(RNS) — Convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein purchased sacred cloth that once covered the Kaaba, according to newly released files that include emails detailing a shipment of three framed pieces from Mecca to Florida.
The Kaaba Kiswah — or the black, gold-embroidered cloth that shrouds Islam’s holiest site in Saudi Arabia — is a revered artifact that carries spiritual meaning for Muslims worldwide.
The emails, included in the latest tranche of Epstein files unsealed Friday (Jan. 30) as part of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, show United Arab Emirates-based businesswoman Aziza al-Ahmadi working with a man named Abdullah al-Maari to organize the Kiswah shipment between February and March 2017.
“By the way the black piece was touched by minimum 10 million Muslims of different denominations, Sunni, Shia and others,” al-Ahmadi wrote to Epstein on March 22, 2017, nearly a decade after he first served time for sex crimes and two years before he was again arrested on federal charges of sex trafficking in July 2019.
The correspondence listed three pieces with pictures of the cloths and short explanations: one from inside the Kaaba, one from the exterior covering and a third cover that had not been used. The pieces were classified as “artworks” and transported via British Airways Air Cargo, the emails show.
It is unclear why Epstein was interested in the Kiswah or how he used the cloth pieces when they arrived at his privat …