BURKE J.G. (1986) Cosmic Debris, Meteorites in History, pp. 221-223: The black stone in the wall of the Ka'ba is a holy relic. Muslim religious leaders know its origin and history through oral tradition and written records, and they have cooperated with inquisitive Westerners to the extent of providing this information and giving a cursory description of the stone. Thus, although many have speculated since the early nineteenth century that the black stone was a meteorite, there is no proof that such is the case. Recent studies, in fact, discount its meteoritic origin. Paul Partsch, curator of the Vienna cabinet, published the first comprehensive history of the black stone in 1857. He relied on the travel accounts of Carsten Niebuhr (1772), J.L. Burck- hardt (1814), and Ali Bey (1807), and also corresponded with Ritter von Laurin, the Austrian general consul in Egypt. In his official capacity, von Laurin knew Mohammed Ali, viceroy of Egypt, who had in 1817 defeated the fanatic, heretical sect of Wahhabis and retrieved the holy stone, a fragment of which he kept. Von Laurin saw this fragment and described it in his letter to Partsch, adding that an English resident who had also viewed the stone considered it to be a meteorite. Although Partsch was cautious, he favored the stone's meteoritic origin, and authorities accepted this opinion. The legend is that the stone came from paradise. In one version, it was initially Adam's guardian angel, who was transformed into a stone as punishment for Adam's fall. The angel Gabriel gave the stone to the patriarch, Abraham, to build into his house or into the first Ka'ba. There was indeed a temple on the site, dating from about A.D. 200 and housing idols, which the Arabs worshiped before the time of the prophet Mohammed (570-632), but it was destroyed, possibly by fire, during his lifetime. Mohammed placed the stone in the wall at the northeast corner of the shrine when it was rebuilt. It was subsequently broken on at least four occasions: once by a fire; twice by fanatic sects who took possession of the stone for a time; and once by invading Egyptian troops, whose leader shattered it with a maul. Reports state that on each occasion the recovered pieces were cemented together with mortar, and the whole bound with a silver hoop.
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