We met with Professor Muhittin \u015eim\u015fek at the \u0130SAM Library, which he describes as \u201cthe place where I breathe in Istanbul.\u201d His love for pens is well known to almost everyone who knows him. When he realized that we would be talking about pens, his eyes lit up as he began to describe them.\n\nHe opened his bag and gently showed us dozens of his pens, caressing them as he presented each one. He was very happy\u2014truly happy\u2014while talking about them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis one,\u201d he says, \u201cis the gold Cross pen that the late Turgut \u00d6zal never let go of during the \u2018\u0130craat\u0131n \u0130\u00e7inden\u2019 program. Thanks to Mrs. Semra, it was given to us. And this pen here belongs to the late Professor Necmettin Erbakan\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The professor kept listing them one by one. Each of them were pens used by statesmen who had held important positions and signed significant projects. He was holding another pen\u2014one he was even hesitant to show us. With a childlike shyness, he said, \u201cThis pen\u2026 this is my most valuable one.\u201d\n\nWe became curious and asked. He replied, \u201cIt was given by our President, R. Tayyip Erdo\u011fan.\u201d Because what makes it valuable is the decisions made and the signatures placed with its tip. It was clear that Professor Muhittin collected pens that had witnessed history\u2026\n\nWe asked him how his \u201cpassion for pens\u201d began. And he told us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Professor, when did your first encounter with the pen begin, and how did this passion develop?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My introduction to the pen goes back a long time. I wasn\u2019t even in primary school yet. My father used to sharpen my older brother\u2019s pencils with a razor blade. As he did so, I would watch him with great admiration and wish to grow up quickly and start school.\n\nOne day, I secretly took my brother\u2019s pencil from his bag. With a razor blade, just like my father, I began sharpening it. One, two, three\u2026 on the fourth attempt, the blade slipped from my hand. The index finger of the hand holding the pencil was covered in blood. It was a serious cut.\n\nI was too afraid to tell anyone, but the bleeding was so intense that I went to my late mother. She panicked at first, but with a mother\u2019s instinctive ability to find a solution, she quickly made a salted dough, pressed it onto my wound, and wrapped it. The scar from that injury is still on my finger today.\n\nThat\u2019s how my relationship with the pen began. But this small accident didn\u2019t make me dislike pens\u2014on the contrary, I grew even more fond of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I started primary school, the compartment of my bag filled with colorful pencils and the wonderful wooden scent of my writing tools drew me in even more. I can still sense that same scent today from Ay\u015fe\u2019s school bag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My acquaintance with the pen\u2014indeed, my relationship with it\u2014became more conscious in my second year of high school. I had come first in a knowledge competition I participated in that year. At the award ceremony, the late Minister of Culture at the time, R\u0131fk\u0131 Dan\u0131\u015fman, presented me with a \u201cScriks\u201d fountain pen as a gift.\n\nI immediately went to a stationery store and bought ink. Then I sat down and began writing on an unlined sheet of paper placed over lined paper. This was the first letter I ever wrote to my father using a fountain pen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After graduating from university and starting my professional life, my passion for pens continued. My first salary was sixty thousand TL. I went straight to \u00c7\u0131naralt\u0131 and bought myself a pen (Waterman). From there, I walked to a small street next to the main post office in Sirkeci, where there were pen repair shops. I stopped by and bought a black fountain pen from there as well (my first Montblanc).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Every time I received my salary, I would go to \u00c7\u0131naralt\u0131. Nearly a quarter of my assistant salary went to pens. This continued for many years. Over time, I had quite a number of pens of my own. With the support of friends around me, I eventually built a considerable collection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What do pens and writing mean to you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pen and writing have found a significant place in our culture. There is a saying about this: \u201cThe Holy Qur\u2019an was revealed in Mecca, recited in Cairo, and written in Istanbul.\u201d The transformation of writing into an art form began with Ottoman culture. It was valued so highly that writing and the pen were almost sanctified; writing is considered sacred.