Bediuzzaman and The War
For Bediuzzaman, the War may be seen as a watershed. He was appointed by Enver Pasha to raise and command a volunteer militia force.[1. According to a curriculum vitae Bediuzzaman made out for an official form while a member of the Darü’l-Hikmeti’l-Islamiye in October 1921, he “first joined the Imperial Army as a regimental mufti,” and secondly as a regimental commander. See, Albayrak, S. unpaged Appendix to Son Devrin Islam Akademisi, Istanbul 1973.] This Bediuzzaman then did, making his own students the centre of the force. It was a Holy War, and Bediuzzaman performed this bounden duty of Muslims on two fronts. In addition to raising the militia, training it to the very highest standards, and personally leading his men in the most bold and courageous actions, he continued to teach his students and himself write his celebrated commentary on the Qur'an. Wielding both sword and pen, he was like a figure from the golden age of Islam, a model Muslim. When Bitlis fell to the Russians in early March 1916, Bediuzzaman was captured and spent the next two years in various prisoner-of-war camps in Kosturma in Russia. He escaped, and travelling across Russia safely, came to Warsaw and Berlin, and arrived back in Istanbul in June 1918. But the rigours of his captivity had taken their toll on his health, and his outlook, too, had changed. The dreadful period of defeat and foreign occupation following the War was one of inner turmoil for Bediuzzaman, despite his worldly position and success, but from it the New Said was to emerge.
Events on the Eastern Front
The first shots of the War had been fired when Russia invaded north-eastern Anatolia on 31 October 1914. On this occasion, Russia was not successful, and the invasion was repulsed by the Ottoman army under Enver Pasha. But he was only successful in this after leading the disastrous counter-offensive at Sarikamis in the arctic conditions of December and January as a result of which sixty-thousand out of his one hundred-thousand strong army perished. The Russian army retreated, and Grand Duke Nicholas spent the following year completing preparations for the final invasion of Anatolia. This operation he began on 13 January 1916. Defeating the Ottomans at Pasinler with an army three times the size of their’s, the Russians entered Erzurum on 16 February.[2. Danismend, iv, 420, 427, 431.]
The Russians had long been inciting the Armenians to acts of terrorism against the Ottoman state, and providing material and moral support for their revolutionary societies. Now, in pursuit of an independent state in eastern Anatolia, the Armenians collaborated with the Russians on a large scale, many entering the Russian army. Just as Armenian officers had played a prominent role in the 1877 invasion of north-eastern Anatolia. Distorted and exaggerated accounts by Armenian nationalists of the events of 1915 were seized on by the Entente Powers and used in their propaganda war against the Turks, as they had been so doing for years.
“Arms and Books Side by Side”
On his arrival in Van, Bediuzzaman immediately set about forming the militia. Besides his own students, he toured all the surrounding country raising volunteers for the force, which, when formed numbered four to five thousand men. At the same time, he continued to teach his students.
Quoting one of two friends from Dogubayezit who attended Bediuzzaman’s medrese, Necmeddin Sahiner describes how for military training, Bediuzzaman used to take his recruits up Mount Sübhan and set up eggs for target practice. He would give whoever hit an egg a mecidiye [a silver coin] as a reward. The students Bediuzzaman was thus training became so proficient and bold that when they came to the mountain for training, the Armenian revolutionaries would make themselves scarce and go elsewhere.[3. Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 156.]
With his charismatic character and ability to inspire great love and devotion in his students and followers, which manifested itself particularly under those harsh and testing wartime conditions, Bediuzzaman was able to infuse them with something of his own absolute fearlessness and powers of endurance, and move them to acts of great bravery. The following are some contemporary accounts of Bediuzzaman, his medrese, and the militia he formed; but first, two short descriptions of his activities against the Armenians, the first by himself:
“Since at that time years ago the Old Said’s students’ devotion to their Master was such that they would have sacrificed everything for him, the Old Said never rested in the face of the Armenian Tashnak revolutionary societies, and was able to silence them to a degree although they were very active. He found Mauser rifles for his students, and for a time his medrese was like a barracks with arms and books side by side...”[4. Sualar, 439-440.]
“In 1331 (1915), the Armenian and Russian savages were in no way successful in killing Bediuzzaman, although they used to attack him from every quarter and tried to do so. As for Bediuzzaman and his followers, they used to pursue the Armenians mercilessly, who used to flee as hard as they could.”[5. Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 158.]
And a description of a visit to Bediuzzaman’s medrese-barracks given to Necmeddin Sahiner by Nureddin Burak, who related it exactly as told by his father, Zeyneddin Burak:
“At that time in the East, studying in the medreses was like this: the Hoja (teacher) taught for nothing; in fact, through the mediation of the Hoja, the people provided the students’ livelihood. So there was no material reason preventing study. The choice of teacher was made only through his standing in regard to learning. So if someone was known as a great scholar, he would have many students; everyone would want to be taught by him. At that time, a few friends and myself gathered together and began to search for a good teacher. We were told of Said the Famous in Van, in a medrese called the Horhor Medrese.
“Three of us went there. Hoja Efendi was not present when we arrived at the medrese. Someone called Molla Habib met us and invited us inside. He told us to wait saying the Hoja would come soon. At this point, the medrese’s walls caught our attention. Hung up on them in rows were Mauser rifles, and various weapons, swords, daggers, and cartridge-belts. Together with these were books on reading-stands. In truth, we were astonished.
“In a short while they said: ‘Hoja Efendi is coming.’ We straightened ourselves up. He entered, and said: ‘Welcome!’, then asked us why we had come.
“The second thing that caught our attention and astonished us was the Hoja’s manner and dress, because we did not see the customary Hoja’s dress which we knew and had expected. With a conical hat on his head, boots on his feet, dagger at his waist, and firm step, he reminded us of a soldier or high-ranking officer rather than a Hoja. In fact, because of his youth, we thought to ourselves: ‘I wonder if he is learned.’ But then Molla Habib, the most advanced student, was studying books like Molla Jami. He was like the students’ sergeant.
“We said we had come to study under him. So he told us: ‘Fine, but I have conditions. You can on condition you comply with them.’ Then he added: ‘There is no possibility of going back for someone who starts with me. He remains with me to the end of his life.’ And he then said: ‘And do not think you can accept and give your word today, then leave later if you get fed up or for any other reason, because the Governor of Van is my close friend. I could have you brought back here through him. Tonight you are my guests. Stay here and think it over, then make your decision in the morning.’
“We were bewildered and did not know what to say to the proposal. We consulted with Molla Habib. We asked him: ‘Do you stay with the Hoja under those conditions?’ ‘Yes,’ he replied. ‘We gave our words once and undertook the matter. It is true it is not all that easy, but his learning is truly extraordinary. But you know best, do whatever seems right for you.’ We bowed our heads in shame, and saying we could not accept, left.”[6. Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 156-8.]
And finally, the owner of the newspaper Hür Adam, Sinan Omur, had these memories of Bediuzzaman and the militia, which he related to Necmeddin Sahiner in an interview.
“I was a student in the teachers’ training college in Istanbul when the First World War broke out. I was eighteen years old at the time, so they took me into the Army. I first saw Bediuzzaman in August 1331 (1915) on Mount Sübhan. He was on a white horse. Galloping up and down, he was raising the soldiers’ morale. He was commander of the militia forces at that time. He had a turban on his head, and epaulets on his shoulders. He was continually moving in among the volunteers on horseback to give them courage. Enver Pasha had appointed Bediuzzaman to the militia forces. They had long been friends. So Bediuzzaman formed the militia in the East; it consisted of around four to five thousand men.
