or CAABAH, properly signifies a square stone building, but it is particularly applied by the Mahommedans to the temple at Mecca, built, as they pretend, by Abraham and his son Ishmael. 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 Moslemins, who pay it so great a veneration that they account a sinful sight of its sacred walls, without any particular act of devotion, 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.