On weekends, the plaza between Istanbul University and Beyazit Mosque is packed with sellers who spread out their wares on carpets or canvas. Fountain pens and paraphernalia are also found at the Grand Bazaar, the world s largest covered market. The Bazaar is a city unto itself with restaurants, tea shops, a hamam or Turkish bath, a mosque, street signs and maps even a hostel for traveling peddlers. Head for the antiques bazaar in the center of the building. Here, there are a half dozen booths displaying fountain pens.
Turkey is a huge country.
Because it is filled with people, it is filled with pens and with pen hunting more interesting and exotic than most anywhere else in the world. Barry Gabay is an ESL teacher in the Chesterfield County, Virginia, school system. He is an avid traveler, and he and his wife and two sons lived in Turkey. He has been interested in pens since the third grade when he was inspired by the Marx Brothers antics with a lever-filling pen. Above photo of a Qur'an from the Sakip Sabanci Collection courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.