Baghdad: The Kiswa Makers

Date: mid-twelfth century

In his Nuzhat al-mushtāq fi ikhtirāq al-afāq, al-Idrisi (d. 1164) indicates that the Kaʿba dress was made of Iraqi silk. Twenty-seven cubits were used to cover the Kaʾba, buttons and loops were attached to it. Al-Idrisi also indicated that the caliph in Baghdad used to send the Kaʾba dress every year to replace the old one and that no one else could do that.

Citation: Al-Idrisi, Abu ʿAbd Allah Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Sharif. Kitāb Nuzhat al-mushtāq fi-ikhtirāq al-afāq. (Cairo: Maktabat al-Thaqafa al-Diniyeh, 2002), p. 140.

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