6,633
edits
Ka'bah: Difference between revisions
m
no edit summary
| [checked revision] | [checked revision] |
mNo edit summary |
|||
| Line 17: | Line 17: | ||
===Black stone=== | ===Black stone=== | ||
{{Main|Black stone|l1=Black stone}}Housed in the eastern corner of the Ka'aba's walls is the [[black stone]], which is known to have been a sacred baetyl revered by the pre-Islamic Arabs. Islamic scriptures teach that the stone fell from heaven and was once completely white, only to be lost during Noah's flood and blackened by the sins of mankind. This stone is then said to have been provided back to [[Ibrahim]] by [[Gabriel]] as Ibrahim was constructing the Ka'aba | {{Main|Black stone|l1=Black stone}}Housed in the eastern corner of the Ka'aba's walls is the [[black stone]], which is known to have been a sacred baetyl revered by the pre-Islamic Arabs. Islamic scriptures teach that the stone fell from heaven and was once completely white, only to be lost during Noah's flood and blackened by the sins of mankind. This stone is then said to have been provided back to [[Ibrahim]] by [[Gabriel]] as Ibrahim was constructing the Ka'aba | ||
=== According to historians === | |||
==== Patricia Crone ==== | |||
{{Quote|1=[https://books.google.com/books/about/Meccan_Trade_and_the_Rise_of_Islam.html?id=jKVNvgAACAAJ Crone, Patricia (1987). ''Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam''. (pp. 192-193). Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.]|2=Admittedly, up to a point it makes good sense. Allah is associated with a black stone, and some traditions hold that originally this stone was sacrificial [footnote: It owed its colour to the pagan practice of pouring blood and intestines over it (cf. U. Rubin, "Places of Worship in Mecca"). But as might be expected, there are also other explanations of its colour.]. This suggests that it was the stone rather than the building around it which was <i>bayt allah</i>, the house of god, and this gives us a perfect parallel with the Old Testament <i>bethel</i>. The cult of the Arab god Dusares (Dhu Shara) also seems to have centred on a black sacrificial stone. According to Epiphanius, he was worshipped together with his | |||
mother, the virginal Kaabou, or in other words <i>ka'ib</i> or <i>ka' 'ab</i>, a girl with swelling breasts. A similar arrangement is met in a Nabataean inscription from Petra that speaks of sacrificial stones (<i>nsyb'</i> = <i>ansab</i>) belonging to "the lord of this house" (<i>mr' byt</i>) and al-Uzza, another <i>ka'ib</i> lady. If we assume that <i>bayt</i> and <i>ka'ba</i> alike originally referred to the Meccan stone rather than the building around it, then the lord of the Meccan house was a pagan Allah worshipped in conjunction with a female consort such as al-Uzza and/or other "daughters of God." This would give us a genuinely pagan deity for Quraysh and at the same time explain their devotion to goddesses.}} | |||
The above view is outlined by Crone as a possibility among others (see also: [[Hubal]]). | |||
==Structural history== | ==Structural history== | ||