KAABA (Arab. " square house"). the name of an oblong stone building within the great mosque of Mecca (q.v.). According to the legend, Adam first worshiped on this spot after his expulsionArom Paradise, in a tent sent down ,from heaven for this pur pose. Seth substituted for the tent a structure of clay and stone, which was, however, destroyed by the deluge, but afterwards rebuilt by Abraham and Ishmael. dertain it is that the building existed from time immemorial, and served the Arabs before Moham med as a place of idolatrous worship, probably to Zohal (Saturn). It is, as it now stands —rebuilt m 1627-35 to 40 ft. high, 18 paces long, 14 broad. Its door, coated with silver, is opened only three times in the year—once for men, once for women, and once for the purpose of cleaning the interior. Next to this door, in the n.e. corner of the edifice, is set the famous lava-like black stone which, since the second year of the Hedjrah (q.v.), has served as i.e., as an indicator of the direction towards which all Moslems must turn in their prayers. This stone, which is said to have dropped from paradise together with Adam, is held in extreme veneration, and one of its principal names is " The Right Hand of God on Earth." It was originally of white color, but the sins of mankind have caused it to shed so many silent tears that it has become (externally) quite black. Others explain this change of color by the unnumbered kisses And touches
bestowed upon it by the pilgrims, part of whose ceremonies (see HAM consists in com passing the Kaaba seven times, each time either kissing this stone or touching it with the hand and kissing the latter. A smaller stone, to which, however, less veneration is shown, is set in the s.e. corner the Kaaba. The outside of the Kaaba is annually covered anew with the richest black silks, on which are embroidered sentences from the Koran in gold—a pious contribution first on the part of the caliphs, later of the sultans of Egypt, now of the Turkish emperors. The Kaaba has a double roof, sup ported by pillars of aloe-wood, and it is said that no bird ever rests upon it. The whole edifice is surrounded by an inclosure of columns, outside which there are found three oratories, or places of devotion, for different sects; also the edifice containing the well Zem-Zem, the cupola of Abbas, and the treasury. All these are further inclosed by a splendid colonnade, surmounted by cupolas, steeples, spires, crescents, all gilded and adorned with lamps, which shed a brilliant luster at night. These surroundings, between which and the Kaaba run seven paved causeways, were first devised by Omar, for the better preservation of the Kaaba itself.