The Rebuilding of the Kaʻba During the Period of Sulṭān Murād IV in the Context of the ʻUlamāʼ-Umarāʼ Discussions ^§

Abstract

The last stop on the Muslim pilgrimage is the Kaʻba. Like all other holy and religious places, the Kaʻba has survived due to the repairs it has undergone since its construction. However, the Kaʻba has been rebuilt at times when it was destroyed for various reasons. Since the interruption of the pilgrimage would undermine the legitimacy of the caliph, Muslims attached great importance to rebuilding the Kaʻba in such cases. The Kaʻba was last rebuilt by the Ottoman Sulṭān Murād IV after the flood of 1039/1630. However, the rebuilding process has not been without its controversies. Although the Ottoman Empire attempted to rebuild the Kaʻba out of necessity, some scholars objected to this initiative. Ibn ʻAllān, one of the leading Shafiʻi muftis of Mecca, followed the rebuilding work day by day and did not hesitate to intervene when necessary. Riḍwān Agha, who carried out the rebuilding of the Kaʻba, was able to overcome Ibn ʻAllān’s objections with fatwas from the muftis of the four sects (four Sunni schools of law) and thus completed the building work. After the Kaʻba was rebuilt, Turkish works on its history began to be produced. In this way, the public was informed that the Kaʻba could be rebuilt if necessary, and attempts were made to anticipate and prevent any potential reactions. This study aims to contribute to the history of the Kaʻba by analysing its rebuilding after the flood of 1039/1630 through debates between scholars (ʻulamāʼ) and administrators (umarāʼ) during this period. Access to the details of this issue from the works of the ʻulamāʼ who witnessed the rebuilding makes this paper unique.

1. Introduction

The sanctity of Mecca and Medina, which are called Ḥaramayn by Muslims, and the ancient religious buildings, especially the Kaʻba and al-Masjid al-Nabawī, located in these places, is beyond explanation. The fact that these sacred buildings have survived intact to this day is due to the repairs and maintenance they have undergone. In this context, it is known that the Kaʻba, the qiblah of Muslims, has undergone many repairs and maintenance since it was first built. However, when the Kaʻba was severely damaged by natural disasters such as floods and earthquakes, as well as by raids, it became necessary to rebuild it. Detailed information on the rebuilding of the Kaʻba throughout history can be found in works on the history of the city and in faḍāʼil (a type of book that describes the virtues of deeds, times, individuals, cities, countries, and nations) literature. In fact, since the works of al-Azraqī (d. 250/864) and al-Fāqihī (d. 278/891–92?), who are considered the pioneers of this literature, were the source of the works written in the following periods, and it is possible to see similar descriptions of the Kaʻba in all of these works. According to these works, the Kaʻba was first built by angels and then rebuilt by Adam, Adam’s son, Abraham, Amaliqa, Jurhum, and Quṣay b. Kilāb, Quraysh, ʻAbd Allāh b. Zubayr and Ḥajjāj b. Yūsuf al-Thaqafī (al-Azraqī 1983; al-Fākihī 1994; al-Fāsī 1985, 1986; al-Nahrawālī 1996; Ibn Zahīra 2003).1 According to the information contained in this literature, although there are Israelite narratives containing exaggerations and legendary elements about who built the Kaʻba for the first time, the information about the rebuilding works of Prophet Abraham and after him is clearer (Atmaca 2025). The last rebuilding of the Kaʻba was carried out by the Ottomans during the reign of Sulṭān Murād IV (Nâimâ 1281).

In 1039/1630, Sulṭān Murād IV wanted to rebuild the Kaʻba after the flood disaster in Mecca. Indeed, it is estimated that tens of thousands of Muslims from all over the world on pilgrimage to perform ʻumra and hajj, arriving in Mecca to find a ruined Kaʻba, could have damaged the reputation of the sulṭān who held the title of caliph. Following Sulṭān Salim I’s transfer of the administration of the Hijāz and the caliphate to the Ottomans in 923/1517, the ownership of the holy lands became an important means of legitimacy (Çakmak 2021). Consequently, Sulṭān Murād IV acted in accordance with the concept of khādim al-Ḥaramayn al-Sharīfayn (Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques) and prioritised rebuilding the Kaʻba in order to ensure the sustainability of the pilgrimage. Nevertheless, this rebuilding was not easy to achieve, and some ʻulamāʼ opposed it. Ibn ʻAllān (d. 1057/1647), one of the Shafiʻi muftis of Mecca, was at the head of these scholars. The Ottoman Empire, which did not ignore the objections of Ibn ʻAllān, who revealed his knowledge on this subject through his works, overcame these objections by forming an alliance with the ʻulamāʼ who considered the rebuilding of the Kaʻba permissible. Separate fatwas were obtained from the muftis of the four sects on the subject, and thus, the building activities were conducted.

In Islamic law, a fatwa is a religious-legal opinion issued by a mufti. Although not legally binding, it carries significant weight in social and administrative practice. In this context, fatwas on sensitive issues, such as rebuilding sacred structures like the Kaʻba, were important not only from a religious perspective but also in terms of political legitimacy. As the leading Shafiʻi mufti of Mecca, Ibn ʻAllān represented the region’s religious authority and was entitled to evaluate the decisions made by Ottoman rulers belonging to the Ḥanafī school from the perspective of his own school. Ibn ʻAllān’s objection to the rebuilding activities was not merely a personal opinion; it represented an official religious stance that was influential among the Shafiʻi community. For this reason, the Ottoman state tasked Riḍwān Agha with collecting fatwas from leading muftis of different schools of thought. The aim was to establish comprehensive religious legitimacy based not only on the Ottoman Ḥanafī understanding but also on the consensus of the four schools of thought. This served to reinforce the idea that the interventions were not merely the doing of the Ottoman Empire but were also in line with the collective opinion of the Muslim community.

After the rebuilding of the Kaʼba was completed in 1040/1631, some renovations were made to the door and roof in 1045/1636. After these rebuildings, with the encouragement of state officials, an independent literature on the history of the Kaʻba was created in Turkish. In this context, the building activities carried out throughout history after the first building of the Kaʻba were examined, and it was revealed that this holy sanctuary could be rebuilt if necessary. This literature includes the works of the ʻulamāʼ, such as Suhaylī Aḥmad (d. after 1042/1632), and Baldırzāda Meḥmed Efendi (d. 1060/1650), Nūḥ b. Muṣṭafā (d. 1070/1660) and Amīnī-i Lehfānī (d. ?). While Baldırzāda and Suhaylī’s works (Baldırzāda 1047; Suhaylī 1112) contain details of the rebuilding of the Kaʻba, completed in 1631, Nūḥ b. Muṣṭafā (Nūḥ b. Mustafā n.d.a) deals with the renovation of the roof and gate of the Kaʻba in 1636. Amīnī-i Lehfānī (Lehfānī n.d.), on the other hand, only gives the number of times the Kaʻba has been rebuilt throughout history, but does not include the details of the renovations after the flood of 1630. The most important feature of these works is that they are the first sources containing information in Turkish about the rebuilding of the Kaʻba during the Ottoman period. Therefore, the works of the aforementioned ʻulamāʼ are the main source for learning the details of the rebuilding of the Kaʻba by Sulṭān Murād IV.

