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It is the one and only pilgrimage site for Muslims located in the city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is an ancient cubic-shaped building called the House of God (Baitullah). The word Ka’bah means cubic.

It is not known who built the Ka’bah first, but it is known that it was established before Prophet Abraham and was rebuilt by him and his son Ishmael. After Prophet Abraham, it was rebuilt three times by the Arab tribes. The Ka’bah was visited according to the principles of monotheism from the time of Abraham until the idol-worshippers of Mecca took it over to accommodate idols in and around it. When Prophet Muhammad conquered Mecca after migration to Medina, he removed all idols, and it remained in the hands of Muslims since then. After Prophet Muhammad, its original form and size (11 × 12 × 15 m) was preserved except for some renovations, and it was covered with a black cloth.

According to Islamic faith the Ka’bah is the first place of worship on earth (Qur’an 3:96). And the city of...

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Correspondence to Ali Ayten .

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© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Ayten, A. (2014). Ka’bah. In: Leeming, D.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6086-2_369

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6086-2_369

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

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