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Istanbul's Street Cat Culture | From the Byzantine Empire to Modern Times | Why the Entire City is a Home for Cats
In a narrow alley of Istanbul's Grand Bazaar, even before a merchant opens their shop doors, there is a presence that has already claimed its spot. Right on the stairs where the sunlight first touches, precisely at the entrance of a carpet shop. As the merchant opens the door, they naturally place a bowl of cat food next to it. The cat does not even stand up. It merely blinks once.
This scene is nothing extraordinary in Istanbul. It repeats exactly the same way, every day, in every alley. It is estimated that between 125,000 and 200,000 street cats live in Istanbul.
Because they are spread throughout the entire city, making it impossible to count their exact numbers, the estimates vary greatly. One thing is certain: this is one of the cities with the highest density of cats per capita in the world, and these cats belong to no one, yet simultaneously belong to the entire city.
But how did this begin? There are many cities around the world with large populations of street cats. What makes Istanbul different is that this relationship has been built over more than 2,000 years.
Byzantium — The Cats That Guarded the Granaries
The story goes back to the days when it was called Byzantium, before it became Constantinople. Founded by the Greeks around the 7th century BC at the mouth of the Bosphorus Strait, this city was a strategic hub for trade from the very beginning. A narrow strait connecting the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. The point where East meets West. It all starts at a port where grain, spices, and textiles constantly came and went.
Where there is grain, there are mice, and where there are mice, cats are needed. Cats lived in the port warehouses of Byzantium from early on. This was not unusual; it was the same anywhere in the ancient Mediterranean world.
However, as Byzantium changed its name to Constantinople and became the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, the situation gradually changed. In 330 AD, Constantine the Great declared this city the New Rome.
Massive granaries were built throughout the city. Just like in mainland Rome, there was a system where the state distributed grain to the citizens of Constantinople. For this system to be maintained, the granaries had to be secure. They had to be safe from mice.
There are no surviving documents in Byzantine administrative records that directly mention a "cat payroll" like the US Congress. However, historians generally interpret that among the measures mentioned to prevent rodent damage in granary management records, the utilization of cats was one of them.
During the Byzantine era, cats held another meaning. In some records and mosaics, cats are depicted as animals symbolizing domestic peace. Keeping cats gradually became common in wealthy households in Constantinople, and this laid the foundation for the cat culture that continued into the Ottoman era.
1453 — Even as the City's Name and Rulers Changed, the Cats Remained
In 1453, Sultan Mehmed II of the Ottoman Empire conquered Constantinople. The Eastern Roman Empire ended its thousand-year history. The city became the new capital of the Ottoman Empire and gradually came to be called Istanbul.
The power completely changed. The religion changed. The identity of the city changed. Yet, the cats remained the same. In fact, their status became even more solid.
As noted in earlier stories, in Islamic tradition, cats are recognized as clean animals. The story of Prophet Muhammad's cat Muezza, and the teaching that giving water to a cat is considered a sawab (good deed). As the Ottoman Empire became the new master of Istanbul, the cat culture passed down from the Byzantine era combined with Islamic religious teachings and grew even stronger.
During the Ottoman era, various institutional frameworks for cats emerged in Istanbul. Some Vakif, or Islamic charitable foundations, were explicitly established for the purpose of providing food for street cats and dogs.
Wealthy citizens or nobles would set aside a portion of their wealth so that the profits could permanently provide food for animals. This was not a one-time good deed but a sustainable system. Some Vakif documents remained effective even hundreds of years later.
At butcher shops and fish markets, it became a natural custom to share leftover meat and fish with cats. Spaces were arranged around mosques where cats could freely come and go, and worshippers considered it a small good deed to feed the cats after finishing their prayers.
The Sultans' Love for Cats — Records from Topkapi Palace
There are records of those who particularly loved cats among the sultans of the Ottoman Empire. Abdulhamid II is recorded to have kept numerous cats in the palace. It is said that during his reign, there was separate management staff for the imperial cats at Topkapi Palace and later at Yildiz Palace, where he relocated.
In the late Ottoman Empire, mentions of cats frequently appear in the records of European travelers describing the street scenes of Istanbul. French author Pierre Loti, who visited Istanbul in the late 19th century, wrote that the sight of cats peacefully lying around the city made it seem as though this city was their promised haven.
The unique aspect of Istanbul during the Ottoman era was that cats were not considered anyone's property, but rather the responsibility of the entire city community. This concept is clearly expressed in Turkish. The people of Istanbul call street cats Mahalle Kedisi, meaning neighborhood cats. It implies a being that is not owned by one person but cared for together by the entire neighborhood.
Mahalle Kedisi — The Unique System of Neighborhood Cats
Let's take a closer look at how this Mahalle Kedisi system works.
In a typical neighborhood in Istanbul, a certain number of cats belong to that area. These cats do not belong to a specific household but receive care from all the residents of the neighborhood. The butcher gives meat scraps. The fishmonger gives fish trimmings. The cafe owner puts out a water bowl. The baker shares breadcrumbs. And many of the elderly living in the neighborhood, especially retired seniors, voluntarily take on the role of feeding the cats at set times every day.
