Asharq Alawsat runs this article giving all the information you could want about the kiswah, the cover for the Kaaba, the focal point for Muslim prayer around the world. Long a matter of jealous contention, particularly between Egypt and Syria, the presentation of the cover for the sacred building has been a function of the Saudi government since 1927. This piece describes the cover, its construction and design, and how it is put into place—not an easy task. Worth reading if you’ve an interest in religious rites and rituals.

The Kaaba’s New Kiswah
Manal Homeidan

Jeddah, Asharq Al-Awsat – Following their departure from Mecca, millions of pilgrims have started to make their way to Mount Arafat. Coinciding with this unchanged ritual is the tradition of changing of the Kaaba’s ‘kiswah’, the cloth that adorns the Kaaba made of black silk and embroidered with gold calligraphy.

This event is customarily attended by the gate-keepers of the Kaaba and technicians from the Kiswah Factory, which has been manufacturing the fabric that adorns the Kaaba for the past six decades. These technicians employ a special mobile escalator so as to remove the old cloth and cover it with the new kiswah, one day before the first day of Eid ul-Adha.

Pilgrims visiting the holy Kaaba will see the cloth that has taken a whole year to complete at the hands of highly skilled professional tailors and artisans. The process by which the Kaaba is adorned in the new kiswah entails attaching special metal hooks (47 in total) to the roof of the Kaaba after which the ropes from the old kiswah are cut off so that the new cloth immediately falls above it to cover it. This is to avoid the Kaaba being exposed during the change.

In going with tradition, one-third of the cloth from the bottom is lifted up out of the reach of millions of pilgrims who might want to cut off a piece of the cloth to take with them. There is approximately two meters between the marble floor that surrounds the Kaaba and the beginning of the black kiswah.
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