Spatial and socio-cultural changes in Eyüp between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries

Abstract

The district of Eyüp was one of the three largest extra muros settlements of Ottoman Constantinople/ Istanbul along with Galata and Üsküdar. Eyüp has received much attention in academia as a sacred site where a funerary complex dedicated to Abu Ayyub al-Ansari (a.k.a. Eyüp Sultan in Turkish) —a companion of the Prophet Muhammad— was constructed as a marker of the new Islamic identity of Constantinople after the Ottoman conquest in 1453. Besides its religio-political importance, Eyüp developed into a significant social and cultural center with its gardens, promenades, lodges, shrines, waterside mansions, taverns, and shops, where artists, craftsmen, poets, scholars, and commoners were meeting. Furthermore, it was an agricultural production area which played a crucial role in provisioning the city. As a result of the multifunctional uses of spaces in Eyüp, there were fluid relationships between sacred, recreational, and agricultural sites; its tomb courtyards and orchards were used as excursion destinations and picnic spots, and cemeteries were utilized as market gardens. Thus, my purpose in this research is to understand the visual and spatial reflections of the entangled social, cultural, and environmental histories and the changes in functions, practices, and conceptions of public spaces from the conquest until the eighteenth century.