“The militia forces did not obtain their weapons and provisions from us, but provided everything for themselves. They always went in front of the Army, and always fought in the front lines. They were known as the Felt Hats. The Russians did not know where to flee when they heard: ‘The Felt Hats are coming!’; they did not know what had hit them. At that time our swords were only for prodding, but they used to use them on horseback and would hit whatever they struck at. They used to wear white capes so as to blend in with the snow-covered ground and not be detected by the enemy. They would throw the horse’s reins over one arm, or attach them to the horse’s neck and leave the animal completely free, then galloping at speed, would fire their rifles uninterruptedly. They were extremely accurate shots. While the commanders addressed the volunteers in order to encourage them to fight, in their excitement, the volunteers could not remain in their places squatting on the ground; as soon as the order to move was given: ‘'Tention! 'Tention!’, they would spring up, and flying onto their horses, would gallop off against the enemy.”[7. Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 158-9.]
The Front
When the Russians began their second invasion in January 1916, Bediuzzaman and his militia moved to the front at Pasinler near Erzurum. A second Russian force moved south down the eastern side of Lake Van. There at the front the fighting was fierce and cold intense. The Ottomans were greatly outnumbered. To boost the volunteers’ morale in those arduous conditions, Bediuzzaman rarely entered the trenches, but moved around the front lines on his horse, always to the fore of the fighting. He later wrote:
“In the Pasinler Front during the Great War, the late Molla Habib and I were moving forward with the intention of attacking the enemy. Their artillery fired three shells at us at one or two minute intervals. The three shells passed right over our heads two metres high, and although our soldiers were concealed in the ravine behind us and could not be seen, they retreated. By way of a test I said: ‘What do you say, Molla Habib, I am not going to hide myself from the shells of these infidels?’ And he replied: ‘I am not going to fall back either, I shall stay behind you.’ A further shell fell very close to us. Certain that Divine succour would preserve us, I said to Molla Habib: ‘Forward! These infidels’ shells cannot kill us. We shall not deign to draw back!’”[8. Emirdag Lahikasi, ii, 13; Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 160-1.]
Of several accounts Necmeddin Sahiner has collected from soldiers present at Pasinler, all describe Bediuzzaman’s moving about the trenches on horseback in this way, in complete disdain of the Russian shells. The following account mentions particularly the severity of the shelling:
“... It was snowing and everywhere was white. We were defending our beloved country against the Russians. We could not raise our heads above the trenches because of the bullets which were falling like rain. We were fighting under shells that fell like rain. It was just as though shrapnel was raining from the skies. The thing we were most powerless before was this shrapnel, which exploded in the air. It was destroying us and our losses were heavy. The shrapnel which exploded in the air was scattered to right and left in fragments.
“Just when this going on, Molla Said the Famous was touring the trenches. He was moving up and down the valley on horseback. Then some people emerged from their trenches, and they were hit and killed.
“I wanted both to see Molla Said and to kiss his hands, but I was frightened of being hit. I had heard the name before, but I was seeing this great person for the first time at the bloody front at Pasinler. Then I saw he had come level with me.... I heard him say:
“Fight for Allah! Allah is our helper!’”[9. Arslan, Ahlatli Ismail Hakki, in Son Sahitler, v, 236-7.]
Another soldier who fought under Bediuzzaman at Pasinler, Mustafa Yalçin, recalled him like this:
“...They suddenly took us from Çanakkale, and sent us to the Eastern Front. We were in the Eighth Division in Kars, and at our head was Molla Said. Bands of Russians and Armenians were attacking us ceaselessly.
“At that time, Molla Said used to teach us concerning religious matters. Every night he used to teach us. At Hasankale [Pasinler] we fought against the Russians mercilessly with Molla Said. Before, the Hoja used to wear a turban, but while fighting he would wear what we called a ‘felt hat’.
“At that point I was wounded at Hasankale and drew back. I received this shrapnel wound on my hip, look, it is still open.... I would have died long before but Molla Said wrote out a prayer for each of four of us. We hung them round our necks, and no bullets hit us. At that time there were a hundred infidels firing on one Muslim. In the end I was wounded and they took me back. Molla Said continued to fight. They treated me in Konya, then sent me to the Western, Austrian, Carpathian, and Galician Fronts.
“Molla Said was an heroic person. At the front, he used to lead the attacks on horseback. He was a good shot. He did not go into the trenches. Once, Molla Said was told that some units were about to break up. He immediately removed the cause of their differences, and made sure that they did not disperse. He explained things wonderfully well, it was as though he could cast a spell on people.
“Then during that hell-like war he was writing a book. His students used to write down what he dictated. He was an excellent horseman. They used to heave out great rocks and roll them down on the Russians. He used to say to us: ‘Do not be frightened of anything, a Muslim’s belief is stronger than any power.’ Every night he used to read to us from the books he had written. I could not understand much because I am not educated, but whenever I saw Molla Said, my courage soared. He was a formidable person, but he acted most kindly towards us.”[10. Yalçin, Mustafa, in Son Sahitler, ii, 21-22.]
“Signs of Miraculousness”
The book Mustafa Yalçin describes Bediuzzaman as writing here was his commentary on the Qur'an, Signs of Miraculousness (Ishârât al-I’jaz fi Mazânn al-Ijaz), and it was Molla Habib who used to act as his scribe. Written on horseback, in the trenches, and in the skirmishing lines, this Arabic commentary, only the first section of which was completed, was later acclaimed by the ‘ulama in Damascus and Baghdad, while Ali Riza Efendi, the head of the office for issuing fatwas in Istanbul [Fatwa Emini], described it as: “As powerful and valuable as a thousand other commentaries.”[11. Tarihçe, 99.] In the work, Bediuzzaman described its purpose as follows:
“Our aim from this work entitled Signs of Miraculousness is to explain the indications and signs of the miraculousness present in the Qur'an’s word order. For it is in its word order that an important aspect of its miraculousness is manifested. And it is of the embroideries of its word order that its most brilliant miraculousness consists.”[12. Ishârâtü’l-I’jaz, 11.]
In addition, in the Preface,[13. Ishârâtü’l-I’jaz, 7-8; Tarihce, 99-100.] setting out the method by which Qur'anic commentaries should be written in the modern age, Bediuzzaman explains further his purpose in writing it. He first explains the nature of the Qur'an as Divine speech addressing all men in every age, then points out that it also encompasses the sciences which make known the physical world. Indeed, the Qur'an’s truths become manifest through the discoveries of science. Thus, in the modern age when the cosmos is being opened up and its workings are being revealed by science, commentaries on the Qur'an must keep pace with these giant strides science is taking. Bediuzzaman points out that it is beyond the capacity of an individual or even a small group to be familiar with all the sciences, and a commentary should therefore be written by a committee of scholars who are specialists in a number of sciences, both religious and modern. It will be recalled that among Bediuzzaman’s proposals for educational reform were the ‘combining’ and joint teaching of the religious and modern sciences, specialization, and the application of the principle of mutual consultation.
When Bediuzzaman understood that some great catastrophe was going to occur – he gave repeated warnings of it in the years preceding the First War as many of his students testified, he began to write Signs of Miraculousness on his own. It was because he realized its extreme urgency and importance that he continued to write it in the unfavourable conditions of the front. In fact, he had had a dream or vision around the beginning of the War which had corroborated his premonitions and confirmed his intention to write the commentary.[14. See, Mektûbat, 343; Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 73; Tarihçe, 48.] Thus, he presents the work as a model or example which could be followed by a committee of scholars such as he had described at some point in the future.
