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of Eyüp (Job) Ensari, the friend and standard-bearer of the Prophet
Muhammed. Long after the Prophet's death, Eyüp is said to have
been one of the leaders of the first Arab siege of Constantinople from
674 to 678 and to have been killed and buried somewhere outside
the walls. When some eight centuries later Fatih Mehmet besieged
the city, he and his advisors, as Evliya Çelebi writes,
spent seven whole days searching for the tomb. At last
Akşemsettin (the Şeyh-ül Islam) exclaimed, “Good news, my
Prince, of Eyüp's tomb!” Thus saying he began to pray and
then fell asleep. Some interpreted this sleep as a veil cast by
shame over his ignorance of the tomb; but after some time
he raised his head, his eyes became bloodshot, the sweat ran
from his forehead, and he said to the Sultan, “Eyüp's tomb is
on the very spot where I spread the carpet for prayer.” Upon
this, three of his attendants together with the Şeyh and the
Sultan began to dig up the ground, when at a depth of three
yards they found a square stone of verd antique on which was
written in Cufic letters: “This is the tomb of Eba Eyüp.” They
lifted the stone and found below it the body of Eyüp wrapped
up in a safron-coloured shroud, with a brazen play-ball in
his hand, fresh and well-preserved. They replaced the stone,
formed a little mound of the earth they had dug up, and laid
the foundations of the mausoleum amidst the prayers of the
whole army.
This pleasant story, though still current and recounted in one form
or another by the guides and guidebooks, seems rather unlikely -
apart
from its supernatural elements - because it appears that the tomb had
always been known and respected even by the Byzantines. Various
Arab historians note that it was made a condition of peace, after the
first Arab siege, that the tomb should be preserved. An Arab traveller
during the reign of Manuel I Comnenus (r. 1143-80) mentions it as
still existing in his day, while another traveller, Zakariya al-Kazwini
(ca. 1203-83), relates that “this tomb is now venerated among them
(the Byzantines) and they open it when they pray for rain in times
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