This study aims to reveal the rebuilding of the Kaʻba and the debates that took place on this issue, focusing on the works of Ibn ʻAllān, who examined the rebuilding work carried out after the flood of 1039/1630 and raised justified objections from time to time, and the Turkish treatises of the aforementioned ʻulamāʼ. This study aims to contribute to the history of the Kaʻba by seeking answers to the questions of what the objections to the rebuilding of the Kaʻba were and for what purpose, how the Ottoman Empire overcame these objections, and what the rebuilding works were. This study is unique because there are no other studies in the literature that use these sources for Sulṭān Murād IV’s rebuilding of the Kaʻba.

2. ʻUlamāʼ-Umarāʼ Discussions on the Rebuilding of the Kaʻba

Muslim scholars unanimously agree on the maintenance and repair of the Kaʻba in order to preserve its existing structure without any changes in its architectural features. In contrast, the possibility of altering the architectural structure of the Kaʻba in cases that require its rebuilding is among the issues discussed by the ʻulamāʼ. The basis of these discussions was Prophet Muḥammad’s desire to rebuild the Kaʻba, which he abandoned due to some reservations. As a matter of fact, five years before the Prophet Muḥammad’s mission, the Quraysh had rebuilt the Kaʻba and made some changes in its architectural features. The Prophet Muḥammad also thought of rebuilding the Kaʻba on the foundations built by Prophet Abraham, but he later abandoned this idea because of the reaction it would cause from Muslims (al-Bukhārī 1436; al-Muslim n.d.). The Ka’ba built by the Quraysh was restored to its original form in the time of Abraham by ʻAbd Allāh b. Zubayr. In this context, the semicircular al-Ḥatīm section in the northwest direction of the Kaʻba was included in the Kaʻba, and two gates were built for entrance and exit. However, this structure of the Kaʻba could not survive for a long time, and it was destroyed as a result of the attacks of Ḥajjāj b. Yūsuf al-Thaqafī on Mecca in the power struggle between Muslims in this period was rebuilt by Ḥajjāj in 73/692–693 with the permission of the Umayyad caliph ʻAbd al-Malik b. Marwān (Ibn Kathīr 2015). These efforts by Muslims in the early centuries of Islam to rebuild the Kaʻba in its original form clearly demonstrate the foundations of the Kaʻba’s most important features (O’Meara 2020).

The first discussions about the need to rebuild the Kaʻba, which had survived with the maintenance and repairs made on the basis of Ḥajjāj b. Yūsuf al-Thaqafī’s construction took place during the Abbasid period. Accordingly, al-Hārūn al-Rashīd wanted to rebuild the Kaʻba built by al-Ḥajjāj to the one built by ʻAbd Allāh b. Zubayr, but later gave it up. Hārūn al-Rashīd’s abandonment of this idea was influenced by Imām Mālik’s opinion that this initiative regarding the Kaʻba would cause the holy sanctuary to turn into the plaything of the sulṭāns and to deteriorate the reverence in the hearts of the people.2 However, although the wear and tear on the walls and roof of the Kaʻba built by Ḥajjāj was eliminated by repair works, the repair of the Kaʻba and its surroundings was needed more due to the passage of centuries during the Ottoman period.3 The floods caused by the rains in Mecca brought the issue of the construction of the Kaʻba back on the agenda of Muslims in the middle of the 16th century. In 958/1551, coinciding with the reign of the Ottoman Sulṭān Süleiman I (1520–1566 AD), heavy rain in Mecca caused water to leak from the roof of the Kaʻba. When Ḥāmid Efendi, the qadi of Egypt at the time, and Muḥammad Efendi, the qadi of Mecca, reported this incident to Dersaadet [Istanbul], Sulṭān Süleiman I obtained a fatwa from Sheikh ül-Islam Abū al-Ṣuʻūd Efendi for the repair of the Kaʻba. When this fatwa and the sulṭān’s order to repair the roof of the Kaʻba were delivered to Mecca, a council consisting of Mecca’s ʻulamāʼ and architects was formed. Upon the architect’s statement that the Kaʻba roof would completely collapse if repairs were not started as soon as possible, it was decided to start repairs in the middle of the month of Rabī ʻ al-Awwal. However, some ʻulamāʼ objected to this, stating that it was not appropriate to start repairs until some part of the Kaʻba collapsed. Ibn Ziyād (d. 973/1568), who wrote an independent treatise on the subject, states that the scholars of the Hijāz disagreed on whether it was permissible to demolish and rebuild any part of the Kaʻba while it was being repaired. He argues that Imām Shafiʻi (d. 204/820) prefers to leave the Kaʻba as it is and not to make any changes to it, and Imām Mālik is of the opinion that if this is not done, people’s reverence for the Kaʻba will decrease and this work will turn into the plaything of the sulṭāns (Ibn Ziyād n.d.). Although al-Nahrawālī (d. 990/1582), a contemporary of Ibn Ziyād, does not express his opinion on the subject in his work on the history of the Kaʻba, Bāqī, who translated this work, does not hesitate to express his own opinion in the translator’s note. He is of the opinion that the continuous renovation of the Kaʻba was not considered permissible by the Muslim scholars due to the concerns that the Kaʻba would be turned into a plaything of the sulṭāns, but that saving the Kaʻba from being attributed to someone like Ḥajjāj was not contrary to the Book and sunna, and that there was no need for ijmāʻ al-umma (consensus of the Muslim community) on this issue (Bâkî 2018). Finally, as the debate on whether the Kaʻba could be rebuilt grew, Ibn Ḥajar al-Haythamī (d. 974/1567) wrote a treatise against those who opposed the repair of the Kaʻba, in which he argued that it was permissible to rebuild the Kaʻba in cases of necessity and need (al-Haythamī 2003). Thus, al-Haythamī’s views began to spread among scholars and the public, and the amīr (a term meaning commander, governor, and lord) of Mecca at the time, Sayyid Aḥmad b. Abī Numayy, invited Shaykh Muḥammad b. Shaykh Abī al-Ḥasan al-Bakrī, one of the scholars, went to Mecca in order to lay the groundwork for the repair of the Kaʻba. A lecture circle was established in front of the Kaʻba, next to the Maqām Ibrāhīm, and the qadi of Mecca and the minister of the Ḥaram also participated in this circle. At the end of Shaykh Muḥammad al-Bakrī’s lecture on the repair of the Kaʻba, the repairs were started with the reading of the fatwa of Sheikh ül-Islam Abū al-Ṣuʻūd Efendi by Aḥmad Çelebi, the Minister of the Ḥaram (Eyüb Sabri Paşa 2018). Another disagreement between the umarāʼ and the ʻulamāʼ regarding the rebuilding of the Kaʻba took place during the reign of Sulṭān Aḥmad I (1603–1617), the father of Sulṭān Murād IV. Until this period, the last repair of the Kaʻba, which was carried out during the reign of Sulṭān Süleiman I, was a temporary solution for the survival of the holy shrine. The last time the Kaʻba was rebuilt was during the Umayyad period, and no major construction work had been carried out since then. Over time, the cracks in the walls of the Kaʻba were in danger of collapsing due to heavy rain in 1019/1610. Although Sulṭān Aḥmad I wanted to completely dismantle the walls of the Kaʻba and rebuild it, the ʻulamāʼ believed that it was not permissible to dismantle the walls of the Kaʻba unless they collapsed spontaneously. In this case, in order to prevent the collapse of the walls of the Kaʻba, Sulṭān Aḥmad I had a large iron girdle with gold plating made and fortified the walls of the Kaʻba with this girdle in 1021/1612 (Nâimâ 1281; Eyüb Sabri Paşa 2018). However, the Kaʻba fortified by Sulṭān Aḥmad I could not withstand the flood disaster eighteen years later (Faroqhi 1995).

