General

1. Mecca (in Arab., al-Makka—often with the suffix al-Mukarrama, ‘the Venerable’) is the sacred city, and most important place of pilgrimage, of → Islam. The central sanctuary, the Ka'ba (Arab., ‘cube’), a rectangular building, in whose northeastern wall the Black Stone is fixed, with its religious importance from pre-Islamic times, stands in the center of the Great Mosque. Mecca (provincial capital of the emirate of the same name) lies on the West coast of the …