Completion of restoration of 500-year-old Kaaba door cover at Grand Mosque in Bursa, Turkey
The head of the Association for the Restoration, Furnishing, and Maintenance of the Grand Mosque in Bursa, Turkey, Hilmi Shanli announced the completion of a project to restore one of the oldest parts of the Kaaba’s kiswah.
Shanli said that “The project included the restoration and maintenance of door cover of the 500-year-old Kaaba displayed in the Grand Mosque Museum in Bursa, and its re-display to visitors after its completion.”
He added that “the work included cleaning the textile cover, especially the metal parts, in addition to repairing the hanging tassels and sewing the worn ones.”
The executor of the work, Levant Inan, a historical textile expert, said that “the maintenance work was carried out inside the mosque,” explaining that “the Kaaba cover is a multi-layered work made of velvet using the embroidered wire technique and has a thick cotton fabric on the back.”
He added: “We used laser technology because the wires are now very fragile,” noting that “there is a method widely used especially in Italy; it is a laser technique used in metal areas without causing any damage to the textile work of the cover.”
It is worth noting that the (shraabat) or hanging tassels are a finishing feature in textile and clothing decoration. It is a global decoration that appears in different versions in many cultures around the world.
