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The Black Stone (or ''Hajarul Aswad'', (アラビア語:الحجر الأسود) ') is the eastern cornerstone of the Kaaba, the ancient stone building, located in the center of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is revered by Muslims as an Islamic relic which, according to Muslim tradition, dates back to the time of Adam and Eve. The stone was venerated at the Kaaba in pre-Islamic pagan times. According to Islamic tradition, it was set intact into the Kaaba's wall by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the year 605 A.D., five years before his first revelation. Since then it has been broken into a number of fragments and is now cemented into a silver frame in the side of the Kaaba. Its physical appearance is that of a fragmented dark rock, polished smooth by the hands of pilgrims. Islamic tradition holds that it fell from the heaven as a guide for Adam and Eve to build an altar, although it has often been described as a meteorite, a hypothesis, which is now uncertain.〔 Muslim pilgrims circle the Kaaba as a part of the ''tawaf'' ritual during the ''hajj'' and many try to stop and kiss the Black Stone, emulating the kiss that Islamic tradition records as it received from Muhammad. == Physical description == The Black Stone consists of a number of fragments held together by a silver frame, which is fastened by silver nails to the Stone.〔 The smaller fragments have been cemented together to form the seven or eight fragments visible today. The Stone's exposed face measures about by . Its original size is unclear and the recorded dimensions have changed considerably over time, as the stone has been remodelled on several occasions. In the 10th century, an observer described it as being one cubit (slightly over ) long. By the early 17th century, it was recorded as measuring by . According to Ali Bey in the 18th century, it was described as high, and Muhammad Ali Pasha reported it as being long by wide.〔 The Black Stone was first mentioned in Western literature in the 19th and early 20th centuries by European travellers to Arabia, who visited the Kaaba in the disguise as pilgrims. Swiss traveler Johann Ludwig Burckhardt visited Mecca in 1814, and provided a detailed description in his 1829 book ''Travels in Arabia'': Visiting the Kaaba in 1853, Richard Francis Burton also noted that: Ritter von Laurin, the Austrian consul-general in Egypt, was able to inspect a fragment of the Stone removed by Muhammad Ali in 1817 and reported that it had a pitch-black exterior and a silver-grey, fine-grained interior in which tiny cubes of a bottle-green material were embedded. There are reportedly a few white or yellow spots on the face of the Stone, and it is officially described as being white with the exception of the face.〔 The frame around the Black Stone and the black ''kiswah'' or cloth enveloping the Kaaba were for centuries maintained by the Ottoman Sultans in their role as Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques. The frames wore out over time due to the constant handling by pilgrims and were periodically replaced. Worn-out frames were brought back to Istanbul, where they are still kept as part of the sacred relics in the Topkapı Palace. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Black Stone」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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