Eyüp Sultan Mosque, history and heritage

 

 

Eyüp Sultan Mosque, history and heritage

Eyüp Sultan Camii is among the first mosques the Ottomans built in Istanbul

and one of the best-known mosques in Türkiye, the fourth holiest Islamic site for many Turks.
It is the loveliest of the mosques in the Eyüp district, on the famous Golden Horn.

 

 

Work on the mosque began in 1458, just 5 years after Istanbul was taken. It was demolished and rebuilt almost entirely

by order of Sultan Selim III at the start of the nineteenth century, after several earthquakes left it badly damaged.

Thousands visit it for religious and touristic reasons alike. The mosque also holds the shrine of Abu Ayyub al-Ansari,

who is believed to be buried there.

 

 

Eyüp Sultan Mosque stands in the Eyüpsultan district on the European side of Istanbul, close

to the Golden Horn area outside the walls of Constantinople. Its name goes back to the honoured Companion

Khalid ibn Zayd, Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, may God be pleased with him, who hosted the Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him,

in his home during his migration from Mecca to Medina, and who was martyred in 49 AH / 669 AD

during the Muslim attempts to take Constantinople in the time of the Umayyad state.