This system has an interesting feature. When a cat is sick or injured, it is common for neighborhood residents to voluntarily pool money to take it to the vet. This is no one's obligation. It is simply part of the neighborhood's culture.
When winter comes, you can see small changes throughout Istanbul. Shop owners set up small boxes or shelters lined with insulating materials in front of their stores. They put blankets or cloth inside the boxes so street cats can escape the cold. This is not an instruction from the city government but a purely voluntary civic culture.
The Istanbul city authorities also officially support this culture. There are cat water fountains and food dispensers installed by the city all over the place. In some areas, small wooden shelters for street cats have been built using public funds. The city's Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) program for street cats has also been sustained for decades.
Gli — 17 Years at the Hagia Sophia
There is one cat that cannot be left out when talking about Istanbul's cat culture. That is the story of Gli the cat.
Born around 2004 near the Hagia Sophia, Gli lived her entire life inside this magnificent architectural structure. The Hagia Sophia was an Eastern Orthodox cathedral during the Byzantine era, a mosque during the Ottoman era, a museum in the 20th century, and then a mosque again—a building where religion and politics have shifted over nearly 1,500 years.
Perhaps the ones who watched all those changes were not humans, but Gli and her ancestors. Gli was loved by the countless visitors who came to the Hagia Sophia. In 2009, when former US President Barack Obama visited the Hagia Sophia, he was caught on camera petting Gli, an image that spread worldwide. After that, Gli became internationally famous.
Gli was still there in the historic moment of 2020 when the Hagia Sophia was converted back into a mosque from a museum. Even as the building's legal and religious status changed, nothing changed for Gli. She simply took a nap on the carpet as usual.
Gli passed away in 2021 at the age of 17. The Hagia Sophia management officially announced her death, and global media reported it. The death of a single street cat became international news. Gli has died, but new cats still live in the Hagia Sophia. That spot is not empty.
Kedi — The City's Cats Turned into a Documentary
In 2016, the documentary film Kedi, directed by Turkish filmmaker Ceyda Torun, became a global sensation. Kedi simply means cat in Turkish.
This film follows the daily lives of seven street cats living in Istanbul and tells the stories of the humans living alongside them. There is no special plot, no dramatic events. It just contains the sight of cats strolling through the city, the citizens caring for them, and the philosophical reflections embedded in that relationship.
One interviewee in the film says this: "I believe that those who do not like cats cannot truly know God. Because cats are evidence showing the perfection of God."
Another interviewee says: "Dogs think people are God. Cats think they themselves are God. But the cats of Istanbul are different. They view us neither as God, nor do they view themselves as God. They see us as equals."
This film enjoyed rare box office success for a documentary in the United States and received high praise from critics worldwide. What the film showed was not simply the images of cute cats, but a philosophical question about how a city can form relationships with other forms of life.
Why Istanbul? — The Differences from Other Cities
There are many cities around the world with large street cat populations. Rome, Athens, Bangkok. But why is Istanbul particularly known as the "City of Cats"? Analysts say several factors worked together here.
The accumulation of religious teachings: The Islamic concept of clean animals and the doctrine of sawab have accumulated for nearly a thousand years, becoming the default setting of the culture.
The city structure: Traditional neighborhoods in Istanbul consist of narrow alleys and small shops, creating an environment where cats can move freely while staying in close contact with people. Unlike modern redeveloped cities, this structure has been maintained for a long time.
The climate: Istanbul's climate is relatively suitable for cats to survive outdoors. It is neither extremely cold nor extremely hot.
Historical continuity: From Byzantium to Ottoman, from Ottoman to the Republic of Turkey—while power and systems changed, the citizens' attitude toward cats continued without interruption. This created the overwhelming depth of 2,000 years of time.
Conscious preservation in modern times: Films like Kedi, international attention, and the voluntary pride of citizens have caused this tradition to be consciously carried on in modern times as well.
In Today's Istanbul
At this very moment, the same scene must be repeating somewhere in Istanbul. A merchant opens the shop door and places a food bowl down for the cat lying next to it. A worshipper finishing prayers at the mosque pets a cat sitting on the steps as they pass by. An elderly man drinking tea at a cafe discreetly drops a piece of meat under the table. A tourist on the Galata Bridge gazes in wonder at a cat sitting on the railing.
In this city, cats are not guests. They are citizens. The descendants of the cats that guarded the Byzantine granaries, the descendants of the cats protected by the Ottoman Sultan's Vakif system, are still living in the same alleys, the same stairs, and the same sunny spots today.
Even while the city's name changed from Byzantium to Constantinople, and from Constantinople to Istanbul—the cats did not change. Perhaps the true permanence of this city lies not in the lineage of emperors or sultans, but in the footsteps of the cats that have walked its alleys for 2,000 years.
