Sami Özcan, 71, Has Spent 57 Years Practicing the Craft He Learned From His Father As a Child, and Today He Binds Only Copies

Veteran bookbinder Mahmut Sami Özcan says binding the Qur'an gives him peace Konya-based bookbinder Mahmut Sami Özcan, 71, has spent 57 years practicing the craft he learned from his father as a child, and today he binds only copies of the Qur'an in his small workshop. Özcan, who began the trade in 1969, says the work has taught him patience. “My father made the bindings patiently, and we helped him.

It must have instilled it in us. Repairing things at a young age taught us patience; this job is all about patience, he said. Özcan recalled starting by binding old books that could not be repaired, and also working in a printing house for a while while helping his father with binding jobs for land registry and civil registry offices.

“Those volumes were large, and we would patiently open the worn and crumpled ones. Now I think it’s impossible; you wouldn’t do it even if you were paid, he said. After his father’s death, his brother encouraged him to continue the craft.

He later decided to focus exclusively on the Qur'an. “I bind the Qur'an, repair it and fix its deficiencies. This gives me peace and makes me happy, he said.

Özcan expressed dismay at people who prefer to buy new copies instead of repairing worn ones. “You are looking down on a worn Qur'an and putting it in second class. The holy book should be valued.

Would you send a sick person to the morgue just because he is sick? You look at his treatment and do what is needed. You don’t look at age, you look at health.

He noted that people from England, Germany and the Netherlands come to him to bind the Qur'an. “Patience starts with the importance of the work. When it is the Qur'an, patience becomes a divine wisdom.

People ask me how I endure. I say it is God’s work. I bind even very worn Qur'ans at the same price, without regard to money.

I don’t shy away and I don’t get tired. Just picking up the Qur'an and looking at it gives peace. Only those who experience it know, he said.”””””