Bibliopolist bestows rare novel to bride at her wedding

ISTANBUL

In the first event of its kind, a well-known Turkish bibliopolist bestowed a rare book to a bride at a wedding ceremony instead of a common gift of jewelry.

“A first in history. Bibliopolist gifts a book to the bride. But, what a book,” Emin Nedret İşli wrote on an Instagram post, tagging a photo with the bride and the groom.

The book is the first copy of famous Turkish author and poet Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar’s “Saatleri Ayarlama Enstitüsü” (The Time Regulation Institute), which was first published in 1961.

Lining up in a queue in front of the bride and the groom in a wedding ceremony and giving gifts is a common tradition in Türkiye. Guests mostly bestow jewelry or cash.

“As a senior bibliopolist, I bestowed a book. As bookworms, the bride and the groom were on cloud nine,” İşli said.

The bride was Lara Bulut Tecim, a legist and a scriptwriter, and the groom was Arkın Tecim, a businessman.

Commenting on the book’s value, as it is the first copy, İşli said jokingly to the couple, “You can sell the novel when you are in dire straits.”

The novel explores, in an often absurd and sardonic style making heavy use of symbolic imagery, topics such as Türkiye’s troubled transition to a modern society and the departure from old values that it entails.

Born on June 23, 1901, in Istanbul, Tanpınar was widely regarded as one of the most important representatives of modernism in Turkish literature.

There is a literary museum and archive named after him in Istanbul. The famous author died in 1962 at the age of 60.