caaba

n. (kȧ*ā"bȧ)

[Ar. ka'bah, lit., a square building, fr. ka'b cube.]
The small and nearly cubical stone building, toward which all Mohammedans must pray. [Written also kaaba.]

Note: The Caaba is situated in Mecca, a city of Arabia, and contains a famous black stone said to have been brought from heaven. Before the time of Mohammed, the Caaba was an idolatrous temple, but it has since been the chief sanctuary and object of pilgrimage of the Mohammedan world.

---

A cynical view of the world by Ambrose Bierce

n.

A large stone presented by the archangel Gabriel to the patriarch Abraham, and preserved at Mecca. The patriarch had perhaps asked the archangel for bread.

---

IN BRIEF: n. - (Islam) a black stone building in Mecca that is shaped like a cube and that is the most sacred Muslim pilgrim shrine.