These two incidents between the government and the ʻulamāʼ during the reigns of Sulṭān Süleiman I and Sulṭān Aḥmad I regarding the rebuilding of the Kaʻba in the Ottoman period reveal that the ʻulamāʼ were very sensitive to this issue. In addition to the sanctity of the Kaʻba, it should be emphasized that Prophet Muḥammad’s approach to rebuilding the Kaʻba was effective in this sensitivity of the ʻulamāʼ. In this respect, the conditions under which the rebuilding of the Kaʻba is permissible and what to pay attention to during the rebuilding process are among the most frequently emphasised issues by the ʻulamāʼ.

3. Kaʻba Under Water: The Flood Disaster in Mecca in 1039/1630

Surrounded by large mountains, Mecca is exposed to torrential rains every seven or eight years. As a consequence of these torrential rains, the water accumulated in the mountains sometimes formed a bed towards the city and caused a flood disaster in the city by dragging everything in front. In the Jahiliya period, two people, a man and a woman, lost their lives in a flood called Fārre. In the Islamic period, during the caliphate of Umar (634–644 AD), in the flood of Umm Nahshal, the rainwater uprooted Maqām Ibrāhīm and dragged it out of Mecca. The damage caused by the flood of Juḥaf, which occurred in 80/699 during the caliphate of ʻAbd al-Malik b. Marwān was much more significant. Because this flood occurred during the pilgrimage season when many Muslims were performing ṭawāf (a term in Islamic jurisprudence meaning to circumambulate the Kaʻba in the prescribed manner), the floodwaters that entered al-Ḥaram al-Sharīf and surrounded the Kaʻba caused many deaths. The Muhbil flood, which occurred shortly after this flood in 84/703, caused various diseases (al-Azraqī 1983). For example, it has been determined that eighty-five floods occurred in Mecca from the Jahiliya period until 1932, many of which resulted in death and disease. The flood disaster in 1039/1630 was recorded as the sixty-fifth flood in Mecca (al-Azraqī 1983).

On Wednesday, 19 Shaʻbān 1039/3 April 1630, heavy rain started to fall in Mecca around 2 p.m. and continued to fall continuously until 02.00 on Thursday. The floodwaters accumulated on the mountains and hills surrounding Mecca and started to flow towards the city, sweeping away everything in their path. Finding a route of passage through Bāb al-Janā’iz (Gate of the Funerals) and Bāb Ajyād (Gate of Ajyād), the waters flooded into al-Ḥaram al-Sharīf. While some buildings, such as houses, shops, and schools, in the Ḥaram were destroyed, others became unusable due to mud and rubble dragged from the mountains. The number of Muslims who died under the collapsed buildings due to the flood was about a thousand. The floodwaters, which gradually rose in al-Ḥaram al-Sharīf, reached up to one meter above the door lock of the Kaʻba. In the afternoon, the walls of the Kaʻba, adjacent to al-Rukn al-Shāmī (western corner) and al-Rukn al-ʻIrāqī (northern corner), collapsed with a loud noise (Baldırzāda 1047).

Muslims who tried to save their lives during the unprecedented flood of 1039/1630 in Mecca were overwhelmed with sadness when they saw the Kaʻba, two walls of which had collapsed after the floodwaters receded from al-Ḥaram al-Sharīf on the fourth day of the disaster. The slime that the floodwaters filled al-Ḥaram al-Sharīf with revealed the magnitude of the disaster. So much so that when the waters receded, the people of Mecca encountered mud hills taller than a man inside the Ḥaram. Notables of Mecca gathered in the Ḥaram under the leadership of Sharif Masʻūd b. Idrīs, the amīr of Mecca, and first of all, they took down the gold and silver lamps hanging in the Kaʻba and ensured that they were kept in a safe area. Sharif Masʻūd informed Meḥmed Pasha, the Governor of Egypt, about what had happened to the Kaʻba after the flood disaster. Meḥmed Pasha first submitted this situation to Dersaadet and awaited an edict. However, Meḥmed Pasha, who thought that waiting for the edict to arrive would be problematic due to the long distance between Egypt and Dersaadet, took responsibility and ordered preliminary preparations for the repair of the Kaʻba. In this context, he sent letters to the amīr of Mecca, Sharif Masʻūd, to clean the al-Ḥaram al-Sharīf area of mud and rubble, and to the amīn (a person responsible for performing certain duties in the Ottoman state administration) of Jeddah, Muṣṭafā Agha, to supply the necessary materials for repair. First, the inside and surroundings of the Kaʻba were cleaned of mud that had been left behind by the flood. Towards the end of Ramaḍan, the standing walls and roof of the Kaʻba were fortified with palm tree poles sent by Muṣṭafā Agha from Jeddah. On 13 Shawwāl, after the fortification process was completed, a green coloured robe was sewn and put on the Kaʻba on Thursday, 17 Shawwāl. Although the preliminary preparations for the repair of the Kaʻba were completed with the orders of the amīr of Mecca, Sharif Masʻūd, the expected edict from Dersaadet had not yet reached Egypt. Naturally, this situation caused the people of Hijāz and Egypt to worry. Moreover, the approach of the pilgrimage season further increased people’s concerns about whether the 1039/1630 pilgrimage could be performed. Thereupon, Meḥmed Pasha, the governor of Egypt, appointed Riḍwān Agha, one of the former Circassian Aghas, as the Kaʻba’s building supervisor temporarily until the decree reached him (Ibn ʻAllān 1040b; Suhaylī 1112)4.

