Anyone who has been on the Hajj pilgrimage has seen that the Holy House is covered with a cloth. This is also seen in pictures of the Kaaba, and we even see in very old photographs that a cloth has been thrown over the Kaaba. When did this happen?

Covering the Holy House has been a tradition for centuries. Not only can we see this in very old photographs, but we can also see this when we study history. Even a position called "the curtain keeper" of the Kaaba was created for this reason, and there were people who were responsible for maintaining, replacing, and changing the covering of the House of God.

As is clear from the narrations, it seems that the first people to cover the House of God with a cloth were Prophet Abraham and Prophet Ismail (peace be upon them). This is something that is clear from the hadiths of the pure Imams (a.s.), especially from the precious words of Imam Sadiq (a.s.).

Although some Sunni brothers believe that a person named Tubba or Asad Al-Hamiri was the first person to cover the Sacred House of Allah with a cloth, and of course they say that he put a door for the Kaaba. At the same time, some narrations state that the first person to cover the Kaaba was Hazrat Ismail (a.s.), and Tubba years later changed the covering of the Kaaba to a covering made of leather.

Has the type of cloth that covers the Kaaba changed throughout history?

Yes. As history shows, the Sacred House of Allah was covered with a cloth made of leather in the era before the advent of Islam and the mission of the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.s.); But the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family) changed this cloth and covered the Kaaba with a Yemeni cloth. After his death, the second and third caliphs covered the Kaaba with a thin, white Egyptian cloth called Qabati. Of course, some sources state that before the advent of Islam, the Kaaba was covered with this thin, white cloth.

In the second century AH, Hussein ibn Aftas, a Talebi, led a rebellion and took control of Mecca. After this capture, he entered the Kaaba and took possession of all the cloths there. Then he covered the Sacred House with a yellow and white silk cloth.

A few years later, when Ma'mun became the caliph, he was informed that the cloth on the Kaaba, which was red at that time, had become worn out. He ordered that a white silk cloth be sewn and installed on the Kaaba.