Abū Ayyūb al-Ansārī

Entrance to the tomb inside the Eyup Sultan Mosque

Abū Ayyūb al-Ansārī ( Arabic أبو أيوب الأنصاري, DMG Abū Ayyūb al-Anṣārī ; * 576 ; † between 669 and 674 in Constantinople ) was one of the companions of the Islamic prophet Mohammed and his standard bearer; it was named after the biblical Job or Job . He is one of the Ansar . He survived Mohammed and finally died in front of the wall of Constantinople , where he fell during the unsuccessful first siege of the city by the Muslims , or, according to other tradition, returned to the camp during the siege and died there of natural causes. There are various dates for the siege (669, 674), but it is recorded that Ayyub is said to have been over 90 years old when he died.

Tomb and mosque

According to At-Tabarī , the Arab commander (and later caliph) Yazid I threatened the Byzantines to destroy Christian churches in Syria if the tomb just outside the ancient city walls were to be desecrated, after which it was until the Latin conquest of Constantinople in 1203/04 should have remained intact. His grave in what is now Istanbul 's Eyüp district , which according to legend was found again through miraculous dreams shortly after the Ottoman conquest of Akşemseddin , is now in the Eyüp Sultan Mosque and is visited by numerous pilgrims.

Individual proof

1. ↑ At-Tabarī, Târih (History of Islam), III 2324 ibnü'l-Esir, Üsdü'l-Ğabe, V, 143; Hâfız Huseyn b. Haccı, Hadîkatü'l Cevâmî, I, 2434