\n\nWhy? Because in the Holy Qur\u2019an, while almost no objects are mentioned, the pen is referred to four times. In fact, an entire chapter is dedicated to it\u2014the Surah Al-Qalam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Calligraphers, both in the Ottoman period and today, have always shown great respect for the pen, because beautiful things are written with it. The thoughts of a person flow from the mind, pass through the intellect, and are transferred to paper\u2014and to future generations\u2014through the hand of the pen. It happens by means of the pen.\n\nOut of this respect, calligraphers would collect the shavings of the reed pens they carved throughout their lives and leave a will saying: \u201cWhen I die, let the water for my funeral be boiled with these.\u201d Such is the reverence for the pen.\n\nAnd when a calligrapher begins their journey, they visit the grave of the master of calligraphers, \u015eeyh Hamdullah Efendi, offer their prayers there, and leave the first pen they used at his grave. This is a tradition, a ritual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, when I get a pen in my hand, I take it, cherish it, and don\u2019t let it go for three days. It stays in my hand for those three days. In fact, once I fell asleep with a pen and it broke under me\u2014I was very upset. Because there are pens all over the house, I often argue with my spouse about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Which pens do you prefer more? Fountain pens, ballpoint pens, or pencils?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The king of pens is the fountain pen. I have always found ballpoint pens somewhat unappealing. You can\u2019t form an emotional bond with them; they are used and then thrown away once finished\u2014just like a tissue.\n\nIn the past, artists such as Bekir S\u0131tk\u0131 Sezgin, Umm Kulthum in Egypt, and M\u00fczeyyen Senar would go on stage with silk handkerchiefs. The handkerchief was that important\u2014but today, that culture has disappeared. Just as that tradition has faded, the same has happened with pens. Pencils, like ballpoint pens, are like tissues\u2014erase, use, and discard.\n\nBut a fountain pen is not like that. You build a connection with it. You develop a kind of affection, even love for it. I use a fountain pen for all my writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What kind of collection do you have?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today, I can say that I have a considerable pen collection. More accurately, what I have goes beyond collecting\u2014it is a source of joy and personal pleasure. However, one thing should be clarified: building a pen collection should not necessarily mean owning expensive pens that are as valuable as jewels. For example, creating one working pen out of two old, non-functioning ones, or owning a pen that is no longer in production, makes me much happier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Do you have any contact with other pen collectors?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course! For example, Prof. Dr. Nabi Avc\u0131 is, I would say, one of the most passionate pen enthusiasts. Conversations with him\u2014both about national matters and about pens\u2014are truly delightful.\n\nNabi Abi also has a wonderful trait. He taught me how to give. A true pen enthusiast would rather lose a finger than give away their pen. But Nabi Abi taught me not to become attached to things. How? Every time he sees me, he gives me a pen, because he always carries at least ten pens with him.\n\nFor instance, once we started a conversation about pens on a flight, and it continued even after we landed. He had come from Germany. He took out an old pen from his bag\u2014a 1954 Montblanc fountain pen\u2026 He had bought it as a birthday gift for our President, but I must have looked at it in such a way that he felt compelled to give it to me as a gift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Professor Nabi, Mr. \u0130brahim Kal\u0131n, Do\u011fan H\u0131zlan, and many others\u2026 There are people devoted to the pen, people of the pen, and those who simply love pens. Not many people know this, but our former Minister of National Education, Nabi Avc\u0131, has an extraordinary passion for pens. He carries five or six pens in each pocket.\n\nWhenever Nabi Avc\u0131 and I meet, he takes out a pen and gives it to me, and I take one out and give it to him. This is the \u201cexchange.\u201d Then the pens are laid out, bags are opened\u2014this is the \u201cshowing.\u201d\n\nMr. \u0130brahim Kal\u0131n has revived something we had forgotten: writing letters. He writes letters to his friends with a fountain pen. We write to him as well. It\u2019s something truly pleasant\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What about pencils?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have always felt a bit sorry for it. A pencil\u2019s life is very short\u2014like that of a butterfly. It is true, it is beautiful; it has its own ritual, like sharpening it. But its lifespan is short. You can\u2019t form a deep emotional bond with it. A fountain pen, however, is not like that. With a fountain pen, you develop a connection, a certain beauty.