kiswah

kiswah, black brocade cloth that covers the most sacred shrine of Islām, the Kaʿbah (q.v.) in Mecca. A new kiswah is made in Egypt every year and carried to Mecca by pilgrims. On it is embroidered in gold the Muslim profession of faith (shahādah) and a gold band of ornamental calligraphy carrying Qurʾānic verses. Each year during the major pilgrimage (ḥajj), the kiswah is replaced with a white cloth that corresponds to the white ceremonial robes of the pilgrims and signifies entrance into a sacred state (iḥrām). At the end of the ḥajj, the new kiswah is put in place, and the old one is cut into small relics that are sold to pilgrims. The custom of covering the Kaʿbah is pre-Islāmic; the yearly renewal of the covering is an innovation that is said to have begun during the caliphate of ʿUmar I, when the Kaʿbah almost collapsed under the weight of too many kiswahs.