Woven with Devotion: the Sacred Islamic Textiles of the Kaaba

Hundreds of thousands of people travel every year to Mecca to pray inside the Grand Mosque and visit the house of Allah, the Kaaba. And every year, as per tradition around Haj time, on the 9th day of the Islamic month of Dhu’l Hijja, the Kaaba gets a new kiswa, a cover made of pure silk, dyed in black and padded with white cotton fabric.

Weighing more than 670 kilograms, Quranic verses are beautifully and skillfully embroidered in different calligraphic forms by more than 200 talented artisans onto the kiswa, in threads of pure gold and silver. Kiswas and other sacred textiles are the subject of the latest book released by the Sharjah Museum Department, Islamic Textiles, from the Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilization.

Sold for Dh70 at the museum’s shop, the 76-page book is designed in black and gold, and features some of the most sacred and important textiles from Mecca and Madina, as well as the Ottoman period, Turkey and Egypt.

In awe of the beauty and sacredness of the kiswa, often the worshippers do not have the chance to read what has been written along the cover of the Holy Kaaba as hundreds of devotees push and shove wanting to touch Al Hajar Al Aswad, the black rock, at the Kaaba’s eastern corner.

The Holy Kaaba represents the Qibla, the direction in which Muslims all around the world face to perform their prayers.

Different parts of the cloth have different designs and different stories. For instance, the curtain for the door of the Kaaba, is known as sitara, burdah or burqu, and is one of the most elaborately designed parts of the kiswa.

The sitara’s appearance has changed little over the centuries, embroidered with invocations to Allah, supplications and Quranic verses.

On the two bottom panels, enclosed within rectangular-shaped designs, the name of the person who “gifted” the kiswa is embroidered with the name of its maker. An example of a sitara that can be seen close up lies at the Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilization. Dated 1421 Hijri / 2000 AD, it reads in embroidered calligraphic Arabic: “This sitara was made in Makkah al-Mukarramah and gifted to the honoured Kaaba by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd bin Abd al-Aziz bin Al Sa’ud. May Allah be pleased with it.” King Fahd ruled Saudi Arabia from 1982 to 2005.

Manal Ataya, director general of the Sharjah Museum Department, says the book has been released as part of the department’s contributions to Sharjah’s celebration as Capital of Islamic Culture in 2014.

 “At the same time, it does offer a lot of fascinating information about the textiles that Muslims come across when visiting the holy places of Mecca and Madina during Haj [major pilgrimage] and Umrah [minor pilgrimage].”

Just how important it was for the Holy Kaaba to get its new clothes each year was reflected in how, back in 1927, Saudi King Abdul Aziz, founding father of Saudi Arabia, ordered the establishment of a factory dedicated to the manufacturing of kiswa in Mecca.

 “Initially, precious and luxurious textiles were sent to the Kaaba in particular from all over the Islamic world. Under the Mamluks, the major textile-making centres were in Egypt and Syria, later – under the Ottomans – joined by specialised workshops in Bursa and Istanbul. Since the early 20th century, all the religious textiles for the holy places are made in Mecca,” Ataya elaborates.

Since 1962, the Umm al-Joud factory in Mecca has been the most recognised and dedicated centre for the making of the kiswa.