\n\nEvery four or five months, I go and buy myself a pen. But there\u2019s also this: I don\u2019t have a claim to buying very luxurious pens. For example, there is a passage in Ankara, and underneath it there is an antique dealer. Nabi Avc\u0131 introduced me to him. I go there, and he collects pens in a box. Some of them don\u2019t work, some are broken. I buy 50\u201360 of them for 200\u2013300 lira.\n\nThen, among them, one might have a damaged nib while another has a good one; one may have a faulty filling mechanism while another\u2019s is intact. I combine their parts and create a working pen. That is what gives me the most pleasure. Because these pens are on the verge of \u201cdying\u201d; some almost seem to ask for euthanasia. They have worked for many years, they are out of breath, their ink no longer flows. And I bring them back to life through a kind of \u201corgan transplant.\u201d\n\nThis kind of love is something else. There are places in Istanbul\u2014\u00dcsk\u00fcdar, Horhor\u2014we go there, collect pens from those places, and bring them together like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You published a book that may be the first of its kind in Turkey, perhaps even in the world\u2014a book that tells the story of the pen, paper, and writing. You titled it \u201cThe Sixth Finger.\u201d How did this work come about, and why did you choose the name \u201cThe Sixth Finger\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s start with the title. It\u2019s very simple\u2014each of our hands has five fingers, and the sixth is the pen. That\u2019s why it was named that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the past ten years, I have been collecting documents related to pens. Then, I decided to write the history of the pen\u2014and I did. At first, it examined the history of the pen in chronological order. However, when I evaluated the result from a reader\u2019s perspective, I found it too academic.\n\nYet, it needed to be a work that was both academic and literary. I wasn\u2019t satisfied with the second version either\u2014something was missing. Eventually, I realized what it was: the \u201cspice\u201d was missing. The work had to be such that it would tell the history of paper and pen, not bore the reader, and also include \u201clove,\u201d the very essence around which everything revolves.\n\nIt had to include everything that could be related to the pen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, the elements that make it what it is should not be overlooked. Its tip, the ink\u2014which is its lifeblood\u2014its varieties, what those devoted to writing think about it, its beloved paper, the eraser that tries to remove what it writes, the sharpener that prepares its tip, the inkwell from which it drinks its fill, and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The work is a first in its field and was written with my fountain pens\u2014across seven notebooks, each consisting of one hundred sixty pages. It was then sent for typesetting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2026And thus, the book we named \u201cThe Sixth Finger\u201d came into being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition, a work I titled \u201cTwo Lovers Since Eternity: The Pen and the Paper\u201d was adapted by TRT into a four-episode documentary series under the name \u201cCompanion of the Hidden City.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
25.11.2019<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Muhittin \u015eim\u015fek hoca ile \u201c\u0130stanbul\u2019da nefes ald\u0131\u011f\u0131m mek\u00e2n\u201d diye tarif etti\u011fi \u0130SAM K\u00fct\u00fcphanesi\u2019nde g\u00f6r\u00fc\u015ft\u00fck. Onun kaleme olan sevgisi, onu tan\u0131yan hemen herkes\u00e7e malum. Kalem mevzusunu konu\u015faca\u011f\u0131m\u0131z\u0131 \u00f6\u011frenince hocan\u0131n g\u00f6zlerinin i\u00e7i parlayarak kalemlerini anlat\u0131yordu. \u00c7antas\u0131n\u0131 a\u00e7\u0131yor, onlarca kalemini ok\u015fayarak bize g\u00f6steriyordu. \u00c7ok mutluydu onlar\u0131 anlat\u0131rken \u00e7ok\u2026 \u201c\u015eu\u201d diyor, \u201cRahmetli Turgut \u00d6zal\u2019\u0131n \u201cicraat\u0131n i\u00e7inden\u201d program\u0131nda elinden d\u00fc\u015f\u00fcrmedi\u011fi…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[84],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sektorel-haberler"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tukid.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tukid.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tukid.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tukid.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tukid.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tukid.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tukid.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tukid.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tukid.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tukid.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}