Saudi Arabia: Kaaba cloth on display outside Mecca for the first time

Cairo: The covering cloth of the Holy Kaaba, which Muslims around the world direct in their prayers, is displayed for the first time outside the Saudi city of Mecca.

The elaborately decorated cover or Kiswa is being presented in an interactive show at an Islamic art exposition being held at the King Abdulaziz airport in the Red Sea city of Jeddah.

The unique experience, part of the second edition of the Islamic Arts Biennale, allows visitors to learn firsthand and contemplate the aesthetics of Islamic craftsmanship demonstrated in the finest details of the Kiswa’s fabric and its embroidery with gold and silver threads, the Saudi news agency SPA reported.

The display, running until May 25, aims to highlight Islamic arts and deepen knowledge of their time-honoured and rich heritage.

Held at a Hajj terminal of the Jeddah airport, the exposition takes visitors on a journey to explore the making of the Kiswa, starting from selecting the finest types of natural silk, through the stages of hand-weaving and embroidery with gold and silver threads, and reaching the final stages of preparation.

The biennale, moreover, traces the evolution of the Kiswa-making over the centuries, and the artistic techniques used in its decoration.

The Kiswa is manufactured at the King Abdulaziz Complex for the Holy Kaaba Kiswa manned by more than 200 artisans and administrative staff. The complex comprises departments for dyeing, automatic and hand-made textiles, printing, belts, gold embroideries, sewing and assembling where the world’s tallest computerised sewing machine is installed.

Around 1,000kg of black-dyed silk is used in making the kiswa, in addition to 120kg of gold threads, and 100kg of silver threads.

The kiswa of the Holy Kaaba in the Grand Mosque, Islam’s most sacred site in Mecca, is annually replaced on the first day of the Islamic lunar Hijri Year.