Keywords:Kaba, Mecca, bayt Allah (House of God),泭masjidal haram (sacred mosque), Prophet Muhammad, Islam, haram, pilgrimage (hajj), umra (minor pilgrimmage), pilgrim, worship, Black Stone (al hajar al aswad), tawaf, Well of Zamzam, Abraham (Ibrahim), Hagar, Ismail (Ishmael), Abrahamic tradition, maqam,泭qiblaThe direction of Muslim prayer towards the Ka尪ba, indicated in a mosque by a niche called a mi廎叵b..
啦堯梗泭鬼硃b硃
The structure and its immediate precincts in Mecca that also house a large mosque are referred to in theQuranand subsequently in Muslim tradition as the House of God (bayt Allah) and the sacred Mosque (masjid(mosque; pl. masajid) Arabic derived from the root s-j-d, meaning to prostrate. In the early Islamic era, the word masjid meant a place of prayer which could be any clean… al haram). 啦堯梗泭鬼硃b硃is the point of orientation for Muslims when they pray, and it is also the focal point of the Pilgrimage (HajjThe word Hajj usually refers to the annual pilgrimage by Muslims to the Ka尪ba in Mecca, also called the Great Pilgrimage, in contrast to the 尪Umra, the Lesser Pilgrimage. More) as well as the umra (minor pilgrimage).
TheHajjtakes place over a fixed period in the prescribed month, whereas the umra may be undertaken at any other time. During pre-Islamic times, theKabaserved as a shrine and a sacred space (haram). Arab tribes and others made annual pilgrimages to the site and visit簫ed it to honor tribal and ancestral deities that included several gods and goddesses. Representatives of these deities were kept in theKaba, and the ritual visits were often accompanied by music, dance, and the recitation of poetry.
Author
Professor Azim Nanji
Azim Nanji is currently Special Advisor to the Provost of the, and a member of the Board of Directors of thein Ottawa, a joint partnership between His Highness the Aga KhanA title granted by the Shah of Persia to the then Ismaili Imam in 1818 and inherited by each of his successors to the Imamate. and the Government of Canada. He has held many prestigious academic and administrative appointments, most recently as Senior Associate Director of the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies at, where he was also lecturer in the Department of Religious Studies. From 1998 to 2008, Professor Nanji served as Director of the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London.
Professor Nanji has published numerous books and articles on religion, Islam and Ismailism, including:The Nizari Ismaili Tradition泭(1976),泭The Muslim Almanac泭(1996),泭Mapping Islamic Studies(1997) andThe Historical Atlas of Islam(with M. Ruthven) (2004) andThe Dictionary of Islam(with Razia Nanji), Penguin 2008. In addition, he has contributed numerous shorter studies and articles in journals and collective volumes includingThe Encyclopaedia of Islam,泭Encyclopaedia Iranica,泭Oxford Encyclopaedia of the Modern Islamic World, andA Companion to Ethics. He was the Associate Editor for the revised Second Edition ofThe Encyclopaedia of Religion.
Within the, he has served as a member of the task force for the(AKU-ISMC) and Vice Chair of the Madrasa-based Early Childhood Education Programme in East Africa. He served as a member of the Steering Committee of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 1998, 2001 and 2016.
