Gold-laced cover stitched for Islam’s holiest site
MECCA, Saudi Arabia — Dozens of Saudi craftsmen, mostly in their 40s and 50s, are hard at work in a factory in Mecca preparing an embroidered black and gold cloth to cover the Kaaba, the holiest site in Islam.
Known as the kiswa, the cloth is woven from silk and cotton and adorned with verses from the Quran. A new one is made each year to be placed on the Kaaba in Mecca’s Grand Mosque during the annual Muslim hajj pilgrimage, which begins on Wednesday.
Many of the craftsmen have worked in the factory in the Oum al-Jood district of Mecca all their lives but they will retire soon, so a new generation is being trained to carry on the trade.
A cube-shaped stone structure, the Kaaba is a focal point of the hajj, during which some 2 million pilgrims walk around it in a mass ritual.
The kiswa was manufactured in Egypt until 1962. There have been red, green or white coverings in centuries past, but now it is always black with embroidered gold calligraphy.
Nearly 670 kilograms of silk, enough to cover a structure estimated to measure about 15 meters high and 12 meters long, is imported from Italy. Silver and gold-plated thread comes from Germany.
But the kiswa is embroidered and stitched together in Saudi Arabia and paid for by the kingdom each year at a cost of $6 million.
At the end of hajj, the used cloth will be cut into pieces to be distributed to dignitaries and religious organizations. Recipients regard the fragments as heirlooms.
This year’s kiswa is complete, but the workers have already started on the next one.