known story about setting the Black Stone in place in the wall of the Kaaba in 605 CE.
    • The Black Stone, a sacred object, had been removed to facilitate renovations to the Kaaba.

  • Flight from Mecca to Medina

    • As Islam spread, Muhammad threatened the local tribes and Meccan rulers because their wealth depended on the Kaaba.
    • Muhammad's preaching was particularly offensive to his own Quraysh tribe because they guarded the Kaaba and drew their political and religious power from its polytheistic shrines.
    • The Quraysh tribe controlled the Kaaba and drew their religious and political power from its polytheistic shrines, so they began to persecute the Muslims and many of Muhammad's followers became martyrs.

  • The Quran

    • All of these prayers are recited while facing in the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca, and are accompanied by a series of set positions including bowing with hands on knees, standing, prostrating, and sitting in a special position.
    • The main rituals of the Hajj include walking seven times around the Kaaba, termed Tawaf; touching the Black Stone, termed Istilam; traveling seven times between Mount Safa and Mount Marwah, termed Sa'yee; and symbolically stoning the Devil in Mina, termed Ramee.

  • Islam Ascendant

    • Muhammad destroyed the pagan idols in the Kaaba and then sent his followers out to destroy all of the remaining pagan temples in Eastern Arabia.