Riḍwān Agha, who was assigned to organise the rebuilding works at the Kaʻba, set off for Mecca without wasting time and reached the city on Saturday, 26 Shawwāl. The next day, Riḍwān Agha performed the ceremony of wearing the khilʻa (robe of honour) in al-Ḥaram al-Sharīf. In the presence of the Meccan notables gathered between the Kaʻba and the Maqām Ibrāhīm, Riḍwān Agha and Sharif Masʻūd put on each other’s khilʻa. Riḍwān Agha, who wanted to start work as soon as possible, took action immediately after the khilʻa ceremony to clean al-Ḥaram al-Sharīf from the flood debris. However, the mounds formed by the mud that filled al-Ḥaram al-Sharif after the flood hardened like stones with the warming weather. Although this hardened layer was first thought to be broken into small pieces and carried outside the Ḥaram, it was understood that it was impossible to break the hard soil layer with existing tools, such as picks. For this reason, the hardened layer was watered at night and softened until the morning. In the morning, the softened mounds were broken into pieces and levelled with the help of picks and ploughshares. These pieces were also crumbled by ploughing them like a farmer ploughing their soil in preparation for sowing. These small pieces were then passed through a sieve to separate the soil, stone, and sand. Riḍwān Agha sent men from the villages and towns of Jeddah, Medina, and Kunfuḏa with donkeys, horses, and camels to transport the separated material out of the Ḥaram area. Due to these transport animals, which he brought by paying high prices, the cleaning of the Ḥaram was completed on 19 Dhū al-Qaʻda, and the work lasted about twenty days. The materials required to repair the Kaʻba were procured from Egypt. For this purpose, the construction materials, which were loaded from Egypt and delivered to Jeddah in the last days of Dhū al-Qaʻda, were delivered by Muṣṭafā Agha, the amīn of Jeddah, to Ahmed Qabtānī, the clerk of goods in Jeddah. These materials were transported from Jeddah to Mecca and placed in buildings belonging to ʻAbd al-Raḥmān b. Atīq, which was designated as warehouses by Riḍwān Agha. On 13 Muharram 1040, Riḍwān Agha repaired the waterways of Mecca. After the discovery made by the Mecca engineer ʻAlī b. Shams al-Dīn, the waterways were repaired and the water reached Mecca on 9 Rabīʻ al-Akhīr (Ibn ʻAllān 1040b; Suhaylī 1112). With the arrival of water in the city, all the materials required for rebuilding the Kaʻba were prepared.

After the preliminary preparations were completed, Riḍwān Agha wanted to start making the fallen stones of the Kaʻba usable. However, Ibn ʻAllān, a Shafiʻi mufti of Mecca, began to list his objections to the rebuilding of the Kaʻba.

4. Independent Auditor of the Rebuilding Works in the Kaʻba: Ibn ʻAllān and His Objections

Although the attitude of the ʻulamāʼ towards the Ottoman State’s attempts to renovate the Kaʻba in 958/1551 and 1019/1610 was an important experience for the renovation works intended to be carried out by Sultan Murād IV, similar objections of the ʻulamāʼ continued in this period. Ibn ʻAllān, one of the Shafiʻi muftis of Mecca, who led the opposition, followed the renovation works at the Kaʻba as if he were an independent auditor. He not only objected to the work carried out by Riḍwān Agha, but also prevented the labourers from working by intervening when necessary. However, it is necessary to say that Ibn ʻAllān’s objections to the rebuilding of the Kaʻba, whose knowledge of the history of Mecca is evident from his twenty-one works in this field, took place entirely within a scientific framework. In this context, it is appropriate to briefly mention Ibn ʻAllān’s life and scholarly personality.

Ibn ʻAllān was born in Mecca on 20 Safar 996/20 January 1588, although there are different narrations about his birth date. Since his lineage goes back to the Caliph Abū Bakr, he is known by the names al-Bakrī and al-Siddīqī. Since he came from a family of scholars, he was engaged in science from childhood and studied fiqh, hadith, tafsīr, mysticism, language, and ethics under twenty-one different teachers. Among his teachers was his uncle Aḥmad b. Ibrāhīm b. Muḥammad ʻAllān (d. 1033) who was considered one of the sūfī imāms of the period. Ibn ʻAllān, who belonged to the Shafiʻi sect, benefited from the Ḥanafī and Mālikī scholars who came to Mecca for reasons such as pilgrimage or ʻumra, and saw the privilege of being a Meccan in the study of science. He became famous for his lectures on the porticoes of the Kaʻba to students from different cities in Islamic geography. He was also instrumental in raising many scholars with his tafsīr and hadith lessons he taught just opposite Ḥijr in the Kaʻba (al-Amīr 2016). In addition to his qualifications as a teacher, Ibn ʻAllān made important contributions to the Islamic sciences. It was determined that he had a total of one hundred and eighty-five works belonging to different fields such as tafsīr, hadith, fiqh, aqāʼid, linguistics, rhetoric, mysticism, and history (al-Amīr 2016). Twenty-one of his works are related to the history of Mecca, and ten are directly related to the renovation work carried out after the flood event that destroyed the Kaʻba in 1039/1630. The names and subjects of these works, which are directly related to our study, are as follows5:

