According to Islamic tradition, the sanctuary of Mecca predates humanity’s fall, first sanctified by Adam and later rebuilt by the prophets Abraham (Ibrāhīm) and his son Ishmael (Ismā‘īl) around the site of the Well of Zamzam. In the early narrative, Abraham is shown by God where to lay the Kaaba’s foundations, and an angel delivers the Black Stone to its eastern corner, marking the world’s first masjid (mosque) and the qibla toward which all Muslims now pray. For centuries the Kaaba stood as a modest cubic structure amid scattered pagan shrines until the rise of Muhammad in the 7th century CE. In 630 CE, after the conquest of Mecca, Muhammad and his companions cleansed the Kaaba of idols, restoring monotheistic worship. The newly founded Muslim community then gathered in the open space around the Kaaba for prayer and pilgrimage rites that formed the core of the ḥajj and later the ʿumrah. Under the Umayyad caliphs, the growing Muslim world and its swelling pilgrim traffic demanded a larger sanctuary. In 692 CE, Caliph ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān ordered the first major reconstruction: the mosque’s low walls were raised, and the open area was enclosed. A generation later, Caliph al-Walīd I replaced wooden columns with marble, extended the prayer hall’s wings east and west, and added the first three minarets, transforming a modest enclosure into a stately complex. By the late 8th century, continued expansions under subsequent Umayyad rulers layered more marble arcades, replaced timber with stone, and installed additional minarets to guide pilgrims across the desert. These works foreshadowed the mosque’s future as the world’s largest and most revered, centering Islam’s holiest rites around the Kaaba’s courtyard and its sacred well. Today’s Masjid al-Ḥarām traces its spiritual and architectural lineage to Abraham’s brickwork and to Muhammad’s proclamation of God’s oneness, yet its physical form owes much to Umayyad ambition. Each renovation—from raised marble colonnades to soaring minarets—has sought not only to accommodate the faithful but to honor the legacy of the prophets and caliphs who shaped Islam’s first and greatest mosque.

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Great Mosque of Mecca