CAABA, or CAABAH, properly signifies a square building; but is particularly applied by the Mahometans to the temple of Mecca, built, as they pretend, by Abraham and Ismael his son. It is towards this temple they always turn their faces when they pray, in whatever part of the world they happen to be.
This temple enjoys the privilege of an asylum for all sorts of criminals; but it is most remarkable for the pilgrimages made to it by the devout mussulmans, who pay so great a veneration to it, that they believe a single sight of its sacred walls, without any particular act of devotion, is as meritorious, in the sight of God, as the most careful discharge of one's duty, for the space of a whole year, in any other temple.