IRCICA has the pleasure to publish this authentic research work and catalogue relating to the history of the Ka’ba –Muslims’ holiest place on earth – and the services and artistic traditions developed around it and to launch it as of Ramadhan 1446/March 2025. The publication contains scholarly articles followed by the richly annotated photographic catalogue of the collection of Ka’ba covers compiled by Mr. Bekir Kantarcı, a specialist of Islamic art history and collector of Ka’ba objects, over a period of thirty years consisting of covers/curtains of the Ka’ba dating from different centuries. Most of the covers presented in the catalogue belong to the Saudi period (20th and 21st centuries) and the others are dated to different centuries of the Ottoman period; the covers that were replaced by new ones were preserved in palaces or museums and/or segments of them were distributed to pilgrims. The catalogue thus also throws light on many covers that were in private collections. As to the articles contained at the beginning of the book, they are on the following subjects: the history of the Ka’ba from the Jahiliya until the advent of Islam; restorations made during the Islamic period; services rendered to the Ka’ba and the Harameyn waqfs; sacred relics from the Ka’ba; the uses of the covers, the sources and artworks depicting them before and during the Ottoman period; and, the history of Ka’ba covers during the Saudi period. Their authors are Prof. Dr. Adnan Demircan, Prof. Dr. Hülya Tezcan, Prof. Dr. Hasan Fırat Diker, Dr. Sevgi Ağca Diker, Dr. Seyit Ali Kahraman, Dr. Selin İpek, Zeynep Çelik Atbaş, Dr. Tuba Kurtuluş and Mohammed H. Al Mojan. This first edition in Turkish will be followed by other language editions.