Bediuzzaman and His Militia Move South
The Ottomans were unable to prevent the enemy advance in north-east Anatolia, and retreated as the Russians moved on to take Erzurum. Bediuzzaman and his militia withdrew to Van to join its defence against the second major Russian force, though it is not known at precisely what point. There, as the city was being evacuated in the face of the Russian attack, he and a number of his students decided to hold out to the end in the citadel. Unwilling to lose such a valuable figure in that way, the Governor of Van, Jevdet Bey – who was the son of Tahir Pasha the old Governor – insisted that they withdraw to Gevash, on the road to Bitlis. For it was to Bitlis that all the officials, the army, and people of the area were retreating.
There are many incidents recorded of the heroic actions of Bediuzzaman and his volunteers at this stage of the bitter fight to save eastern Anatolia from the Russians and Armenians. At Gevash, as the mass exodus from Van was in progress, a Cossack cavalry regiment staged an attack. Bediuzzaman together with about forty men made a stand against the attack in order to prevent the people and their possessions falling into the hands of the enemy. Climbing a mountain, they attacked the Cossacks at night from above, and deceived them into thinking a large number of reinforcements had arrived. In this way, Bediuzzaman and his force threw the Cossacks into sufficient disarray to allow the people to move on to safety, and Gevash too was saved.[15. Tarihçe, 98; Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 161.]
Many of Bediuzzaman’s students and volunteers fell at this time. Molla Habib also was killed, at Gevash, after having successfully conveyed news of the enemy’s movements to Halil Pasha at the Iranian Front.[16. Tarihçe, 101; Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 161.]
On one occasion when the Ottomans were retreating, the Felt Hats lured the Russians and Armenians – filled with false confidence – into an enclosed valley, and opening fire on them, wiped out the entire force.[17. Sahiner, N. Said Nursi., 162.]
On another occasion, Bediuzzaman and his volunteers were able to recapture thirty large guns off the Russians by surprising them at night. And using them to delay the Russian advance, allowed all the woman and children of the area to be evacuated. Necmeddin Sahiner notes that all these exploits appear in the contemporary military records of the militia forces. Bediuzzaman’s students, too, were famous for their daring and bravery. One of them called Mir Mahey actually crossed into the Russian units several times, and killing as many as ten to fifteen of the enemy returned to his own lines.[18. Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 162.]
Just as Bediuzzaman is mentioned in the Ottoman records, so also do his activities at this time appear in foreign records. One of these, quoted by Necmeddin Sahiner, is the French, Documents Sur Les Atrocités Arméno-Russes, a copy of which is in Istanbul Municipal Library. The following is a translation of just one page:
“Yusuf and Abdurrahman, sons of Mehmed, said the following under oath:
“Our family comes from Nurs, Vavink, And, and Mezraa-i And, the summer pastures of the district of Isparit in the sub-province of Hizan. After the sub-province of Çatak had been occupied by the Russians, the Armenians of the neighbouring villages of Livar, Yukari Kutis, Asagi Kutis, Çaçuan, Sikuar, and Yukari Adr came to the village of Yukari Kutis under the leadership of Lato, also known as Mihran, and Kazar Dilo, both of whom had infiltrated into Anatolia from Russia. They presented three written proposals to the notables there. Among the notables was Molla Said, who is well-known under the name of Bediuzzaman. Was he taken prisoner, or was he killed? I do not know. These were the proposals:
1. Surrender.
2. Evacuate the district.
3. Fight.
“Nine hours after the enemy had arrived, a force of six hundred attacked the village. The enemy soldiers were wearing uniforms and caps. We could not discover whether or not there were Russians soldiers among them. The number of those who looked destitute in the enemy army was extremely high. These could have been Russians or Armenians come from Russia.
“The enemy took all the people of our village to Mezraa-i And. Abdurrahman, the son of Hurshid Bey, one of the notables, was also present together with his son and wife. The following day, thirty-three men and boys, and around eighty women, young women, and girls were moved to Müküs in separate convoys. The women’s convoy was left at Çaçuan, but at night all the men were put to the sword. I was saved from the slaughter because I had been assigned a duty. When they gave me the duty, they said this:
“‘We promise to give you money. Go to Molla Said, and tell him to hand over to us the Armenians who remain there. Tell him there is no benefit in having them killed unnecessarily. The country is just about entirely occupied. The Russians have reached as far as Aleppo. Armenia has been set up. Bring us information about the numbers and strength of the Turkish Army there.’
“This was said to me by Dilo. I set out immediately. When I reached Çaçuan, I saw that our forces, which were formed of gendarmes and Kurds, had arrived there together with our mayor and Molla Said. Our forces under the command of Bediuzzaman Said Efendi were successful in saving the women’s convoy after five hours of fierce fighting. The state of the women was really pitiful. They did not have the strength to walk. Most of the children had been trodden underfoot. And of the thirty-three men, only two of us survived.”[19. Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 162-4.]
When the Armenians massacred the Muslim women and children as well as the men, Armenian children would sometimes be killed in retaliation. But to a degree Bediuzzaman was able to put a stop to this barbaric practice through his example true Islamic conduct, and was able to bring some humanity to the chaos of war. One time, thousands of Armenian women and children had been gathered together in the place where Bediuzzaman was. He issued an order that none of them were to be touched. Then later he released them and they returned to their families in Russian-held territory. The Armenians were so impressed at this example of Muslim morality that from then on they themselves refrained form slaughtering Muslim children. In this way, many innocent lives were saved.[20. Tarihçe, 101.]
The Fall of Bitlis and Capture of Bediuzzaman
Having taken Van to the east of Lake Van and Mus to the west, the Russians moved south with three divisions to attack Bitlis. Their advance was halted for a time by the fierce resistance they met from the Turkish and volunteer forces at the defence line at Mount Dideban. In the appalling February conditions of eastern Anatolia with snow lying to a depth of three to four metres the important centre of Bitlis was evacuated. Once again the women and children, the sick and the lame, the Government officials and dignitaries retreated before the advancing enemy. The Russians were unable to break the Ottoman lines, and it was only through the treachery of the Armenians, who opened up the way for them by capturing Mount Dideban, and setting up machine-guns at crucial points and gunning down many people, that they were finally able to enter the town. Bediuzzaman was in the town with what remained of his volunteers, and fought a fierce hand to hand battle with the enemy cavalry. With one of his legs broken, Bediuzzaman hid with his four surviving students in an underground water conduit. After thirty hours they surrendered to the Russians. We have a description of this from Bediuzzaman’s own pen:
“...Although in one minute three bullets hit me in vital spots, they had no effect. When Bitlis fell, a number of my students and myself found ourselves in the middle of a battalion of Russians. They surrounded us and there was firing on every side. All my friends were killed with the exception of four. Then we broke through the four lines of the battalion and went into a place that was still where they were. Although they were above us and all around us and could hear our voices and coughs, they did not see us. We remained thirty hours in that way in the mud with me wounded; I was preserved with a tranquil heart by Divine succour.”[21. Sikke-i Tasdik-i Gaybî, 124; Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 168.]
Finally, since their lives were in danger from loss of blood and extreme cold, one of them went and informed the Russians of their whereabouts. The Russians came and took them prisoner.
One of those four surviving students of Bediuzzaman’s was Ali Aras from the village of Çoravanis near Van. Also known as Ali Çavus, he wrote down his memories of Bediuzzaman at the fall of Bitlis, and they were published in the newspaper Ittihad six years after his death, in April 1971. They also give a lively account of Bediuzzaman and his Russian captors after they had been taken prisoner.
“The Russians occupied Mus before we reached it. The people who had evacuated Mus said when we met them on the road that all the ammunition together with fourteen heavy guns had remained there. Ustad Bediuzzaman divided up the three-hundred man force according to the fourteen guns and assigned a six-man squad to capture the ammunition. We captured the guns and ammunition and handed them over to a regular regiment which was posted on the Bitlis-Tatvan road. At this point the Russians began to attack from three sides and left us cut off in the Bitlis valley. The defence against the Russians continued day and night for seven days. Three shells hit Ustad. Of these, one hit the handle of his dagger, another his cigarette case, and the third his right shoulder. Kel Ali, the commander of the regular troops, witnessed this and said to Ustad:
“‘Bullets have no effect on you either, Bediuzzaman!’ To which Bediuzzaman replied: ‘If Allah protects a person, even the shells of a heavy gun cannot kill him!’
