kiswah

Many notable Caliphs have had their share of ruling over the kiswah.

Material for the kiswah was brought from Sudan, India, Egypt and Iraq.

He therefore decreed that only one Kiswah should drape the Kaaba at any one time, and this had been observed ever since.

The term kiswah is Arabic for 'pall', the cloth draped over a casket, and is a cognate of the Hebrew word kisui.

The Holy Kabah Kiswah factory was founded and produced its first Kiswah the same year.

King Abdul-Aziz bin Saud, concerned for the custody of the Two Holy Mosques, ordered the establishment of a factory for manufacturing the Kiswah.

The present Kiswah consists of black silk with self embroidered calligraphies, and strips of embroidered calligraphies in the lower part of the top quarter of the walls.

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 burned the Kiswah.

The frame around the Black Stone and the black kiswah or cloth enveloping the Kaaba were for centuries maintained by the Ottoman Sultans in their role as Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques.

Najran was the Yemeni centre of cloth making and originally, the kiswah or the cloth of the Ka'aba was made there (the clothing of the Kaba first started by the Yemeni kings of Saba).

Another Caliph is Al-Nasir, the Abbasid Caliph, notable to his contribution on starting the tradition of dressing the Kaaba with one Kiswah at a time, instead of the now out dated "Accumulation Kiswah", the process of putting new kiswahs on the older one.