Ca*a"ba (?), n. [Ar. ka'ban, let, a square building, fr. ka'b cube]
The small and nearly cubical stone building, toward which all Mohammedans must pray.
[Written also
kaaba.]
The Caaba is situated in Mecca, a city of Arabia, and contains a famous black stone said to have been brought from heaven. Before the time of Mohammed, the Caaba was an idolatrous temple, but it has since been the chief sanctuary and object of pilgrimage of the Mohammedan world.
© Webster 1913.