“At the end of a week’s fierce resistance, the Russians still could not enter Bitlis, so they evacuated the Papshin Han on the Tatvin road and withdrew. Then it was seen that guided by the Armenians, they had skirted round the south of Bitlis by the Güzeldere road by way of Simek, had cut the Bitlis-Siirt road, and were holding the Arab Bridge. After midnight they started the attack on Bitlis. There was very fierce fighting. At this point Ustad’s nephew, Ubeyd,[22. Ubeyd was the son of Bediuzzaman’s eldest sister, Dürriye.] of whom he was very fond, and many of his students, and our friends, were killed.
“Since the Russians had taken the town’s three bridges, Ustad wanted to get to the other side of the town. We jumped down from on top of a conduit which passed beneath a large building next to what is now Kazim Pasha Primary School. Because the water was entirely covered by snow and it was also night-time, we could not estimate the ground, and Ustad hit his leg on a stone and broke it. Showing me a more suitable place underneath the conduit, he said: ‘Get me in there, Ali. Then go. I give you permission. God willing, you will get away.’ I got him in there and sat him down. He continued to insist that I go, but when I said that I was not going and that I wanted to remain and die as a martyr alongside him, he stroked my head with his hand, and said: ‘Fate has made us prisoners.’ I declared that I too had surrendered to fate.
“We remained in the water for about thirty-six hours. The Russians had occupied the building over the conduit and their voices could be heard from below. We were busy planning how we could get out of there when a squad of fifty Russians soldiers arrived. They pulled us all out and took us to a building which was a hotel beneath and in which the Russian Second Army was billeted. They placed us in a room.
“A regimental commander met us. They brought a chicken for Ustad to eat. Two Russian commanders started to speak with Ustad. It was clear they were talking about the War. Ustad was talking to them standing on one leg. It was as though Ustad was the commander and the two Russian commanders were prisoners. Ustad did not take them seriously at all. They realized that his leg was broken, and called a health orderly, who put it in plaster. After about two and a half hours there, we were taken to the Government Building by a detachment of soldiers. A Tatar officer, who we later learnt was a Muslim, took pity on us, and taking us inside, put us in the Governor’s room.
“It was during the first week of our stay in Government House that an aide-de-camp arrived. He asked for Ustad, then said the General had summoned him. They took Ustad to the place the General was staying in Mahallebasi by stretcher, because his leg was broken. Ustad went in. The General asked a number of questions. These were centred on someone well-known called Abdülmecid, who had gone to Iran and was planning to go from there to the Caucasus to organize the Muslims there to fight against the Russians. They wanted information about him from Ustad. Ustad answered the questions as required. The General’s questioning and the coming and going continued for about two weeks. Since we waited in the room outside, we could hear them speaking. We would hear Ustad’s terse answers and sharp retorts, and from time to time the sound of a fist being thumped on the table. We would get worried and shudder at the possibility of being lined up and shot, and when from time to time Ustad emerged from the room, we did not neglect to reproach him because of these sharp exchanges.
“On the twenty-seventh day of our stay in Government House they took us to what was then the Gendarme Station and is now the Courthouse. They had brought there around twenty-five captured officers and government officials, most of whom were high-ranking. Then the General’s aide-de-camp again came, and said to Ustad: ‘Take one of your students, we are sending you away now.’ Ustad took a student called Said. We did not want to part from him. To console us he said to the police chief, Irfan Bey, who also a prisoner: ‘I entrust my students to you. Show them the police there.’
“Before leaving the Gendarme Station, he said as a prayer: ‘I am hopeful that, God willing, you will return, but I cannot say the same for Said.’ And in fact, the student he took with him called Said was killed while fighting the Russians in Turkestan. They separated us from Ustad, and sent us to Russia. Ustad told me on his return from captivity that they had made him wait a further month because his leg was in plaster.
“A month later, they sent Ustad to Van, and from there on to Khuy in Iran, from where he was put on a train for Russia. We remained in Russia thirty months as prisoners. On the Communist Revolution, we got away to Rumania by way of Hungary and handed ourselves over to a Turkish division there. As for Ustad, I read in the newspapers in Rumania that he had got to Berlin by way of Warsaw, the capital of Poland, and from there had returned to Istanbul.
“The 15th Division in Rumania was formed into the North Caucasus Corps with some reinforcements, and I served a further fourteen months in it before being demobilized after the Treaty of Sèvres, when I returned to Van.”[23. Çavus, Ali, ‘Erek Daginda Bir Islam Mujahidi,’ Ittihad Gazetesi, No. 181, 20 Nisan (April) 1971, as quoted in Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 169-174.]
The heroism of Bediuzzaman and his students in defending the east against the Russians and Armenians became legendary among the people of the area. They told also of how the Russians had tried to kill Bediuzzaman on his surrendering to them, and how this desire had been transformed into wonder at this courage, since Bediuzzaman did not so much as wince when they handled his broken leg.[24. Alp, Siddik, in Son Sahitler, iv, 347.] Also one of his students who fought alongside him tells of Bediuzzaman’s anger on learning, when being questioned by the Russians, that the Armenian interpreter was misinterpreting what they said, so that the Russians brought a Tatar interpreter, and his rejection of the Russians’ proposals that he should write letters to all the tribes calling on them to surrender their arms.[25. Molla Münevver, in Son Sahitler, i, 80-1.]
Further interesting documents which have recently come to light in the Archives of the Prime Minister’s Office in Istanbul show that in September of 1916, Bediuzzaman was still in Tiflis in Georgia, presumably receiving treatment for his leg. The first, dated 9 August 1332 (22 August 1916) is from Memduh, the Deputy Governor of Bitlis, to the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Istanbul. It states that the officials held as prisoners-of-war in Tiflis required their salaries to be sent to them. Also in need of money there was Bediuzzaman Said-i Kürdî, who had saved eight large guns from Mus during the fall of Bitlis and had gathered together volunteers. The second, dated 7 Eylül 1332 (20 September 1916), is from the Interior Minister, Tal'at Bey, to the Director of the Ottoman Red Crescent Society, Besim Ömer Pasha, requesting him to send sixty lira to Bediuzzaman in Tiflis by special courier. And the third is Besim Ömer Pasha’s reply, dated three days later, informing Tal'at Pasha that the sixty liras had been changed into 1254 marks and despatched as requested.[26. Sahiner, N. Article in Zaman Gazetesi, 28 Ocak 1992, p.12.]
The Prisoner-of-War Camps
Bediuzzaman was sent to the province of Kosturma in north-western Russia. Firstly, to the town of Kologrif, and then – according to one source, after a period in a large camp further into the northern wastes – to a camp in the town of Kosturma on the River Volga. It was here that a large part of his two years of captivity was spent. There are various accounts of him and his activities in the camp from a number of his fellow prisoners. As the commanding officer of a regiment, he was in a position of authority. This he used to ensure the prisoners’ freedom to practise their religious duties. He won the right for them to perform the five daily prayers, which he led, and secured a room for use as a mosque. Also, as a commander he received a salary which he spent almost entirely on the mosque and things beneficial for the other prisoners. He was in a group of ninety or so officers, to whom he would give ders or religious instruction. Conditions were hard in the camp. The winters long and dark and extremely cold. In this way he endeavoured to maintain the prisoners’ morale.
