'Engaging with contemporary theories of religion, the work disturbs the epistemic premises that limit the interpretation of buildings through the rubric of architecture. Instead, it reframes the Ka¿ba in terms of Islamic thought. Clear and engaging, it will surely become indispensable for students and scholars of Islamic arts, Islamic Studies and Religious Studies.'
Wendy Shaw, Freie Universität Berlin

'This extraordinarily original book addresses the essential role of the Ka¿ba, the building in Mecca that is the central focus of Muslim devotion, in the orientation of Muslim life. O'Meara masterfully and sensitively deploys a vast range of sources - religious, historical, literary, and visual - to explore and illuminate how this structure has functioned in the lives of Muslims over the past 1400 years.'
Jonathan Bloom, Boston College

'Remarkably, this is the first book in English on Islam's most sacred structure. This is not an architectural history; instead it reveals the different strata in the building's many meanings, and the interactions between building and beholder, building and believer. O'Meara bravely straddles multiple disciplines to throw light on Muslim perspectives.'
Julian Raby

'Brilliant, daring and challenging on every single page, O'Meara's study of the Ka¿ba's manifold meanings is one of the most inspiring, and inspired, books on Islamic cultural history I've read in a long time.'
Christian R. Lange, University of Utrecht

Explores the Ka¿ba as it has been conceptualised, represented and used by Muslims from the earliest period of Islam onwards

What is the Ka¿ba and why it is pivotal to the Islamic world? Why do pilgrims go about it, not in it? Is it empty? And why is a hollow building covered in black silk?

The most sacred site of Islam, the Ka¿ba (the granite cuboid structure at the centre of the Great Mosque of Mecca) is here investigated by examining six of its predominantly spatial effects: as the qibla (the direction faced in prayer); as the axis and matrix mundi of the Islamic world; as an architectural principle in the bedrock of this world; as a circumambulated goal of pilgrimage and site of spiritual union for mystics and Sufis; and as a dwelling that is imagined to shelter temporarily an animating force; but which otherwise, as a house, holds a void.

Key Features
. The first book-length exploration of the Ka¿ba in a Western language
. Explains what the Ka¿ba is by examining how it functions architecturally and is represented culturally
. Each chapter pursues a different aspect of the Ka¿ba, presenting new findings and arguments
. Extensively illustrated, including a number of rarely reproduced images

Simon O'Meara is Lecturer in the History of Architecture and Archaeology of the Islamic Middle East at SOAS, University of London.

Cover image: © Hajj1433/Flickr

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ISBN 978-0-7486-9930-8
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