Black Stone (other)

The Black Stone ( ar, ٱلْحَجَرُ ٱلْأَسْوَد, translit=al-Ḥajar al-Aswad) is a rock set into the eastern corner of the Kaaba, the ancient building in the center of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is revered by Muslims as an Islamic relic which, according to Muslim tradition, dates back to the time of Adam and Eve.

The stone was venerated at the Kaaba in pre-Islamic pagan times. According to Islamic tradition, it was set intact into the Kaaba's wall by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in 605 CE, five years before his first revelation. Since then, it has been broken into fragments and is now cemented into a silver frame in the side of the Kaaba. Its physical appearance is that of a fragmented dark rock, polished smooth by the hands of pilgrims. It has often been described as a meteorite.

Muslim pilgrims circle the Kaaba as a part of the ''tawaf'' ritual during the ''hajj'' and many try to stop to kiss the Black Stone, emulating the kiss that Islamic tradition records that it received from Muhammad. While the Black Stone is revered, Islamic theologians emphasize that it has no divine significance and that its importance is historical in nature.

Physical description

The Black Stone was originally a single piece of rock but today consists of several pieces that have been cemented together. They are surrounded by a silver frame which is fastened by silver nails to the Kaaba's outer wall. The fragments are themselves made up of smaller pieces which have been combined to form the seven or eight fragments visible today. The Stone's exposed face measures about by . Its original size is unclear and the recorded dimensions have changed considerably over time, as the pieces have been rearranged in their cement matrix on several occasions. In the 10th century, an observer described the Black Stone as being one cubit () long. By the early 17th century, it was recorded as measuring . According to Ali Bey in the 18th century, it was described as high, and Muhammad Ali Pasha reported it as being long by wide.

The Black Stone is attached to the east corner of the Kaaba, known as ''al-Rukn al-Aswad'' (the 'Corner of the Black Stone'). Another stone, known as the ''Hajar as-Sa’adah'' ('Stone of Felicity') is set into the Kaaba's opposite corner, ''al-Rukn al-Yamani'' (the 'Yemeni Corner'), at a somewhat lower height than the Black Stone. The choice of the east corner may have had ritual significance; it faces the rain-bringing east wind (''al-qabul'') and the direction from which Canopus rises.

The silver 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. The frames wore out over time due to the constant handling by pilgrims and were periodically replaced. Worn-out frames were brought back to Istanbul, where they are still kept as part of the sacred relics in the Topkapı Palace.

Appearance of the Black Stone

The Black Stone was described by European travellers to Arabia in the 19th- and early-20th centuries, who visited the Kaaba disguised as pilgrims. Swiss traveller Johann Ludwig Burckhardt visited Mecca in 1814, and provided a detailed description in his 1829 book ''Travels in Arabia'':

Visiting the Kaaba in 1853, Richard Francis Burton noted that:

Ritter von Laurin, the Austrian consul-general in Egypt, was able to inspect a fragment of the Stone removed by Muhammad Ali in 1817 and reported that it had a pitch-black exterior and a silver-grey, fine-grained interior in which tiny cubes of a bottle-green material were embedded. There are reportedly a few white or yellow spots on the face of the Stone, and it is officially described as being white with the exception of the face.

History and tradition

The Black Stone was held in reverence well before Islam. It had long been associated with the Kaaba, which was built in the pre-Islamic period and was a site of pilgrimage of Nabataeans who visited the shrine once a year to perform their pilgrimage. The Kaaba held 360 idols of the Meccan gods. The Semitic cultures