Mustafa Yalçin, whose description of Bediuzzaman at the Pasinler Front is quoted above, was already at the camp when one day to his amazement he saw that Bediuzzaman had been brought there. Among his recollections, he says:
“...And on our arriving there, they said that some prisoners had arrived from the Eastern Front. We all gathered outside in the camp with interest. There were a lot of prisoners, but there were two they were bringing from the other side and keeping a close eye on. I looked and suddenly saw that these were MOLLA SAID and one of his students, whom we called Iznikli Osman. He was carrying something like a trunk; it had Ustad’s books in it. He did not allow anyone other than Osman to be with him. Osman saw to his needs. He was wounded. He had been wounded in the leg. They treated it there. They put him in a dormitory.
“It was terribly cold. And you could not tell day from night. [In the summer] the sun did not set. And there as well, Molla Said Efendi was not idle at night; he used to go to other camps and read to them, although it was forbidden. He himself used to lead the prayers for us during the day. First of all they intervened and did not let us perform them. Then Ustad spoke to them and they allowed us a bit more freedom. They did not want too many of us to gather together at the same time. We used to call Bediuzzaman ‘Head of Religious Affairs’. He used to explain religion to the Russian guards even. The Russian officers would harass those of them who listened. Molla Said Efendi always boosted our morale. ‘Do not worry’, he used to say. ‘We shall be saved.’ I never knew him sleep at night there. He always read and took notes. He would say to us: ‘These will be Muslims, too, in the future, but they do not know it now.’ We were never frightened or distressed so long as he was with us.”
Mustafa Yalçin went on to describe how one night he escaped along with a group of seventeen other prisoners. Bediuzzaman declined to join them, but among the group was a major who had been trained by him. He acted as their guide, finding the way “from everything from the stars to the moss on the trees.” He continued:
“Molla Said was completely fearless. Night and day he strove for Islam. He always used to say: ‘It is belief in God that is necessary,’ and, ‘Belief in God is worth everything’.”[27. Yalçin, Mustafa, in Son Sahitler, ii, 23-4.]
Another fellow prisoner, Dr. M. Asaf Disçi, recalled that he first saw Bediuzzaman in the town of Kologrif. They were together there for about six months and then Bediuzzaman was sent to another large prisoner-of-camp further into the interior. In Kologrif they were held in a cinema, and he divided off part of it and made it into a mosque. Dr. Asaf Disçi went on to say:
“...Because he was the commander of a regiment, the other prisoners used to be very respectful towards him, but he used to say: ‘I am a Hoja [teacher]’... He lived very frugally. He would make do with two eggs and a slice of bread a day... His time was always full. He would read his commentary on the Qur'an, and teach the prisoners. The officers and men were all extremely deferential towards him... he commanded respect...”[28. Disçi, Dr. M. Asaf, in Son Sahitler, i, 189-190.]
Mustafa Bolay, a prisoner who spent six months in the Kosturma camp with Bediuzzaman, stated that Russians wanted to kill Bediuzzaman and that it was the military high command that had specified his being sent to that camp. Bediuzzaman’s nephew, Abdurrahman, who wrote a short biography of his uncle, corroborated this claim. He wrote:
“They sent my uncle to Kosturma by way of Van, Julfa, Tiflis, and Kologrif. I wanted to describe in detail all the dangers to which he had been subject at this time – the Russian officers had even wanted to kill him on several occasions, then record that he had committed suicide – but he would not permit it, so I just wrote it briefly.”[29. Sahiner, N. Son Sahitler, i, 78-9; Abdurrahman, Tarihçe, 38.]
Perhaps further insight into this is provided by the following statement in ‘Tal'at Pasha’s Memoirs From Exile’, prepared for publication by Cemal Kutay. According to this, Bediuzzaman informed the Ottoman Government that the Bolshevik Revolution would occur. One passage states: “Bediuzzaman Said-i Kürdî, who was in the structure of the Teshkilat-i Mahsusa (the state intelligence service)... provided information from Siberia where he had been exiled concerning the state of the Russians that we would not have been able to learn from any other source.” “We learnt the Bolshevik Revolution would happen from Bediuzzaman Said-i Kürdî.”[30. Zaman Gazetesi, 29 Ocak 1992, p. 12. Cemal Kutay also quotes Eshref Kusçubasi as recalling Bediuzzaman sending the same message to Enver Pasha by means of a letter carried by a Kazan fur trader. See, Kutay, Bediüzzaman, 84.]
Both Mustafa Bolay and Mustafa Yalçin also corroborate an event concerning Bediuzzaman which happened in the prisoner-of-war camp, and doubtless contributed to the awe in which he was held by captors and captives alike. It is described in Bediuzzaman’s biography, and Necmeddin Sahiner gives a longer version from an article by Abdürrahim Zapsu in the magazine Ehl-i Sünnet, which is what we give here:
On one occasion, Nicola Nicolayavich, the Czar’s uncle who at the same time was Commander-in-Chief of the Russian forces at the Caucasian Front, came on an inspection of the camp. While on his tour of it, he passed by Bediuzzaman, who was seated. Bediuzzaman paid him no attention and did not so much as stir. The General noticed him, and finding some excuse, passed in front of him a second time. Bediuzzaman still did not rise to his feet. So he passed by him a third time then stopped. He said to him through an interpreter:
“Do you not know who I am?”
“Yes, I know,” replied Bediuzzaman, and told him.
“So why do you insult me?” asked the General.
“Forgive me, but I have not insulted you. I only did as my beliefs commanded me.”
“What do your beliefs command?”
“I am a Muslim scholar. There is faith in my heart. A person with faith is superior to a person without. If I had risen to my feet, it would have been disrespectful to my beliefs. Therefore, I did not.”
“In which case, you are saying that I am without faith, and you are insulting both myself, and the Army of which I am a member, and my nation, and the Czar. A court martial will be set up immediately, and you will be questioned.”
As the General decreed, a court martial was set up. The Turkish, German, and Austrian officers all came to the headquarters and tried to persuade Bediuzzaman to apologize to the General, but he told them:
“I am eager to travel to the realm of the Hereafter and enter the presence of God’s Prophet, and I have to have a passport. I cannot act contrary to my beliefs.”
Unable to dispute this reply, they awaited the court’s verdict. The examination was completed. Then the decision was given for Bediuzzaman’s execution on the grounds of insulting the Czar and the Russian Army.
When the squad arrived to carry out the sentence, Bediuzzaman requested fifteen minutes “to perform his duty.” This was to take his ablutions and perform two rak'ats of prayers. The Russian General arrived on the scene while Bediuzzaman was doing this. He suddenly realized his mistake and said to Bediuzzaman when he had finished praying:
“Forgive me! I thought you behaved as you did in order to insult me and I acted accordingly. Now I realize you were merely acting as your beliefs required. Your sentence is quashed. You should be commended for your firmness of belief. Once again, I apologize.”[31. Zapsu, Abdürrahim, in Ehl-i Sünnet Mecmuasi, vol. 2, No. 46, 15 Te_rin-i Evvel (October) 1948, quoted in, Sualar, 442-3 and Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 174-5; Tarihçe, 103-4.]
Bediuzzaman mentioned this incident, which demonstrates his extraordinary personal qualities, in a letter to one of his students written when being held in another prison, Afyon, in 1949. The story had appeared in the newspapers. He wrote:
“The incident which happened while I was a prisoner-of-war is basically true, but I did not describe it in detail because I had no witnesses. Only, I did not know [at first] that the squad had come to execute me; I understood later. And I did not know that the Russian Commander had said some things in Russian by way of an apology. That is to say, the Muslim captain who was present and told the newspapers of the incident understood that the commander had said repeatedly: ‘Forgive me! Forgive me!’”[32. Sualar, 441.]