• ʼIʻlām Sā’ir al-ʼAnām bi-Qiṣṣat al-Sayl alladhī Saqaṭa min-hu Bayt Allāh al-Ḥaram: In this work, also known as al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr, Ibn ʻAllān discusses the details of eleven renovation works carried out at the Kaʻba throughout history.
• ʼInbāʼ Muʼayyad al-Jalīl Murād bi-Bināʼ Bayt al-Wahhāb al-Jawād: This work, which describes the day-by-day rebuilding works of the Kaʻba carried out by Riḍwān Agha after the flood disaster that occurred in Mecca in 1040/1630, is a summary of Ibn ʻAllān’s al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr (Ibn ʻAllān 1040b). Ibn ʻAllān later made this work into a concise work consisting of 20 folios and called it al-ʼInbāʼ al-ʻAmīm bi-Bināʼ al-Bayt al-Harām al-Fahīm (al-Amīr 2016).
• Nashru ʼAlwiyat al-Tashrīf bi-l-ʼIʻlām wa-l-Taʻrīf bi-man lehū Walāyat al-ʻImāra mā Saqaṭa min al-Bayt al-Sharif: In this work on who is authorised to rebuild the Kaʻba, Ibn ʻAllān explains with seven proofs that this work belongs to the head of state who bears the title of caliph (Ibn ʻAllān 1040b).
• al-Bayān wa-l-ʼIʻlām fī Tawjīhi ʻImārat al-Sāqıṭ min al-Bayt li-Sulṭān al-Islām: The subject matter of this work is the same as that of the work titled Nashru ʼAlwiyat al-Tashrīf and emphasises that the sulṭān is authorised to build the destroyed structures of the Kaʻba (Ibn ʻAllān 1040b).
• Risālat fī Manʻi Waḍaʻa al-Satāʼir li-Wach al-Kaʻba kullahā bi-Qadr Samkihā: It is about the prohibition of drawing a curtain around the Kaʻba in order to prevent the construction work from being seen.
• Fath al-Qarīm al-Fattāḥ fī Ḥukm mā Sadda bi-hī al-Bayt min Ḥuṣur wa-ʼAʻwād wa-Alwāḥ: This work, which is about the work of the engineers on the curtain around the Ka’ba and the quantities and properties of the straw, sticks, and wood materials used for this work, is a summary of the section in al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr, which contains detailed information on this subject (Ibn ʻAllān 1040b).
• Fath al-Qadīr fī al-ʼAʻmāl alletī Yaḥtāju ilayhā man Ḥaṣala la-hū bi-l-Mulk ʻalā al-Bayt Walāyat al-Taʻmīr: It is a work in which the issues that the person who has the authority to build the Kaʻba should pay attention to during the construction are explained in twenty articles.
• ʼĪzāḥu Talkhīsi Badīʻ al-Maʻānī fī Bayāni Manʻi Hadm al-Jidār al-Yamānī: Ibn ʻAllān wrote this work after some craftsmen and labourers reported that it was necessary to demolish the Yamānī wall of the Kaʻba and rebuild it. Ibn ʻAllān, who thought that there was no need to demolish this wall, completed this work in 1040/1630 in the month of Jumādā al-Awwal and made three copies of this work and presented them to the qadi of Mecca, the minister of imaret (term used for all units such as mosque, madrasa, soup kitchen, caravanserai, and tomb) of al-Ḥaram al-Sharīf and the Shaykh al-Ḥaram.
• Muallafun fī Bāb al-Kaʻba: It deals with the construction of the Kaʻba gate and the changes it has undergone over time.
• ʼAsnā al-Mawāhib wa-ʼAhnā al-Futūḥ fī ʻAmāl al-Maqām al-Ibrāhīmī wa-Bāb Bayt Allāh Taʻālā wa-Saqfihī wa-l-Suṭūh: This work of Ibn ʻAllān consists of a preface and three chapters. In the introduction, he discusses the virtue of building mosques, the roof of the Kaʻba in the first chapter, the door of the Kaʻba in the second chapter, and the changes of Maqām Ibrāhīm throughout history in the third chapter (Ibn ʻAllān n.d.).

Ibn ʻAllān completed his work Fatḥ al-Qadīr in Muharram 1040/1630, the month in which Riḍwān Agha carried out the repair of the city’s waterways in preparation for the construction of the Kaʻba, and laid down the rules to be followed in the construction of the Kaʻba. These twenty rules are summarised as follows (Ibn ʻAllān 1040a):

• Using clean and halal goods in construction
• Assigning the work to those who have piety
• The pious person who undertakes the work should pay attention to the piety of the workers
• The person in charge of the work should gather the sayyid, sharif, ʻulamāʼ, fuḍalāʼ, sulaḥāʼ, qadi, and shaykhs of the city in al-Masjid al-Ḥarām, facing Bayt Allāh.
• Preparation of all construction materials before demolition
• During the repairs, the imaret minister and his assistants should take precautions not to obstruct those performing ṭawāf and scholarly activities
• The minister should not prevent those who want to help in work that does not require skilfulness
• Using the construction material preferred by an engineer in Mecca in terms of durability, paying attention to the durability of the material, not to its appeal to the eye, as in churches
• The use of materials such as stone, lime, and plaster used in construction by washing them in reverence
• If stones are needed for construction, they should be taken from near the Kaʻba, and if any stones are buried from the building of the period of ʻAbd Allāh b. Zubayr, those stones should be given priority.
• Major and minor ablutions of masters and labourers
• Not to add or remove anything to the Kaʻba except stones, such as fountains.
• Not to dismantle anything from al-Rukn al-Yamānī (south-western corner) unless the masters and ʻulamāʼ say that it is impossible for it to stand.
• Do not linger inside the Kaʻba except for work, and do not wander off, even for the sake of veneration.
• Avoid spending time immersed in colourful stones and marbles
• Every day’s work should be neither too slow nor too fast in terms of excess and lateness.
• The orders, craftsmen, and labourers should pay utmost attention to cleanliness while working. Avoiding things such as spitting and blowing
• The caretakers, masters, and labourers must not bring any food or drink into the Kaʻba
• Since the excavation from the repair of the Kaʻba is also revered, the place where it is dumped should be protected from all kinds of filth.
• When all the work is finished, the Kaʻba, which has been cleaned, should be perfumed and clothed.

When these articles are analysed, it is seen that Ibn ʻAllān did not totally object to the rebuilding of the Kaʻba, but he had some recommendations regarding the nature of the planned construction. As a matter of fact, the treatise written by Shurunbulālī (d. 1069/1659), one of the Ḥanafī jurists of Egypt, in the same period, seems to have been written for a similar purpose. Accordingly, Shurunbulālī’s treatise is a detailed study of Ibn ʻAllān’s recommendation in the first article that the goods used in the rebuilding of the Kaʻba should be clean and halal (al-Shurunbulālī 1039).

