Kiswah

When Kiswa (Arabic كسوة, DMG Kiswa, also Kiswah ) is a black brocade cloth which wrapped the Kaaba (the largest sanctuary of Islam) at Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

Magnificent ornaments and embroidered in gold and silver wires Koranic suras decorate the Kiswa in about three to four meters in height.

With an average humidity of 90 percent in Mecca, the embroidery fade very quickly; the gold is dull and dark, the silver oxidized. Therefore, every year not only the ornaments, but the whole Kiswa must be replaced.

Production of Kiswa

Also featured is a 1926 state-owned Kiswah Factory in Mecca more than 100 men work all year to produce the cloth with the embroidery. They process about 400 kg per year of gold and silver wires that are less than a third of a millimeter thick and are made from pure 999 gold and silver. In recent years, modern technologies such as computer drawings are already used to complete the Kiswa and the respective spare cloth.

• Islamic culture
• Mecca
• Textile religious use