The practise of covering important or holy buildings or structures is not unique to the Middle East and to Islam. Although there is some uncertainty, stories record that the Yemeni Himyarite King Tubba’ As’ad was the first person to have covered the Ka’aba, which existed in Pre-Islamic times. Muslims believe that the Ka’aba has been rebuilt many times throughout history, most famously by Ibrahim (Abraham) and his son Ismail (Ishmael), when he returned to the valley of Mecca several years after leaving his wife Hajar (Hagar) and Ismail there upon Allah’s command. The event of covering the Ka’aba was narrated by Nashwan ibn Sa’id Al-Himyari, who said that “As’ad was the first to cover the House”. It is said that upon returning from a military campaign, As’ad passed by the Ka’aba and covered it with gilded Yemeni leather mats before seeing someone in a dream that told him to “add to the coverings of the House”. Various other narratives exist which mention the types of textiles that were used to cover the Ka’aba  in pre-Islamic time. These include straw, silk, striped Yemeni cloth, Yemeni shawls, and Coptic Egyptian cloth. Unlike today where the coverings are completely replaced every year, at this time, the coverings were simply placed over the previous set. 

As to the covering of the Ka’aba in the Islamic period, there are several sources indicating that prior to the time of the Prophet Muhammed (PBUH), the Ka’aba was draped with various types of coverings and that the Prophet Muhammed (PBUH) himself, covered it with a special Yemeni fabric. Each new covering was placed over the previous ones until the weight was so great, that the Ka’aba was in serious danger of collapse. It was not until the Abbasid Caliph Al-Mahdi performed the pilgrimage to Mecca in AD 775, that he ordered all coverings be removed except one, which became the normal practice to this day. The actual colour of the Kiswa has also changed and during different periods, different colours were sometimes used. Colour always played a significant role in the life of various dynasties, different dynasties adopting different colours. The colour adopted by the Abbasids was black and during their rule black was adopted as the colour of the robes of high ranking officials and scholars. In contrast, the Fatimids chose white as their colour. Yellow was the dynastic colour of the Mamluks in Cairo, as it was during the Ayyubid period. However, during the presence of the Abbasid Caliph in Cairo (after the Mongols sacked the Abbasid capital, Baghdad in AD 1258), black was seen at court and the investiture robe given by the Caliph to each new Sultan was black. At this time, black silk with white, gold or black embroidery was introduced as the colour for the Kiswa, but an exception to this occured during the reign of Barsbay (15^th Century AD) when red silk was used.

While the Kiswa at different periods might have come from Baghdad, Damascus and Cairo, for most of its history, the Kiswa has been made either of Egyptian material procured for the purpose of its creation, or actually made as a Kiswa in Egypt, to be sent to Mecca. Cairo quickly became the customary source of the Kiswa. In in AD 1269, the Mamluk King of Egypt, Al Dhahir Baybars Bundukdari, made the pilgrimage to Mecca with an immense following. He left behind a Wali in Mecca who presented a Kiswa on behalf of his master. The Kiswa was embroidered with the Kings name. He wrote that this was the event that established Egypt as the source of the Kiswa and that later, the income of an entire village was especially allotted to it, under a law instituted by the Sultan Al Nasr Muhammad ibn Qala’un. After this, there were occasional exceptions, such as in AD 1385 and AD 1394, when the Kiswa came from Aleppo, or in AD 1403 and AD 1404, when it came from Damascus and Baghdad, respectively.