From Ottoman "cat sitters" to modern-day street guardians, Istanbul's bond with its cats runs centuries deep.

In Istanbul, a delicate balance is struck daily in its winding streets, mosques, metro stations and cafés.

More than 15 million people compete for space in Turkey's largest city, which straddles Europe and Asia on either side of the Bosphorus, much like a house cat perched half on the sofa, half on the coffee table. That's the appropriate visual, because there are an estimated quarter of a million stray kitties living here, too. Cats are woven into the very fabric and history of the city, as ubiquitous as the rugs for sale on every corner. This is a city shared; a city that purrs incessantly with love and life.

"Istanbul cats are, on the whole, neither pets nor strays, but a hybrid of those terms," says Marcel Heijnen, photographer and author of City Cats of Istanbul, adding that the cats are not owned by specific people "but taken care of by the community in their respective neighbourhoods".

He notes a local reverence for cats that he has not witnessed elsewhere. "Each municipality has a veterinary department that helps street animals in their district, with free neutering service for street cats," explains Fatih Dağlı, co-founder of Cat Museum Istanbul. "Private animal clinics also offer discounted services for street cats, and residents often chip in to pay the vet bills."

Marcel Heijnen

This devotion to cats is hardly new. "The adoration of stray cats dates back to when Istanbul was under Ottoman rule," says Heijnen. "During this period, local foundations made sure that stray animals were taken care of. That love for strays turned into a full-time profession when a job called mancacı ("cat sitter") was created. "Mancacıs were tasked with the job of making sure the city's cats were fed, with the residents also having the option of buying food from mancacıs and feeding the kitties themselves." 

Dağlı traces the relationship back even further. "Since the Phoenicians, it was very common for sea traders to keep cats on board to guard against rodents," she says, adding that as silk and spice merchant ships arrived in busy Istanbul ports during the Roman and Ottoman eras, so did countless felines. 

Today, the human residents of Istanbul still happily share their spaces, inside and out, above ground and below, with their city of cats. So much so that the nickname,"Catstanbul" is widely used by feline fanciers around the world – and many tourists make the trek here because of the cats.