In the spring of 1918, Bediuzzaman found a way to escape amid the confusion following the Bolshevik Revolution. In later years, he wrote an evocative description of his “temporary awakening” in the winter darkness of the days preceding his escape, and the almost miraculous ease with which it was accomplished. The following is a translation of part of the piece, which forms part of the Twenty-Sixth Flash.
“In the First World War, as a prisoner, I was in the distant province of Kosturma in Northern Russia. There was a small mosque there belonging to the Tatars beside the famous River Volga. I used to become wearied among my friends, the other officers. I craved solitude, yet I could not wander about outside without permission. Then they took me on bail to the Tatar quarter, to that small mosque on the banks of the Volga. I used to sleep in the mosque, alone. Spring was close. I used to be very wakeful during the long, long nights of that northern land; the sad plashing of the Volga and the mirthless patter of the rain and the melancholy sighing of the wind of those dark nights in that dark exile had temporarily roused me from a deep sleep of heedlessness. I did not yet consider myself old, but those who had experienced the Great War were old. For those were days that, as though manifesting the verse: A day that will turn the hair of children grey,[33. Qur'an, 73:17.] made even children old. And while I was forty years old, I felt myself to be eighty. In those long, dark nights and sorrowful exile and melancholic state, I despaired of life and of my homeland. I looked at my powerlessness and aloneness, and my hope failed.
“Then, while in that state, succour arrived from the All-Wise Qur'an; my tongue said: God is enough for us; and how excellent a guardian is He.[34. Qur'an, 3:173.]
“And weeping, my heart cried out: ‘I am a stranger, I am alone, I am weak, I am powerless: I seek mercy, I seek forgiveness, I seek help from You, O my God!’
“And, thinking of my old friends in my homeland, and imagining myself dying in exile there, like Niyazi Misri, my spirit poured forth these lines:
Fleeing the world’s grief,
Taking flight with ardour and longing,
Opening my wings to the void,
Crying with each breath, Friend! Friend!
It was searching for its friends.
“Anyway... My weakness and impotence became such potent intercessors and means at the Divine Court on that melancholy, pitiful, separation-afflicted, long night in exile that now I still wonder at it. For several days later I escaped in the most unexpected manner, on my own, not knowing Russian, across a distance that would have taken a year on foot. I was saved in a wondrous fashion through Divine favour, which was bestowed as a consequence of my weakness and impotence. Then, passing through Warsaw and Austria, I reached Istanbul, so that to be saved in this way so easily was quite extraordinary. I completed the long flight with an ease and facility that even the boldest and most cunning Russian-speakers could not have accomplished.
“And that night in the mosque on the banks of the Volga made me decide to pass the rest of my life in caves. Enough now of mixing in this social life of people. Since finally I would enter the grave alone, I said that from now on I would chose solitude in order to become accustomed to it.
“But, regretfully, things of no consequence like my many and serious friends in Istanbul, and the glittering worldly life there, and in particular the fame and honour granted me, which were far greater than my due, made me temporarily forget my decision. It was as though that night in exile was a luminous blackness in my life’s eye, and the glittering white daytime of Istanbul, a lightless white in it. It could not see ahead, it still slumbered. Until two years later, Gawth-i Geylani opened my eyes once more with his book Fütuhu’l-Gayb.”[35. Lem’alar, 224-5; Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 181-2; Tarihçe, 107-8.]
For Bediuzzaman, the War may be seen as a watershed. He was appointed by Enver Pasha to raise and command a volunteer militia force.[1. According to a curriculum vitae Bediuzzaman made out for an official form while a member of the Darü’l-Hikmeti’l-Islamiye in October 1921, he “first joined the Imperial Army as a regimental mufti,” and secondly as a regimental commander. See, Albayrak, S. unpaged Appendix to Son Devrin Islam Akademisi, Istanbul 1973.] This Bediuzzaman then did, making his own students the centre of the force. It was a Holy War, and Bediuzzaman performed this bounden duty of Muslims on two fronts. In addition to raising the militia, training it to the very highest standards, and personally leading his men in the most bold and courageous actions, he continued to teach his students and himself write his celebrated commentary on the Qur'an. Wielding both sword and pen, he was like a figure from the golden age of Islam, a model Muslim. When Bitlis fell to the Russians in early March 1916, Bediuzzaman was captured and spent the next two years in various prisoner-of-war camps in Kosturma in Russia. He escaped, and travelling across Russia safely, came to Warsaw and Berlin, and arrived back in Istanbul in June 1918. But the rigours of his captivity had taken their toll on his health, and his outlook, too, had changed. The dreadful period of defeat and foreign occupation following the War was one of inner turmoil for Bediuzzaman, despite his worldly position and success, but from it the New Said was to emerge.
Events on the Eastern Front
The first shots of the War had been fired when Russia invaded north-eastern Anatolia on 31 October 1914. On this occasion, Russia was not successful, and the invasion was repulsed by the Ottoman army under Enver Pasha. But he was only successful in this after leading the disastrous counter-offensive at Sarikamis in the arctic conditions of December and January as a result of which sixty-thousand out of his one hundred-thousand strong army perished. The Russian army retreated, and Grand Duke Nicholas spent the following year completing preparations for the final invasion of Anatolia. This operation he began on 13 January 1916. Defeating the Ottomans at Pasinler with an army three times the size of their’s, the Russians entered Erzurum on 16 February.[2. Danismend, iv, 420, 427, 431.]
The Russians had long been inciting the Armenians to acts of terrorism against the Ottoman state, and providing material and moral support for their revolutionary societies. Now, in pursuit of an independent state in eastern Anatolia, the Armenians collaborated with the Russians on a large scale, many entering the Russian army. Just as Armenian officers had played a prominent role in the 1877 invasion of north-eastern Anatolia. Distorted and exaggerated accounts by Armenian nationalists of the events of 1915 were seized on by the Entente Powers and used in their propaganda war against the Turks, as they had been so doing for years.
“Arms and Books Side by Side”
On his arrival in Van, Bediuzzaman immediately set about forming the militia. Besides his own students, he toured all the surrounding country raising volunteers for the force, which, when formed numbered four to five thousand men. At the same time, he continued to teach his students.
Quoting one of two friends from Dogubayezit who attended Bediuzzaman’s medrese, Necmeddin Sahiner describes how for military training, Bediuzzaman used to take his recruits up Mount Sübhan and set up eggs for target practice. He would give whoever hit an egg a mecidiye [a silver coin] as a reward. The students Bediuzzaman was thus training became so proficient and bold that when they came to the mountain for training, the Armenian revolutionaries would make themselves scarce and go elsewhere.[3. Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 156.]
With his charismatic character and ability to inspire great love and devotion in his students and followers, which manifested itself particularly under those harsh and testing wartime conditions, Bediuzzaman was able to infuse them with something of his own absolute fearlessness and powers of endurance, and move them to acts of great bravery. The following are some contemporary accounts of Bediuzzaman, his medrese, and the militia he formed; but first, two short descriptions of his activities against the Armenians, the first by himself:
“Since at that time years ago the Old Said’s students’ devotion to their Master was such that they would have sacrificed everything for him, the Old Said never rested in the face of the Armenian Tashnak revolutionary societies, and was able to silence them to a degree although they were very active. He found Mauser rifles for his students, and for a time his medrese was like a barracks with arms and books side by side...”[4. Sualar, 439-440.]
“In 1331 (1915), the Armenian and Russian savages were in no way successful in killing Bediuzzaman, although they used to attack him from every quarter and tried to do so. As for Bediuzzaman and his followers, they used to pursue the Armenians mercilessly, who used to flee as hard as they could.”[5. Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 158.]
