burning fibres of a palm-tree on the top of a lance. The wind being violent, a spark flew and attached itself to the curtains of the Kaʿbah and burnt them. As a result, the walls were cracked, and turned black. This took place in the year 64. After the death of Yazîd ibn-Muʿâwiyah and the departure of al-Ḥuṣain ibn-Numair to Syria, ibn-az-Zubair ordered that the stones that had been thrown into it[1] be removed, and they were removed. He then demolished the Kaʿbah, and rebuilt it on its old foundation, using stones in the building. He opened two doors on the ground, one to the east, and the other to the west; one for entrance and the other for exit. In building it he found that the foundation was laid on al-Ḥijr.[2] His object was to give it the shape it had in the days of Abraham, as it had been described to him by ʿÂʾishah, the mother of the believers, on the authority of the Prophet.[3] The doors of the Kaʿbah, ibn-az-Zubair plated with gold, and its keys he made of gold. When al-Ḥajjâj ibn-Yûsuf fought on behalf of ʿAbd-al-Malik ibn-Marwân and killed ibn-az-Zubair, ʿAbd-al-Malik wrote to al-Ḥajjâj ordering him to rebuild the Kaʿbah and the Ḥaram-mosque, the stones hurled at it having made cracks in the walls. Accordingly, al-Ḥajjâj pulled the Kaʿbah down and rebuilt it according to the shape given it by Ḳuraish, removing all stones thereof. After this ʿAbd-al-Malik often repeated, "I wish I had made ibn-az-Zubair do with the Kaʿbah and its structure what he voluntarily undertook to do!"[4]
The cover of the Kaʿbah. In pre-Islamic times the cover
