“The present door of the Kaaba, made of gold, is one of the outstanding details of this religious landmark in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Many people may consider making the Kaaba door as the task of a lifetime, so who was the person who had the opportunity?
Several decades ago, King Khalid bin Abdulaziz Al Saud ordered the renovation of the door of the Kaaba, and this task was carried out by Ahmed bin Ibrahim bin Yusuf Badr, who assumed the presidency of the goldsmiths, or what is known as the “Sheikh of Goldsmiths”, in 1965.
Badr, who was born in Mecca, has been working with his father in the gold and silver industry since he was 15 years old, according to Sultan bin Hamad Al-Aweirdi, the official spokesman for the King Abdulaziz Foundation, in an interview with CNN in Arabic.
The work of this institution revolves around serving the history, geography, literature, and heritage of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Arab world.
Al-Awaidhi said that Badr “inherited the profession, father from grandfather”, and his family had the honor of assuming the presidency of goldsmiths for more than half a century, until today.
Faisal Muhammad Mahmoud Badr is currently holding the position of Sheikh of Goldsmiths.
While working with his father, Ahmed Ibrahim Badr, who died in 2009, was involved in making gold jewellery.
Among the most prominent stations of his life, he made the current door of the Kaaba, out of pure gold for the first time, which was installed in 1979, in addition to making the door of repentance installed inside the Kaaba on the stairs leading to its roof.
When King Khalid ordered the door of the Kaaba to be changed, Al-Awaidhi noted that the Saudi Central Bank had provided Badr with “a quantity of gold to make the door, which was estimated at 280 kilograms of pure gold.”
Therefore, some consider it the largest nugget of gold in the world, according to the official website of the Saudi Press Agency “SPA” on the Internet.
The benefit of Badr’s skills was not limited to making the door of the Kaaba, as it extended to the manufacture of many royal gifts.
His family crafted many types of gifts for the royal family, and jewellery, such as golden swords, golden and silver daggers studded with precious stones, incense burners, in addition to ornaments and jewellery.
Al-Awaidhi stressed that “the gold jewelry that Ahmed Badr worked on, and his ancestors before him, is a historical heritage derived from an authentic Arab heritage, and its importance derives from being a delicate handcraft.”
Source: “CNN”
