Ka-ba Sentence Examples

The earliest mosque erected was that at Mecca, which consisted of a great court, in the centre of which was the Ka`ba or Holy Stone.

According to this, Ibrahim, after the controversy with the Jews, first of all became Mahomet's special forerunner in Medina, then the first Moslem, and finally the founder of the Ka'ba.

Eleven days before a fire, caused by imprudence, had consumed all the woodwork of the Ka`ba and burst the black stone in three places.

Hajjaj pulled down the enlargements and restored the Ka`ba to its old state.

They began by marching in solemn procession round the palace, as if it had been the Ka`ba.

Immediately on his arrival in the Holy City he applied himself, at the request of the inhabitants, to the renewal of the curtains which covered the exterior walls of the Ka`ba.

Next year Mecca was taken and plundered; even the sacred Black Stone was transported to Lahsa, where it remained till 339 (950), when by the express order of the Imam, the Fatimite caliph, it was restored to the Ka`ba.

Similarly the Jewish synagogues have each their eternal lamp; while in the religion of Islam lighted lamps mark things and places specially holy; thus the Ka`ba at Mecca is illuminated by thousands of lamps hanging from the gold and silver rods that connect the columns of the surrounding colonnade.

Purged of elements obviously heathen, the Ka`ba became the holiest site, and the pilgrimage the most sacred ritual observance of Mahommedanism, drawing worshippers from so wide a circle that the confluence of the petty traders of the desert was no longer the main feature of the holy season.

The mosque is enclosed by houses with windows opening on the arcades and commanding a view of the Ka`ba.

After the sherifs, the principal family of Mecca is the house of Shaibah, which holds the hereditary custodianship of the Ka`ba.

The Ka`ba has been rebuilt more than once since Mahomet purged it of idols and adopted it as the chief sanctuary of Islam, but the old form has been preserved, except in secondary details;2 so that the "Ancient House," as it is titled, is still essentially a heathen temple, adapted to the worship of Islam by the clumsy fiction that it was built by Abraham and Ishmael by divine revelation as a temple of pure monotheism, and that it was only temporarily perverted to idol worship from the time when `Amr ibn Lohai introduced the statue of Hobal from Syria' till the victory of Islam.

It was, as it still is, a frequent religious exercise of the Meccans, and the first duty of one who returned to the city or arrived there under a vow of pilgrimage; and thus the outside of the Ka`ba was and is more important than the inside.

The Ka`ba of Mahomet's time was the successor of an older building, said to have been destroyed by fire.

The Ka`ba was again entirely rebuilt after the flood of A.D.

On the other side of the door, against the same wall, is a shallow trough, which is said to mark the original site of the stone on which Abraham stood to build the Ka`ba.

Here the growth of the legend can be traced, for the place is now called the "kneading-place" (Ma`jan), where the cement for the Ka`ba was prepared.

The feeling of religious conservatism which has preserved the structural rudeness of the Ka`ba did not prohibit costly surface decoration.

The interior of the Ka`ba is now opened but a few times every year for the general public, which ascends by the portable staircase brought forward for the purpose.

To the north of the Ka`ba was the Dar el-Nadwa, or place of assembly of the Koreish.

Omar, Othman and Ibn Jubair had all a share in this work, but the great founder of the mosque in its present form, with its spacious area and deep ' The old kiswa is removed on the 25th day of the month before the pilgrimage, and fragments of it are bought by the pilgrims as charms. Till the 10th day of the pilgrimage month the Ka`ba is bare.

After the Ka`ba the principal points of interest in the mosque are the well Zamzam and the Maqam Ibrahim.

There is a tradition that the Ka`ba was a temple of Saturn (Shahrastani, p. 431); perhaps the most distinctive feature of the shrine may be sought in the sacred doves which still enjoy the protection of the sanctuary.

Though ignorant of the legal ritual and prayers, they performed the tawaf with enthusiasm, throwing themselves against the Ka`ba and clinging to its curtains as a child clings to its mother.

They also made a point of entering the Ka'ba.

The 29th of the month was the feast day of the Meccan women, when they and their little ones had the Ka'ba to themselves without the presence even of the Sheybas.

The siege was raised in the third month on the news of the death of Yazid, but not before the Ka`ba had been destroyed.

In the centre of the town stands Meshed (strictly Meshhed) `Ali, the shrine of `Ali, containing the reputed tomb of that caliph, which is regarded by the Shi`ite Moslems as being no less holy than the Ka`ba itself, although it should be said that it is at least very doubtful whether `Ali was actually buried there.

The consecration of Samuel has also its Arabic parallel in the dedication of an unborn child by its mother to the service of the Ka'ba (Ibn Hisham, p. 76; Azraki, p. 128).

Mahomet himself made a concession to heathen traditions when he recognized the Ka`ba and the black stone; and the worship of saints, which is now spread throughout Islam and supported by obviously forged traditions, is an example of the same thing.

Eutychius and others pretend that he desired to substitute Jerusalem for Mecca, because Ibn Zobair had occupied the latter place, and thus the pilgrimage to the Ka`ba had become difficult for the Syrians.