The kiswa is the black covering of the Kaaba, embroidered with gold; it is replaced each year 1. It used to be replaced during the hajj, on the morning of 9 Dhu al-Hijja; Arab News reported in July 2022 that the yearly event had been moved to the eve of 1 Muharram, and that the new cover was installed at the dawn of the year 1444 2. Ibn Fadl Allah al-Umari gathers its history in his Masalik al-absar: he quotes al-Azraqi, from Ibn Jurayj, that Tubba' was the first to give the Kaaba a full covering; people then went on covering it in the pre-Islamic period 3. He reports from al-Azraqi that the Prophet covered the Kaaba, then Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Mu'awiya, Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr and those after them 3. Al-Azraqi also relates that al-Ma'mun covered it three times a year, in red brocade, Coptic linen and white brocade, beginning the white in 206 AH 4.
Al-Umari describes the kiswa of his own day: put on once a year in the pilgrimage season, it came from the sultan's treasury in Egypt with the caravan; the Sharifs and the Banu Shayba took the old one and divided it, and its pieces were carried to other lands for blessing 4. The ruler of Yemen used to send a covering worn beneath the Egyptian one, both of black silk with white writing 4. By custom the Kaaba was washed with Zamzam water on 27 Dhu al-Qa'da, its hangings were tucked up, and it was dressed on the day of the Adha 3. Al-Umari says that on his pilgrimage of 738 AH he took off the old covering and put on the new with his own hands 4.
This narrative was written with AI help from the sources it cites, and has not yet been read by a human editor.