Istanbul is known as the “City of Cats” and sometimes referred to as “Catstanbul.” Hundreds of thousands of cats have roamed the metropolis for millenniums.
The city of Istanbul is chock full of cats, with some estimates putting the number of stray felines at 125,000. The citizens of Istanbul do not see this as a problem; they welcome
their feline friends with open arms. Istanbul has a long history of caring for cats, which goes all the way back to the origins of the city and is firmly rooted in their culture, Islamic beliefs and sense of practicality.
The rise of cats in Istanbul dates back to the people who settled in the city, the Ottomans. As a result of their long history with cats, felines have become an essential part of Turkish culture and the city of Istanbul.
Cats have earned their keep as useful members of society in Istanbul. In the days of old cats kept vermin away, which meant less food lost & fewer instances of disease.
Aside from cats protecting homes & food stores from pests, cats were valued by the paper-based Islamic cultures & Ottoman scholars for preying on mice that destroyed books. For that reason cats are often depicted in paintings alongside Librarianship scholars & bibliophiles.
The Ottomans established foundations for street animals. People called “mancacı” worked on behalf of these foundations and one of their responsibilities was to feed stray animals.
İsmail Saib Sencer (1873-1940), the director of the Bayezid Library in Istanbul, fed hundreds of cats. For this reason, Bayezid Library was called “The Cat Library.
Based on their practical uses, cats have an important place in Istanbul’s culture. The citizens of Istanbul have created practices that allow cats to flourish. And some breeds of cats have even become synonymous with the country of ”Türkiye”.
he citizens of Istanbul have a unique, unspoken rule regarding the cats in their city: they view the cats as belonging to everyone and no one at the same time. This ensures that the cats have their independence & freedom, but also ensures that
they are cared for.
The city’s streets are lined with food and water bowls and small cat houses placed by residents in a communal effort to look after street cats .
In Istanbul, cats are respected and also seen as legal beings with even a legislation in place protecting them from harm, ensuring they are safe at all times.
In Turkic tradition, cats are admired for their cleanliness. They are thought to be ritually clean, and are thus allowed to enter homes and even mosques and churc. Many cats will be found in mosques in Istanbul.
Gli, the famous cat of Hagia Sophia Mosque. Gli was a beloved and world-famous Turkish shorthair cat who resided at the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul & sadly died on 7 November 2020, aged 16.
In 2016, a documentary film “Kedi” meaning cat in Turkish, which followed the daily life of a group of cats in Istanbul, grossed more than $4 million at the box office, making it one of the highest-grossing foreign-language films. VİA: BaytAlFann
I love them so much. I can’t believe Constantinople was ruled by a cat but it is real.
Animal mistreatment on a grand scale. Instead of spaying their stray cats, they let the populations to grow to the point where they are limited by the food supply, meaning daily hunger and suffering for the majority of these animals.
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Istanbul is known as the “City of Cats” and sometimes referred to as “Catstanbul.” Hundreds of thousands of cats have roamed the metropolis for millenniums.
The city of Istanbul is chock full of cats, with some estimates putting the number of stray felines at 125,000. The citizens of Istanbul do not see this as a problem; they welcome
their feline friends with open arms. Istanbul has a long history of caring for cats, which goes all the way back to the origins of the city and is firmly rooted in their culture, Islamic beliefs and sense of practicality.
The rise of cats in Istanbul dates back to the people who settled in the city, the Ottomans. As a result of their long history with cats, felines have become an essential part of Turkish culture and the city of Istanbul.
Cats have earned their keep as useful members of society in Istanbul. In the days of old cats kept vermin away, which meant less food lost & fewer instances of disease.
Aside from cats protecting homes & food stores from pests, cats were valued by the paper-based Islamic cultures & Ottoman scholars for preying on mice that destroyed books. For that reason cats are often depicted in paintings alongside Librarianship scholars & bibliophiles.
The Ottomans established foundations for street animals. People called “mancacı” worked on behalf of these foundations and one of their responsibilities was to feed stray animals.
İsmail Saib Sencer (1873-1940), the director of the Bayezid Library in Istanbul, fed hundreds of cats. For this reason, Bayezid Library was called “The Cat Library.
Based on their practical uses, cats have an important place in Istanbul’s culture. The citizens of Istanbul have created practices that allow cats to flourish. And some breeds of cats have even become synonymous with the country of ”Türkiye”.
he citizens of Istanbul have a unique, unspoken rule regarding the cats in their city: they view the cats as belonging to everyone and no one at the same time. This ensures that the cats have their independence & freedom, but also ensures that
they are cared for.
The city’s streets are lined with food and water bowls and small cat houses placed by residents in a communal effort to look after street cats .
In Istanbul, cats are respected and also seen as legal beings with even a legislation in place protecting them from harm, ensuring they are safe at all times.
In Turkic tradition, cats are admired for their cleanliness. They are thought to be ritually clean, and are thus allowed to enter homes and even mosques and churc. Many cats will be found in mosques in Istanbul.
Gli, the famous cat of Hagia Sophia Mosque. Gli was a beloved and world-famous Turkish shorthair cat who resided at the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul & sadly died on 7 November 2020, aged 16.
In 2016, a documentary film “Kedi” meaning cat in Turkish, which followed the daily life of a group of cats in Istanbul, grossed more than $4 million at the box office, making it one of the highest-grossing foreign-language films. VİA: BaytAlFann
I love them so much. I can’t believe Constantinople was ruled by a cat but it is real.
Animal mistreatment on a grand scale. Instead of spaying their stray cats, they let the populations to grow to the point where they are limited by the food supply, meaning daily hunger and suffering for the majority of these animals.
Perfect city doesn’t exi..
I guess there’s no rats in Istanbul?