The first of Ibn ʻAllān’s objections, which prevented Riḍwān Agha from starting the work, was that the authority to build the Kaʻba belonged only to the sulṭān with the title of caliph. Upon this objection, Riḍwān Agha asked for a fatwa from the mufti of the four sects on the question, ʻIs it not permissible in Sharia for Zayd, who has been appointed and sent for this service, to undertake the construction of the Kaʻba?ʼ. The Mālikī mufti Khālid b. Aḥmad, the Shafiʻi mufti ʻAbd al-Azīz Zemzemī, the Ḥanbalī mufti ʻAbd Allāh b. Abī Bakr al-Qurayshī and the Ḥanafī mufti Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Akshems al-Dīn gave a fatwa for its permissibility (Suhaylī 1112). Ibn ʻAllān first acted together with the muftis who issued fatwas in line with Ibn Ḥajar al-Haythamī’s view on this issue. However, Ibn ʻAllān, who stated that he thought about this issue in detail later, differed from them and expressed the opinion that the construction should be delayed until the sulṭān’s firman (imperial decree with a seal) arrived. In this respect, according to him, it is not permissible to start rebuilding the Kaʻba without the sulṭān or a regent appointed by him (Ibn ʻAllān 2001). When Riḍwān Agha started levelling the stones with the fatwas he received from other muftis, Ibn ʻAllān raised a second objection and prevented the workers from working. This time, Riḍwān Agha again requested fatwas from the muftis for levelling the stones that had fallen from the Kaʻba and replacing the unusable ones with new stones that had been procured. The muftis permitted the reuse of the stones of the Kaʻba that had fallen to the ground and broken, if they could be rehabilitated and levelled; if not, new stones could be brought and used instead of these stones, as had been done many times before. Moreover, the Mālikī mufti Khālid b. Aḥmad stated that in the previous constructions of the Kaʻba, stones were brought from the mountains of Ḥirāʼ, Ṣabir, Abū Qubays, Uḥud, Lubnān, Tūr al-Sīnāʼ, Ṭūr al-Zaytā, al-Jabal al-Aḥmar, Jūdī, Quds, Warikan, and Raḍwā. In this respect, the muftis considered the fact that the ʻulamāʼ did not raise any objection to bringing new stones from outside during the construction of the Kaʻba in the old periods as sufficient evidence for the permissibility of this issue (Nūḥ b. Mustafā n.d.a; Eyüb Sabri Paşa 2018).

While Riḍwān Agha received these fatwas regarding the stones to be used in the Kaʻba and set to work again, Sulṭān Murād IV appointed Naqīb al-Ashrāf Sayyid Meḥmed al-Anqarawī as the qadi of Medina and as the minister of the Kaʻba repair as his regent. At the same time, the responsibility for the repair work was entrusted to Muḥammad Pasha, the Beylerbeyi of Egypt, by the sulṭān’s firman. Muḥammad Pasha appointed Riḍwān Agha, who had already been appointed as the Kaʻba building supervisor, as regent. Thus, the appointment of Sayyid Meḥmed Efendi as the regent of the Sulṭān and Riḍwān Agha as the regent of Muḥammad Pasha provided a political solution to Ibn ʻAllān’s initial objection that the rebuilding of the Kaʻba was not permissible without the sulṭān’s permission. Following the shipment of construction materials through the port of Jeddah, Riḍwān Agha had wooden poles driven around the Kaʻba to create a security perimeter. However, Ibn ʻAllān, who followed Riḍwān Agha’s work moment by moment, raised his third objection to this security strip as follows: Ibn ʻAllān thought that the security strip should not be an obstacle for those circumambulating the Kaʻba (Ibn ʻAllān 1040b). Consequently, Riḍwān Agha asked the muftis whether it was permissible to erect a security strip to prevent people from seeing the work of the labourers and craftsmen during the repair of the Kaʻba, even though this would cause difficulties for ṭawāfers. The muftis ruled that such a strip does not hinder ṭawāfers, but that it is permissible to ṭawāf from the outside of the strip, and that it is mandūb (recommended act), if not wājib (obligatory act), not to show people the construction work on the Kaʻba. In this regard, they quoted al-Azraqī as evidence that ʻAbd Allāh b. Zubayr was warned by ʻAbd Allāh b. Abbas while building the Kaʻba, so a wooden wall was built around the Kaʻba, and the construction work was completed without showing it to people. According to the muftis, since there is a possibility that the walls of the Kaʻba, which are still standing during the rebuilding of the Kaʻba but are not strong, may be demolished and the stones may be removed from their places, it is considered more worthy to carry out these processes in a closed manner in order to avoid weakening the reverence of the Muslims for the Kaʻba (Nūḥ b. Mustafā n.d.a; Eyüb Sabri Paşa 2018). In fact, the event in which the muftis expressed the possibility of realisation in these fatwas took place a long time before. After levelling the stones that had fallen to the ground, Riḍwān Agha and his expedition, which included Sharif ʻAlī Barakāt, began to examine the Kaʻba on 2 Jumādā al-Thānī 1040. As a result, they decided that the wall of the Kaʻba between al-Ḥajar al-Aswad (Black Stone) and al-Rukn al-Yamānī could not be relied upon and that the building should be demolished and rebuilt because the foundation of the building had shifted. However, Ibn ʻAllān objected to this decision for the fourth time, saying that it was not permissible to demolish the Kaʻba by external intervention unless it was demolished by itself.6 Riḍwān Agha, who asked for a fatwa from the muftis again in order to resume the construction work, included the technical information he had received from the engineers and craftsmen in the exploration committee while explaining his resignation. Stating that it was a miracle that the Kaʻba had survived for almost 1000 years after Ḥajjāj’s building, the muftis gave Riḍwān Agha permission for this matter as well, based on the opinion of experts that the wall would collapse if left alone. Thus, with the fatwas issued by Riḍwān Agha, all the stones of the Kaʻba, except for the stones above and below al-Ḥajar al-Aswad, were dismantled on 5 Jumādā al-Thānī 1040 (Nūḥ b. Mustafā n.d.a; Eyüb Sabri Paşa 2018).

5. Rebuilding Works in the Kaʻba in 1631 and 1636

Having completed all the preparations for the rebuilding of the Kaʻba, Riḍwān Agha, after obtaining the necessary fatwas to overcome Ibn ʻAllān’s objections, started the construction work without wasting any time, and the Kaʻba was rebuilt after six months of work. The details of these construction works are described day by day in Ibn ʻAllān’s work titled ʼInbāʼ Muʼayyad al-Jalīl Murād bi-Bināʼ Bayt al-Wahhāb al-Jawād. Suhaylī and Baldırzāda, who benefited from Ibn ʻAllān’s work, also wrote Turkish works describing these construction works. Suhaylī’s presence in Mecca during the flood of 1039/1630 enabled him to observe the construction work on site (Eyüb Sabri Paşa 2018). He stated that he wrote such a work as a response to some people who criticised the renovation works planned to be carried out in the Kaʻba after the flood disaster and for those who were unaware of the science of history to learn these events correctly (Suhaylī 1112). Although Suhaylī explicitly mentions Ibn ʻAllān as one of the main opponents of the renovation works at the Kaʻba, the fact that the textual fiction in his work shows great similarities with Ibn ʻAllān’s narratives gives the impression that he benefited from his works. Baldırzāda was appointed the qadi of Mecca in 1045/1636, four years after the renovation of the Kaʻba in 1040/1631, when the damage to the doors and roof of the Kaʻba caused by the rains in Mecca was repaired. During his tenure in Mecca, Baldırzāde wished to write a work in the genre of faḍāʼil, and in this context, he wrote a work of faḍāʼil in which he included the details of the renovation works after the flood of 1039/1630 (Baldırzāda 1047).

