ius is uncertain
whether it should be recognised as the church of S. Nicholas or as the
church of S. Thekla, two sanctuaries situated in the quarter of
Blachernae. It cannot have been the former, inasmuch as the site of
that church was near the Holy Well, still venerated by Christians and
Moslems,[334] in the area enclosed between the Wall of Heraclius and
the Wall of Leo the Armenian, now a picturesque Turkish cemetery. One
argument for regarding the building as the church of S. Thekla, in
this part of the city, is the striking similarity of its Turkish name
Toklou to the Greek name Thekla, rendering it exceedingly probable
that the former is a corruption of the latter, and a reminiscence of
the original designation of the edifice.[335] Turkish authorities,
however, have their own explanation of the name Toklou. In the
_Historical and Geographical Dictionary_ of Achmed Rifaat Effendi, we
are told that a certain Toklou Dede was the guardian of the tombs of
the companions of Khaled, who took part in the first siege of
Constantinople (673) by the Saracens. 'His real name was Ghazi Ismail;
Dogulu was his nickname. Now Dogh is the Persian for a drink named
Airan (a mixture of curds and water), and he was called Dogulu Dede
because during the siege his business was to distribute that drink to
the troops. At his request a Christian church near Aivan Serai was
converted into a mosque. The church was formerly named after its
founder, Isakias.'[336] Another Turkish explanation of Toklou derives
the epithet from the rare Turkish term for a yearling lamb, and
accounts for its bestowal upon Ibrahim Dede as a pet name given in
gratitude for his services to the thirsty soldiers engaged in the
siege of the city.[337] In keeping with these stories is the tradition
that the cemetery in the area between the Walls of Heraclius and Leo
V. the Armenian, is the resting-place of Saracen warriors who fell in
the siege of 673. But have we not here the fancy-bred tales which
Oriental imagination weaves to veil its ignorance of real facts? When
etymology or history fails, romance is substituted. We may as well
believe the tradition that the body of Eyoub, the standard-bearer of
Mahomet, lies buried at the head of the Golden Horn, in the mosque of
Eyoub, where the Sultan girds the sword on his accession to the
throne. No Moslem graves could have been tolerated between the lines
of the city's fortification in Byzantine days. The cemetery between
th