Eyüp and the Super Faithful

It’s easy to spend all your Istanbul time at the famous sights (Blue Mosque, Topkapı Palace, Grand Bazaar, and so on). But it’s important to get out and see some other slices of the city. Outside the mighty walls along the Golden Horn is a district that has been famous among Muslim pilgrims for five centuries. Its venerable mosque holds the tomb of the Muslim holy man and saint, Ayyub Al-Ansari, called Eyüp by the Turks. I come here to get a sense of how the fundamentalist, moralist, and conservative wing of Turkish society is doing.

If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.