The construction works of the Kaʻba, which were completed in 1040/1631, are briefly as follows (See also Matar 1986):

The dismantling of the stones of the Kaʻba, which started on 5 Jumādā al-Thānī 1040, was completed on 20 Jumādā al-Thānī, and in the same month, the stones of the Kaʻba were brought and arranged from Jānib-i Shāmī. Since the row of stones at the foundation was not counted among the walls of the Kaʻba, a total of 25 rows of stones had to be laid, excluding this row. The stone-laying process, which continued in the months of Rajab and Shaʻbān, was completed in the last days of Shaʻbān. After this process, the scaffolding around the Kaʻba was removed. The red cover of the Kaʻba was brought to the roof, and the roof was covered with tiles. In the construction work that started in al-Ḥatīm in Ramaḍan, the construction of the interior and exterior walls of al-Ḥatīm was completed with the great effort of craftsmen and labourers. On 22 Ramaḍan, the marble masons entered the Kaʻba, and marble began replacing the interior. Meanwhile, renovation works were ongoing simultaneously in al-Maqām al-Ḥanbalī, al-Maqām al-Mālikī, and the house of Khadīja. On 28 Ramaḍan, the Kaʻba robe was untied and lowered to the ground. The old robe was given to Riḍwān Agha for his efforts. In Shawwāl, the wall repairs of the Ḥijr were completed, and the repair of Maqām Ibrāhīm was started. On 18 Shawwāl, the repair of Maqām Ibrāhīm was completed by painting between the windows. Meanwhile, Riḍwān Agha decided to take precautions against possible floods in the Kaʻba as a result of his discussions with the engineers. For this purpose, a large ditch was dug, and a dike was built to prevent floods that might come from the Ajyād side. The marbles, which had been placed incorrectly on the surface of the Kaʻba in haste, were removed and placed again on Thursday, 4 Dhū al-Qaʻda. On Friday, 5 Dhū al-Qaʻda, the date of the repair was inscribed on one of the marbles of the Kaʻba by Sayyid Meḥmed al-Anqarawī, the qadi of Medina (Baldırzāda 1047; Ibn ʻAllān 1040b; Suhaylī 1112):

“In the Name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful, Our Lord! Accept [this] from us. You are indeed All-Hearing, All-Knowing. The custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and the pilgrims who travelled there by land and sea were brought by Sulṭān Muḥammad Khān’s son Sulṭān Aḥmad Khān’s son Sulṭān Murād Khān [may Allah make his kingdom and reign eternal], who renovated the Bayt Atīq [Kaʻba] at the end of the month of Ramadan in the year 1040 AH, thus drawing closer to Allah, who is exalted in glory and honour” (See Figure 1).

At the end of the month of Dhū al-Qaʻda, the Kaʻba was opened and cleaned with Zamzam water, and rose water was poured into it. On 25 Dhū al-Ḥijja, they dressed the Kaʻba by dropping the black cover from the roof to the ground. On 1 Dhū al-Ḥijja, al-Ḥajar al-Aswad was completely rehabilitated and painted black. The next day, when the news of the sighting of the crescent moon reached Mecca, īd al-fiṭr (festival of breaking the fast) was declared (Ibn ʻAllān 1040b; Suhaylī 1112).

Four years after Riḍwān Agha completed the renovation works at the Kaʻba in 1040/1631, the roof of the Kaʻba began to leak water as a result of torrential rains. The water flowing from the roof caused the silver covering on the door of the Kaʻba to come off. Since the boards of the door were quite old, it was not possible to repair them, and they had to be completely renewed. Moreover, Maqām Ibrāhīm was in the same condition. When Sulṭān Murād IV’s order for the necessary works to be carried out for the Kaʻba reached the Governor of Egypt, Vizier Aḥmad Pasha, this task was again assigned to Riḍwān Agha. Riḍwān Agha, together with Yūsuf, the architect of Egypt, reached Mecca on 1–10 Dhū al-Ḥijja 1044 (Ibn ʻAllān n.d.). When Riḍwān Agha showed the order in his hand, most of the notables of Mecca declared that they would obey it. Moreover, one of them, Sayyid Sharif Zayd b. Muḥsin took the decree in his hand, kissed it, rubbed it on his face and eyes, and stated that it was forbidden to oppose the sulṭān’s firman. Although a few members of the ʻulamāʼ expressed that they saw some drawbacks in the implementation of this order, they were reminded that the Kaʻba had already been renovated with the fatwas of the ʻulamāʼ of the four sects. Thus, Riḍwān Agha began making the necessary renovations to the Kaʻba in accordance with the decree. In 1045/1636, it is possible to see the details of the renovation work carried out on the roof and gate of the Kaʻba in Nūḥ b. Muṣṭafā’s Khulāṣat al-Kalām fī Bināʼ Bayt Allāh al-Ḥarām. Nūḥ b. Muṣṭafā briefly mentioned the renovation works at the Kaʻba completed by Riḍwān Agha in 1631 and gave extensive coverage to the renovation works carried out on the gate and roof of the Kaʻba in 1045/1636. While mentioning the reason for the composition of his work, Nūḥ b. Muṣṭafā pointed to Riḍwān Agha’s request in this regard. Accordingly, when Riḍwān Agha completed the renovation works at the Kaʻba and returned to Egypt, he brought with him a book written by a Meccan scholar about the works. Riḍwān Agha gave this book, which contained the details of the Ka’ba repairs organised by him, to Nūḥ b. Mustafa and asked him to write a treatise similar to this book in Turkish (Nūḥ b. Muṣṭafā n.d.b). Nūḥ b. Muṣṭafā does not provide any information about the author of the work given to him by Riḍwān Agha. However, Riḍwān Agha’s request for a Turkish work on the renovation of the Kaʻba suggests that this work was Ibn ʻAllān’s al-Mawāhib wa-l-Futūḥ bi-ʻImārat Maqām Ibrāhīmī wa-Bāb al-Kaʻba wa-Saqfihi wa-l-Suṭūh. As a matter of fact, the presence of these two works, one after the other in the same collection, strengthens this assumption.7

The renovation works carried out in 1045/1636 on the roof and gate of the Kaʻba and the Maqām Ibrāhīm are briefly as follows:

