The
Black Stone (called الحجر الأسود
al-Hajar-ul-Aswad in
Arabic and سنگ سیاہ
Sang-e-Sayah in
Urdu) is a
Muslim relic, which according to
Islamic tradition dates back to the time of
Adam and Eve. Some consider it to be a
tektite or a meteorite.
[1] It is the eastern cornerstone of the
Kaaba, the ancient sacred stone building towards which Muslims pray, in the center of the
Grand Mosque in
Mecca,
Saudi Arabia.
[2] The Stone is roughly 30 cm (12 in.) in diameter, and 1.5 metres (5 ft.) above the ground.
[3]
When pilgrims circle the Kaaba as part of the
Tawaf ritual of the
Hajj, many of them try, if possible, to stop and kiss the Black Stone, emulating the kiss that it, according to Islamic lore, received from the
Islamic prophet Muhammad.
[4] If they cannot reach it, they point to it on each of their seven circuits around the Kaaba.
[5]
The Stone was broken into a number of pieces from damage inflicted during the
Middle Ages. The pieces are held together by a silver frame, which is fastened by silver nails to the Stone.
According to Islamic tradition, the Stone fell from
Heaven to show
Adam and Eve where to build an altar and offer a sacrifice to God. The Altar became the first temple on Earth. Muslims believe that the stone was originally pure and dazzling white, but has since turned black because of the sins it has absorbed over the years.
[7] Islamic tradition holds that Adam's altar and the stone were lost in the process of
Noah's Flood and forgotten. It was
Abraham who found the Black Stone at the original site of Adam's altar when the
Archangel Gabriel revealed it to him.
[8] Abraham ordered his son—and the ancestor of Muhammad--
Ishmael to build a new temple in which to imbed the Stone. This new temple is the Kaaba in Mecca.
Muhammad is credited with playing a key part in the history of the Black Stone. In 602, before the first of his prophetic revelations, he was present in Mecca during the rebuilding of the Kaaba. The Black Stone had been temporarily removed while a new structure was being constructed. A story found in
Ibn Ishaq's
Sirah Rasul Allah (as reconstructed and translated by Guillaume) shows Muhammad settling a quarrel between Makkan clans as to which clan should set the Black Stone in place. His solution was to have all the clan elders raise the cornerstone on a cloak, and then Muhammad set the Stone into its final place with his own hands.
Damage:
The Black Stone is broken into a number of fragments, with varying accounts putting the number at between seven and fifteen, held together by a silver frame.
[13] There are differing accounts of how the damage occurred. According to the 1911
Encyclopædia Britannica, the damage occurred during a siege in 638.
[18] The editors of
Time-Life Books state that the damage occurred during a siege launched by a general of the
Umayyad caliph
Abd al-Malik (646-705).
[19] Other sources, including the 2007
Britannica, state that the damage occurred as the result of a theft in 930
CE, when
Qarmatian warriors sacked Mecca and carried the Black Stone away to their base in
Ahsa, in medieval
Bahrain. According to the historian
Al-Juwayni, the Stone was returned twenty-two years later, in 951, under somewhat mysterious circumstances; wrapped in a sack, it was thrown into the Friday Mosque of
Kufa accompanied by a note saying "By command we took it, and by command we have brought it back." Its abduction and removal caused further damage, breaking the stone into seven pieces.