Ever wondered what the Black Stone in the Ka’aba (كَعْبَة, black cube) is made of? It’s an interesting story — the British agent Philby plays a role in finding out! There are many theories of what it’s made of but it’s never been scientifically tested. #Threaducation 1/15
The stone is deeply set into the SE corner of the Ka’aba in the centre of the Great Mosque of Mecca. It is the holiest site in Islam, all Muslims facing towards it when praying. Millions of Muslims have touched/kissed the stone, believing it from paradise.
The Hajaru al-Aswad (ٱلْحَجَرُ ٱلْأَسْوَد, Black Stone) is surrounded by a silver frame, with about 20 x 16 cm (8” x 6.25”) of the stone exposed. People believe it’s either basalt, lava, agate, or a meteorite. Legend says it was white but turned black because of man’s sin.
It is actually not 1 stone. It’s a composite of ~8 minor pieces cemented together and worn so smooth over the centuries it appears as a solid piece. Close up you can see the fragments, with various coloured spots giving a wavy appearance, and is said to float on water. #Muslims
Some Muslims claim the stone was given to Adam when he was sent from the Garden of Eden. God then sent him a tent of rubies down from paradise to live in, and a white hyacinth to serve as a chair. The tent became first Ka’aba; the chair became the stone.
The story continues, the Ka’aba was destroyed in the Great Flood, but returned via Gabriel when Abraham rebuilt the Ka’aba. During Muhammad’s time (6-7th c) it caught fire — accounting for the fracturing of the stone.
Historically, the Ka’aba was a pagan shrine dating to ~200 CE. The meteorite theory arose in the mid-19th c, attempting to make a heavenly connotation. But a meteorite or agate wouldn’t float and couldn’t tolerate continual erosion from millions of people over time. #Islam
Enter Harry St. John Philby. A Socialist at Cambridge, he became a British agent in WWI…then aide to Ibn Saud (Saudi Arabia’s 1st king)…and later ran for office in England as a Fascist. Oh…he was also the father of Kim Philby, Soviet double agent. 😎 #spy #MI6
In 1932, Philby decided to explore the Rub al-Khali (Empty Quarter) desert. With a caravan of 32 camels, in the 4th month he stumbled across what he thought was an extinct volcanic crater at al-Hadidah (‘place of iron’).
He stared down into the hole, 330 ft wide and 40 ft deep, into an ‘astrobleme’ — an impact crater from an explosive collision of a stray meteor fragments with the Earth. Called the Wabar Craters, there are actually 3 astroblemes. (They’re unmarked now, under sand dunes.) #Saudi
The impact would have blasted molten sand into the air in a massive blast, melting, boiling, and vaporising the sand, raining pellets of glassy black droplets. #geology #sciencetwitter #astronomy
The crater bedrock is white sandstone and the impact walls are block glass, ie., fused silica (sand) and tiny balls of iron. They look just like the Black Stone in the Ka’aba. The colour markings would thus be remnants of sandstone and glass.
Thinking the craters were volcanic, Philby took samples (inc a 25 lb lump of iron) back to London. Results showed them 90% iron + 5% nickel + trace elements of copper, cobalt, and a high concentration of silver-white iridium. #Science
The porosity explains why the stone would have floated. The blackness was derived from the nickel and iron. Similar stones are also found as markers throughout Saudi Arabia from the Wabar Craters, transported by caravans over the desert. #Mecca
But! Transluminescence dating puts the Wabar Crater at only 250-300 yrs old. And this matches poems about a brilliant fireball flying from the sky on Sept 1 1704, seen as far away as Yemen. So: the Ka’aba’s Black Stone true origins remain a mystery. What was the original?
Until we can scientifically test and date the stone, we cannot know if this is the only one ever used, if it's been replaced over time (damage), replaced from loss (it was lost for 22 yrs in the 1100s), or whether there were earlier meteoric impact sites.
