KA'BA. Aiukn. A cube ; also the square building in Mecca, held in reverence by 3Iuham =dans, by whom it is frequented inpilg,rimage. Tibban Asaad Abu Kariba or Abu karib, com monly called Tobba, one of the most -warlike of the Himyarite monarchs, was the first who, about A.D. 206, covered the Ka'ba with a tapestry of leather, and also supplied it with a lock of gold. The nawabs of the Carnatic, who claimed to be descendants from the khalif Omar, sent a ladder of gold for the pilgrims to ascend to the door of the Ka'ba. Immediately on arrival at Mecca, the pilgrims perform ablutions and proceed to the mosque, kiss the black stone, and encompass the seven times ; commencing on the right, leaving the Ka'ba on the left, they perform the circuit thrice with a quick step, and four times at a slow pace. They go then to the stone near the Ka'ba, bearing the impression of the feet of Abraham, repeat two prayers, and come and kiss the black stone again. In the Arab families, male children, when forty days old, are taken to the Ka'ba, prayed over, and carried home, where the barber draws with a razor three parallel gashes down the fleshy portion of each cheek, from the exterior angles of the eyes almost to the corners of the mouth. These Mashali, as they are
called, may be of modern date. Tho Ka'ba is 24 cubits long from N.W. to S.E., its breadth 23 cubits, and its height 27 cubits ; near its door in the cast corner is the black stone, Hajr-us-Siah. This is set in silver, mid is kissed by pilgrims. It seems to be the stone noticed by Maximus Tyrius, who says `the ancient Arabians worship I know not whom, but the image I saw was a quadrangular stone.' Until Mahomed's reform, the Ka'ba contained 360 idols, amongst them Hobal, a statue of Abraham, and one of Mary ; the white stone, which was supposed to be Ish mael's tomb, and the black stone, the Hajr-us Siah, which they say fell from heaven in Adam's time. Hobal had the figuro of a man carved in red agate, and holding in his hands seven wingless arrows like those used in divinations. Tho Ka'ba was restored A.D. 1627.—Burton's Mecca, iii. p. 327; Lane.