The key to the House of God

This key was made for a spring lock securing the door to the holiest site in Islam, the Ka‘bah in Makkah al-Mukarramah. Its importance is embodied in its size, but no physical object could fully express its symbolic value, for this was the key to the House of Allah. 

To possess such a key was an inestimable privilege, and guardianship of the keys has rested with over a hundred generations of the Banu Shaibah, ever since the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) returned the key of the Ka‘bah to ‘Uthman bin Talha, pledging that the right would remain with his family.

This key has not previously been published and is the only one known to remain in private hands. It is also one of only two that includes the name of its maker. On the basis of its form, this key can be dated to a period between the 640s and 740s AH/1240s and 1340s CE. 

Contrary to a wide-held assumption, these keys were most probably made in Makkah al-Mukarramah and not sent, as the kiswah was, by the Abbasids in Iraq or the Mamluks in Egypt.