And a description of a visit to Bediuzzaman’s medrese-barracks given to Necmeddin Sahiner by Nureddin Burak, who related it exactly as told by his father, Zeyneddin Burak:
“At that time in the East, studying in the medreses was like this: the Hoja (teacher) taught for nothing; in fact, through the mediation of the Hoja, the people provided the students’ livelihood. So there was no material reason preventing study. The choice of teacher was made only through his standing in regard to learning. So if someone was known as a great scholar, he would have many students; everyone would want to be taught by him. At that time, a few friends and myself gathered together and began to search for a good teacher. We were told of Said the Famous in Van, in a medrese called the Horhor Medrese.
“Three of us went there. Hoja Efendi was not present when we arrived at the medrese. Someone called Molla Habib met us and invited us inside. He told us to wait saying the Hoja would come soon. At this point, the medrese’s walls caught our attention. Hung up on them in rows were Mauser rifles, and various weapons, swords, daggers, and cartridge-belts. Together with these were books on reading-stands. In truth, we were astonished.
“In a short while they said: ‘Hoja Efendi is coming.’ We straightened ourselves up. He entered, and said: ‘Welcome!’, then asked us why we had come.
“The second thing that caught our attention and astonished us was the Hoja’s manner and dress, because we did not see the customary Hoja’s dress which we knew and had expected. With a conical hat on his head, boots on his feet, dagger at his waist, and firm step, he reminded us of a soldier or high-ranking officer rather than a Hoja. In fact, because of his youth, we thought to ourselves: ‘I wonder if he is learned.’ But then Molla Habib, the most advanced student, was studying books like Molla Jami. He was like the students’ sergeant.
“We said we had come to study under him. So he told us: ‘Fine, but I have conditions. You can on condition you comply with them.’ Then he added: ‘There is no possibility of going back for someone who starts with me. He remains with me to the end of his life.’ And he then said: ‘And do not think you can accept and give your word today, then leave later if you get fed up or for any other reason, because the Governor of Van is my close friend. I could have you brought back here through him. Tonight you are my guests. Stay here and think it over, then make your decision in the morning.’
“We were bewildered and did not know what to say to the proposal. We consulted with Molla Habib. We asked him: ‘Do you stay with the Hoja under those conditions?’ ‘Yes,’ he replied. ‘We gave our words once and undertook the matter. It is true it is not all that easy, but his learning is truly extraordinary. But you know best, do whatever seems right for you.’ We bowed our heads in shame, and saying we could not accept, left.”[6. Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 156-8.]
And finally, the owner of the newspaper Hür Adam, Sinan Omur, had these memories of Bediuzzaman and the militia, which he related to Necmeddin Sahiner in an interview.
“I was a student in the teachers’ training college in Istanbul when the First World War broke out. I was eighteen years old at the time, so they took me into the Army. I first saw Bediuzzaman in August 1331 (1915) on Mount Sübhan. He was on a white horse. Galloping up and down, he was raising the soldiers’ morale. He was commander of the militia forces at that time. He had a turban on his head, and epaulets on his shoulders. He was continually moving in among the volunteers on horseback to give them courage. Enver Pasha had appointed Bediuzzaman to the militia forces. They had long been friends. So Bediuzzaman formed the militia in the East; it consisted of around four to five thousand men.
“The militia forces did not obtain their weapons and provisions from us, but provided everything for themselves. They always went in front of the Army, and always fought in the front lines. They were known as the Felt Hats. The Russians did not know where to flee when they heard: ‘The Felt Hats are coming!’; they did not know what had hit them. At that time our swords were only for prodding, but they used to use them on horseback and would hit whatever they struck at. They used to wear white capes so as to blend in with the snow-covered ground and not be detected by the enemy. They would throw the horse’s reins over one arm, or attach them to the horse’s neck and leave the animal completely free, then galloping at speed, would fire their rifles uninterruptedly. They were extremely accurate shots. While the commanders addressed the volunteers in order to encourage them to fight, in their excitement, the volunteers could not remain in their places squatting on the ground; as soon as the order to move was given: ‘'Tention! 'Tention!’, they would spring up, and flying onto their horses, would gallop off against the enemy.”[7. Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 158-9.]
The Front
When the Russians began their second invasion in January 1916, Bediuzzaman and his militia moved to the front at Pasinler near Erzurum. A second Russian force moved south down the eastern side of Lake Van. There at the front the fighting was fierce and cold intense. The Ottomans were greatly outnumbered. To boost the volunteers’ morale in those arduous conditions, Bediuzzaman rarely entered the trenches, but moved around the front lines on his horse, always to the fore of the fighting. He later wrote:
“In the Pasinler Front during the Great War, the late Molla Habib and I were moving forward with the intention of attacking the enemy. Their artillery fired three shells at us at one or two minute intervals. The three shells passed right over our heads two metres high, and although our soldiers were concealed in the ravine behind us and could not be seen, they retreated. By way of a test I said: ‘What do you say, Molla Habib, I am not going to hide myself from the shells of these infidels?’ And he replied: ‘I am not going to fall back either, I shall stay behind you.’ A further shell fell very close to us. Certain that Divine succour would preserve us, I said to Molla Habib: ‘Forward! These infidels’ shells cannot kill us. We shall not deign to draw back!’”[8. Emirdag Lahikasi, ii, 13; Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 160-1.]
Of several accounts Necmeddin Sahiner has collected from soldiers present at Pasinler, all describe Bediuzzaman’s moving about the trenches on horseback in this way, in complete disdain of the Russian shells. The following account mentions particularly the severity of the shelling:
“... It was snowing and everywhere was white. We were defending our beloved country against the Russians. We could not raise our heads above the trenches because of the bullets which were falling like rain. We were fighting under shells that fell like rain. It was just as though shrapnel was raining from the skies. The thing we were most powerless before was this shrapnel, which exploded in the air. It was destroying us and our losses were heavy. The shrapnel which exploded in the air was scattered to right and left in fragments.
“Just when this going on, Molla Said the Famous was touring the trenches. He was moving up and down the valley on horseback. Then some people emerged from their trenches, and they were hit and killed.
“I wanted both to see Molla Said and to kiss his hands, but I was frightened of being hit. I had heard the name before, but I was seeing this great person for the first time at the bloody front at Pasinler. Then I saw he had come level with me.... I heard him say:
“Fight for Allah! Allah is our helper!’”[9. Arslan, Ahlatli Ismail Hakki, in Son Sahitler, v, 236-7.]
Another soldier who fought under Bediuzzaman at Pasinler, Mustafa Yalçin, recalled him like this:
“...They suddenly took us from Çanakkale, and sent us to the Eastern Front. We were in the Eighth Division in Kars, and at our head was Molla Said. Bands of Russians and Armenians were attacking us ceaselessly.
“At that time, Molla Said used to teach us concerning religious matters. Every night he used to teach us. At Hasankale [Pasinler] we fought against the Russians mercilessly with Molla Said. Before, the Hoja used to wear a turban, but while fighting he would wear what we called a ‘felt hat’.
“At that point I was wounded at Hasankale and drew back. I received this shrapnel wound on my hip, look, it is still open.... I would have died long before but Molla Said wrote out a prayer for each of four of us. We hung them round our necks, and no bullets hit us. At that time there were a hundred infidels firing on one Muslim. In the end I was wounded and they took me back. Molla Said continued to fight. They treated me in Konya, then sent me to the Western, Austrian, Carpathian, and Galician Fronts.
“Molla Said was an heroic person. At the front, he used to lead the attacks on horseback. He was a good shot. He did not go into the trenches. Once, Molla Said was told that some units were about to break up. He immediately removed the cause of their differences, and made sure that they did not disperse. He explained things wonderfully well, it was as though he could cast a spell on people.
