The Kiswah

The Kiswah
Written by Dr. Bilal Philips
King As‘ad Tubba‘of the south Yemeni tribe of Himyar was the first to place a cloth covering (called Kiswah) on the Ka‘bah. He chose one of a fancy brocaded silk. In addition to that, King Tubba‘ built a gate to the Ka‘bah and had a key made for the door of the Ka‘bah. He did this on his way through Makkah while returning from his invasion of Yathrib 220 years before the Prophets birth (351 CE). The tribe of Quraysh handled the yearly ceremony of changing the Kiswah until Abu Rabeeh of the tribe of Makhzoom made an agreement with them that he would change the covering every other year. This alternating practice continued on into the time of Islaam.

Prophet Muhammad (sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam) was the first to drape the Ka‘bah with a stripped Yemeni Kiswah and the Caliphs Abu Bakr, ‘Umar, ‘Uthman, Ibn az-Zubayr, and ‘Abdul Malik also continued this custom.

Each Kiswah was draped one over another until the end of the 8th century CE when the ‘Abbaasid Caliph, al-Mahdi (rahimahuLlaah), ordered that only one Kiswah be on the Ka‘bah at a time. The reason for this being that on his way to Hajj, the Caliph overheard some pilgrims complaining that the many coverings of the Ka‘bah might cause its walls to collapse. The Caliph al-Mamoon (rahimahuLlaah) used white brocade and the Faatimid Caliphs used white, yellow, green and black during different years. However, after the time of the ‘Abbaasids Caliph, an-Naasir lideenillah (rahimahuLlaah), black, the tribal color the ‘Abbaasids became the standard color for the Kiswah and this practice has lingered on until today.

In subsequent times, the Kiswah was furnished by the different Sultaans of Baghdad, Egypt or Yemen, according to their respective influence over Makkah; for, the clothing of the Ka‘bah was considered proof of sovereignty over the Hijaaz. Kalaun, Sultaan of Egypt, assumed for himself and his successors the exclusive right, and from them the Sultaans at Constantinople inherited it. Kalaun appropriated the revenue of the two large villages, Bisans, and Sandabair, in Lower Egypt, to cover the expense of producing