The story of the most expensive dress in the world ... Where does the Kaaba go after the replacement?

The clothing of the Kaaba is raised every year with the beginning of the month of Dhu al-Hijjah several meters, then it is lined with cotton, in preparation for replacing it with a new clothing on the eve of the day of Arafa, as if the Kaaba wears the new clothing with the Muslims to celebrate the feast with them.

This custom began in the farewell argument, when the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, replaced the Kaaba cloth with Yemeni fabrics, followed by the rightly guided caliphs, and this continued to this day, where the kiswa is made of pure silk braided with gold and silver, and is replaced by a brighter one each year.

Kaaba clothing

The clothing of the Kaaba began during the era of the Prophet, peace and blessings of God be upon him, and the adult caliphs from the Yemeni fabrics until the era of Muawiya bin Abi Sufyan, the first to perfume the Kaaba during the Hajj season and added to this perfume in the month of Rajab. He covered the Kaaba twice a year: the first time in the day of Ashura The second in preparation for Eid al-Fitr.

The clothing of the Kaaba was made from the best of Damascene fabrics and sent to Makkah from the Kiswa area in Damascus, and from here it was called the Kaaba cloth, and soon it was until its industry moved to the Egyptian city of Tenis, where it began to manufacture the luxurious dressing of silk and embroidery, and the caliphs joubled in it where Haroun Rashid covered The Kaaba twice a year, so Al-Ma'mun increased it and covered it 3 times a year.

Adhere to the honor of manufacturing the cladding

The Egyptians considered it an honor to make their own Kaaba clothing and should not be contested by anyone. In 751 AH, the king of Yemen made clothes from his country, and attempts were repeated from the Persians and Iraq, but Egypt's rulers insisted on continuing to make it.

In that year, the righteous king, Nasser bin Qalawun, allocated a moratorium in Egypt to the Kaaba cover once every year, and this law was applied regularly until the reign of Muhammad Ali, as a political dispute arose because of the methods of celebrations of the Kaaba convoy, so Egypt stopped following the manufacture of the Kaaba cover for a period exceeding 6 Years.

But in the year 1233 AH, the house of the kiswa industry was established in Cairo, but it has stopped making the new kiswa since 1381 AH (1962 AD), as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia took over.

Establishing the Kaaba complex

King Abdulaziz Al Saud, following a political dispute with Egypt, ordered the establishment of the Kaaba clothing house (1346 AH / 1927 AD), and that house was provided with textile and embroidery machines that are updated every year.

This house contains more than 200 workers, and it produces the outer and inner Kaaba livery, and the inner cladding of the noble prophetic chamber, and uses the finest types of yarns in the world that weigh 670 kilograms, in addition to wires and threads of 24-karat pure gold, weighing up to 120 kilograms Silver, up to 100 kg.

The cost of the Kaaba clothing exceeds 20 million Saudi riyals, equivalent to $ 5.3 million, making it the most expensive dress in the world.

Where does the old cladding go?

Today the old cladding is handed over to a committee of the Saudi government, which cuts it into small pieces, and then distributes them to dignitaries, countries, and embassies in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

And displays a livery in the Ulu Mosque in the Turkish city of Bursa dating back to the year 1517, and it is in the same place where Sultan Selim I deposited it, where he obtained it from Egypt after the Ottoman conquest, and it is considered the oldest complete covering of the Kaaba present in its full state in the world.

Egypt is preparing to display a part of the Kaaba covering from last year in the new administrative capital museum, as well as parts of the old covering at the Textile Exhibition in Al-Mu'izz in Cairo from time to time, and the museum last year displayed two pieces of the Kaaba covering in green and black, dating back to the end of the Mamluk era and the beginning of The Ottoman era, the green was part of the covering of the noble Prophet’s Chamber, and the black was part of the covering of the Kaaba, and nowadays there is an old covering in the Kiswah Industry House that was established in Cairo in 1233 AH.