Some renovation work was carried out on the roof of Kaʻba, which was built by Quṣay b. Kilāb for the first time, in the past periods. Accordingly, the roof, which was built on six poles during the time of Quraysh, was built on three poles during the renovation work of ʻAbd Allāh b. Zubayr. Since the torrential rains that fell on Mecca from time to time caused deterioration in the roof of the Kaʻba, the roof was renewed in 781, 801, 814, 825, 843, and 958 AH (Nūḥ b. Muṣṭafā n.d.b). Riḍwān Agha, who came to Mecca again after the rains in 1044, was accompanied by a delegation consisting of an architect, jeweller, marble maker, carpenter, and blacksmiths. Renovation work on the roof of the Kaʻba began after 20 Safar 1045. After the rotting wood of the roof was replaced with sāj (teak) wood, the door of Kaʻba was renewed with the remaining wood. The door of the Kaʻba was first installed during the reign of Tubbaʻ al-Himyerī and then renewed during the reigns of ʻAbd Allāh b. Zubayr, Ḥajjāj (310 AH), Jamāl al-Dīn b. ʻAlī b. Manṣūr (550 AH), the vizier of the Egyptian ruler, Muzaffar Ghassān (659 AH), the ruler of Yemen, and Malik Nāṣır b. Muḥammad b. Kalāvun (733 AH), the ruler of Egypt. During the reign of Ottoman Sulṭān Murād IV, the Kaʻba gate was renovated by Riḍwān Agha in 1045/1636. Riḍwān Agha built a two-winged door to the Kaʻba with the leftover sāj tree used in the roof of the Kaʻba and decorated it with silver plates and gold gilding. The cost of the door, which was reproduced in accordance with the old door of the Kaʻba, was 37,095 dirhams of silver, including the threshold and rings. The line “In the Name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, Most Merciful, My Lord! Grant me an honourable entrance and an honourable exit and give me a supporting authority from Yourself.” was renewed and “Sulṭān Osman Khān’s son Sulṭān Süleiman Khān’s son Sulṭān Murād Khān, who was blessed with guidance from Allah, had the honour of rebuilding this gate in 1045 (may Allah exalt his help.)” (See Figure 2).

Riḍwān Agha had the floor marbles laid on 25 Rajab 1045 after the renovations he carried out on the roof and gate of the Kaʻba. Finally, after some renovations to the Maqām Ibrāhīm, he completed his task and returned to Egypt (Nūḥ b. Muṣṭafā n.d.b) Riḍwān Agha brought the old gate of the Kaʻba with him on his return to Egypt, and this gate was brought into the city by the Egyptian Governor, Vizier Hussein Pasha (Nūḥ b. Muṣṭafā n.d.b). Thus, the rebuilding of the Kaʻba, which had been the responsibility of Sulṭān Murād IV, was completed under the supervision of Ibn ʻAllān and Riḍwān Agha, although there were some attempts during the reigns of Sulṭān Süleiman I and Sulṭān Aḥmad I.

6. Conclusions

In periods when the Kaʻba was destroyed for various reasons, the necessity of rebuilding it arose, and these works are mentioned in works on the history of Mecca and the Kaʻba. Accordingly, the last three rebuilding works at the Kaʻba, which is known to have been rebuilt ten times throughout history, were carried out by Muslims during the reign of ʻAbd Allāh b. Zubayr, Ḥajjāj b. Yūsuf al-Thaqafī and Sulṭān Murād IV, respectively. However, the construction work of the Muslims at the Kaʻba brought along some controversies. The ʻulamāʼ did not consider it permissible for Muslim rulers to renovate the Kaʻba by acting out of religious and conscientious feelings without necessity, and thought that this would prejudice the reverence Muslims showed to the Kaʻba. In cases of necessity, the ʻulamāʼ laid out the issues to be considered in the rebuilding of the Kaʻba and tried to protect the holy shrine from desecration. In this respect, some attempts were made by the Abbasid caliph Hārūn al-Rashīd and the Ottoman sulṭāns Suleiman I and Aḥmad I to demolish and rebuild the Kaʻba built by Ḥajjāj, but these attempts remained fruitless due to the attitude of the ʻulamāʼ. Due to the destruction of the Kaʻba by a flood in 1039/1630, the holy shrine was rebuilt by Sulṭān Murād IV.

Riḍwān Agha was appointed by the Beylerbeyi of Egypt to carry out construction work at the Kaʻba, two walls of which were destroyed in the flood of 1039/1630. As soon as Riḍwān Agha arrived in Mecca and took office, he faced objections from Ibn ʻAllān, one of the Shafiʻi muftis of Mecca. This study shows that the objections of Ibn ʻAllān, who closely followed the rebuilding works at the Kaʻba and wrote many works on the subject, were not groundless. Ibn ʻAllān, who did not make a total objection to the rebuilding of the Kaʻba, touched upon the mistakes and deficiencies he saw in the steps taken regarding the construction. Accordingly, Ibn ʻAllān’s objections were on the following four issues: Not starting the construction before the Sulṭān’s edict, levelling the stones falling from the Kaʻba that can be used, bringing new stones to replace those that cannot be used, drawing a security strip around the Kaʻba, and not removing the stones of the Kaʻba unless they fall by themselves. Against these objections raised by Ibn ʻAllān, who acted as an independent supervisor of the construction works at the Kaʻba, Riḍwān Agha obtained fatwas from the muftis of the four sects and continued the construction activities.

One of the conclusions of this study is that the discussions between the ʻulamāʼ and the umarāʼ regarding the construction activities carried out in the Kaʻba after the flood of 1039/1630 led to the formation of important literature on the history of the Kaʻba in Turkish. As a matter of fact, the issues that the Kaʻba could be rebuilt in times of necessity and that there were examples of this in the past were covered in works written in Turkish and presented to the public. Among the important conclusions of this study is that Ibn ʻAllān’s Arabic works were the source of these Turkish works and that the umarāʼ even recommended that scholars write Turkish works similar to Ibn ʻAllān’s works.

It would be an interesting research topic to conduct a comparative analysis of all the rebuilding processes of the Kaʻba throughout history, including the methods used, religious-juridical approaches, social reactions, and political conditions. Similarly, the works of the 17th-century scholar Ibn ʻAllān of Mecca, which relate not only to the Kaʻba but also to other religious issues, could be brought to light and systematically evaluated. His religious sensitivities regarding the Kaʻba’s architecture could also be examined in depth. Furthermore, investigating the impact of Turkish literature produced during Sulṭān Murād IV’s reign on the rebuilding of the Kaʻba would significantly enrich the existing literature.