Pencil in Chinese and what Turks, etc. called it?

[ancalimon]

What was a pen or a pencil called in Chinese and what did the people who were not Chinese called it in the past?

For example it's "kalem" in Turkish today. I'm interested in what it was called back than by Turks.

[H. İhsan Erkoç]

There is the Chinese character Bi 筆 meaning "pen; pencil; writing brush; to write or compose", which became a loan word in Old Turkic as Bitig meaning "Inscription, Letter, etc" (anything that is written), and which became a loanword in Mongolian as Bichig.

Modern Turkish Kalem is a loanword from Arabic Qalam which is itself a loanword from Greek Kalamos.

[merlkir]

Ink-well in Czech is called "kalamáø".

also:

"Quill - c.1400, "piece of reed or hollow stem," probably related to M.H.G. kil "quill," from Low Ger. quiele, of unknown origin."

I almost feel like Ancalimon for mentioning this.

[H. İhsan Erkoç]

I won't be surprised if it's also a loanword from Greek Kalamos.

[altais]

Mongolian:
pencil-kharandaa, which is probably a loan word from russian karandash.
I guess older version for pencil is bal which refers to modern name for ball-point-pen. Bitig-bichig looks and apparently sounds the same, so it tells me that the nomads were very adaptable to the civilized innovations many centuries ago.

[Ardavarz]

In this regard I have wondered if the Russian karandash was not derived from Turkic qara-tash ("black rock" or "black stone") meaning the black lead of the pencil.

BTW in Volga Bulgarian epic poem "Shan qïzï dastanï" the Qara-tash is some magical stone belonging to the lord of Yoregs (goblins).