It tells the history of the pilgrimage with a collection of 10 thousand pieces

KONYA (AA) – MEHMET KAMAN – Fatih Ketancı, who lives in Konya, introduced visitors to his collection of 10 thousand pieces, describing his pilgrimages to the holy lands. Ketancı, who was impressed by a lithographic Kaaba image found by chance at the Scythians flea market in Ankara, created a pilgrimage collection of 10 thousand pieces. Ketancı’s collection, which researches the pilgrimages from Turkey to the Holy Land between 1947 and 1995, includes thousands of objects, from bus tickets to passports, from Zamzam sets to letters, from travel photographs to pilgrimage gifts.

Ketancı, who presented the documents, photographs and objects that he has collected with great patience and meticulousness over the years, to visitors at the “Republican Era Pilgrimages and Memories Exhibition” in Konya, which can be visited for two months, explained his collection to the AA correspondent. – He saved the memories that were about to disappear from the market stalls. Ketancı said that the foundations of today’s collection were laid with the Kaaba picture he saw while browsing second-hand booksellers in the flea market.

Explaining that he started to look at the markets more carefully after that day, Ketancı said that he followed like a detective to expand the collection. Ketancı stated that he saved many memories that were about to be lost in the market stalls at the last minute and said: “It was also interesting that I found documents related to the historical architecture of the Kaaba. While I was wandering around, I saw 6 albums on the ground.

I noticed a piece on the edge of one of them, which I thought was the Ottoman porticoes around the Kaaba. Without me knowing, someone bought the albums and left. After waiting 10-15 seconds, I followed him. I said that I wanted to buy it if there was something about the pilgrimage in it. He agreed and there were two very valuable albums.” came out.” – The photographic document of the “Hacı Murat” legend is in the collection.

Emphasizing that one of the most striking pieces of the collection is the photograph of how the cars known as “Hacı Murat” in Turkey got this name, Ketancı said: “About two years ago, I bought a slide film group. While examining the slides taken from a Turkish worker’s camera, I saw a photo of the car in the empty area in front of the Masjid al-Nabawi. When I shared it on social media, my collector friend Eren Yeşilutlu said, He said, ‘Brother, this is Hacı Murat.’ When we looked closely, we understood.

Normally, this legend has been told for years, but it was never documented with any photographs. When it was allowed to go on pilgrimage with personal vehicles in 1974, these domestic cars were preferred due to their durability and low fuel consumption. When people returned from the pilgrimage, they sold it saying ‘This car went on a pilgrimage, it became a pilgrim’ and its name remained: Hacı Murat. Thanks to this slide, we saw its photo for the first time.” Pointing out that the collection also includes the pilgrimage documents of the couple, who meticulously recorded all the details of the pilgrimage, Ketancı said, “It is important to transfer the accumulated memories to the society.

Collecting things is valuable, but creating a meaningful narrative that will affect people is a completely different thing. “A beautiful story emerged that touched me very much.” he said.