“Then during that hell-like war he was writing a book. His students used to write down what he dictated. He was an excellent horseman. They used to heave out great rocks and roll them down on the Russians. He used to say to us: ‘Do not be frightened of anything, a Muslim’s belief is stronger than any power.’ Every night he used to read to us from the books he had written. I could not understand much because I am not educated, but whenever I saw Molla Said, my courage soared. He was a formidable person, but he acted most kindly towards us.”[10. Yalçin, Mustafa, in Son Sahitler, ii, 21-22.]
“Signs of Miraculousness”
The book Mustafa Yalçin describes Bediuzzaman as writing here was his commentary on the Qur'an, Signs of Miraculousness (Ishârât al-I’jaz fi Mazânn al-Ijaz), and it was Molla Habib who used to act as his scribe. Written on horseback, in the trenches, and in the skirmishing lines, this Arabic commentary, only the first section of which was completed, was later acclaimed by the ‘ulama in Damascus and Baghdad, while Ali Riza Efendi, the head of the office for issuing fatwas in Istanbul [Fatwa Emini], described it as: “As powerful and valuable as a thousand other commentaries.”[11. Tarihçe, 99.] In the work, Bediuzzaman described its purpose as follows:
“Our aim from this work entitled Signs of Miraculousness is to explain the indications and signs of the miraculousness present in the Qur'an’s word order. For it is in its word order that an important aspect of its miraculousness is manifested. And it is of the embroideries of its word order that its most brilliant miraculousness consists.”[12. Ishârâtü’l-I’jaz, 11.]
In addition, in the Preface,[13. Ishârâtü’l-I’jaz, 7-8; Tarihce, 99-100.] setting out the method by which Qur'anic commentaries should be written in the modern age, Bediuzzaman explains further his purpose in writing it. He first explains the nature of the Qur'an as Divine speech addressing all men in every age, then points out that it also encompasses the sciences which make known the physical world. Indeed, the Qur'an’s truths become manifest through the discoveries of science. Thus, in the modern age when the cosmos is being opened up and its workings are being revealed by science, commentaries on the Qur'an must keep pace with these giant strides science is taking. Bediuzzaman points out that it is beyond the capacity of an individual or even a small group to be familiar with all the sciences, and a commentary should therefore be written by a committee of scholars who are specialists in a number of sciences, both religious and modern. It will be recalled that among Bediuzzaman’s proposals for educational reform were the ‘combining’ and joint teaching of the religious and modern sciences, specialization, and the application of the principle of mutual consultation.
When Bediuzzaman understood that some great catastrophe was going to occur – he gave repeated warnings of it in the years preceding the First War as many of his students testified, he began to write Signs of Miraculousness on his own. It was because he realized its extreme urgency and importance that he continued to write it in the unfavourable conditions of the front. In fact, he had had a dream or vision around the beginning of the War which had corroborated his premonitions and confirmed his intention to write the commentary.[14. See, Mektûbat, 343; Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 73; Tarihçe, 48.] Thus, he presents the work as a model or example which could be followed by a committee of scholars such as he had described at some point in the future.
Bediuzzaman and His Militia Move South
The Ottomans were unable to prevent the enemy advance in north-east Anatolia, and retreated as the Russians moved on to take Erzurum. Bediuzzaman and his militia withdrew to Van to join its defence against the second major Russian force, though it is not known at precisely what point. There, as the city was being evacuated in the face of the Russian attack, he and a number of his students decided to hold out to the end in the citadel. Unwilling to lose such a valuable figure in that way, the Governor of Van, Jevdet Bey – who was the son of Tahir Pasha the old Governor – insisted that they withdraw to Gevash, on the road to Bitlis. For it was to Bitlis that all the officials, the army, and people of the area were retreating.
There are many incidents recorded of the heroic actions of Bediuzzaman and his volunteers at this stage of the bitter fight to save eastern Anatolia from the Russians and Armenians. At Gevash, as the mass exodus from Van was in progress, a Cossack cavalry regiment staged an attack. Bediuzzaman together with about forty men made a stand against the attack in order to prevent the people and their possessions falling into the hands of the enemy. Climbing a mountain, they attacked the Cossacks at night from above, and deceived them into thinking a large number of reinforcements had arrived. In this way, Bediuzzaman and his force threw the Cossacks into sufficient disarray to allow the people to move on to safety, and Gevash too was saved.[15. Tarihçe, 98; Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 161.]
Many of Bediuzzaman’s students and volunteers fell at this time. Molla Habib also was killed, at Gevash, after having successfully conveyed news of the enemy’s movements to Halil Pasha at the Iranian Front.[16. Tarihçe, 101; Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 161.]
On one occasion when the Ottomans were retreating, the Felt Hats lured the Russians and Armenians – filled with false confidence – into an enclosed valley, and opening fire on them, wiped out the entire force.[17. Sahiner, N. Said Nursi., 162.]
On another occasion, Bediuzzaman and his volunteers were able to recapture thirty large guns off the Russians by surprising them at night. And using them to delay the Russian advance, allowed all the woman and children of the area to be evacuated. Necmeddin Sahiner notes that all these exploits appear in the contemporary military records of the militia forces. Bediuzzaman’s students, too, were famous for their daring and bravery. One of them called Mir Mahey actually crossed into the Russian units several times, and killing as many as ten to fifteen of the enemy returned to his own lines.[18. Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 162.]
Just as Bediuzzaman is mentioned in the Ottoman records, so also do his activities at this time appear in foreign records. One of these, quoted by Necmeddin Sahiner, is the French, Documents Sur Les Atrocités Arméno-Russes, a copy of which is in Istanbul Municipal Library. The following is a translation of just one page:
“Yusuf and Abdurrahman, sons of Mehmed, said the following under oath:
“Our family comes from Nurs, Vavink, And, and Mezraa-i And, the summer pastures of the district of Isparit in the sub-province of Hizan. After the sub-province of Çatak had been occupied by the Russians, the Armenians of the neighbouring villages of Livar, Yukari Kutis, Asagi Kutis, Çaçuan, Sikuar, and Yukari Adr came to the village of Yukari Kutis under the leadership of Lato, also known as Mihran, and Kazar Dilo, both of whom had infiltrated into Anatolia from Russia. They presented three written proposals to the notables there. Among the notables was Molla Said, who is well-known under the name of Bediuzzaman. Was he taken prisoner, or was he killed? I do not know. These were the proposals:
1. Surrender.
2. Evacuate the district.
3. Fight.
“Nine hours after the enemy had arrived, a force of six hundred attacked the village. The enemy soldiers were wearing uniforms and caps. We could not discover whether or not there were Russians soldiers among them. The number of those who looked destitute in the enemy army was extremely high. These could have been Russians or Armenians come from Russia.
“The enemy took all the people of our village to Mezraa-i And. Abdurrahman, the son of Hurshid Bey, one of the notables, was also present together with his son and wife. The following day, thirty-three men and boys, and around eighty women, young women, and girls were moved to Müküs in separate convoys. The women’s convoy was left at Çaçuan, but at night all the men were put to the sword. I was saved from the slaughter because I had been assigned a duty. When they gave me the duty, they said this:
“‘We promise to give you money. Go to Molla Said, and tell him to hand over to us the Armenians who remain there. Tell him there is no benefit in having them killed unnecessarily. The country is just about entirely occupied. The Russians have reached as far as Aleppo. Armenia has been set up. Bring us information about the numbers and strength of the Turkish Army there.’
“This was said to me by Dilo. I set out immediately. When I reached Çaçuan, I saw that our forces, which were formed of gendarmes and Kurds, had arrived there together with our mayor and Molla Said. Our forces under the command of Bediuzzaman Said Efendi were successful in saving the women’s convoy after five hours of fierce fighting. The state of the women was really pitiful. They did not have the strength to walk. Most of the children had been trodden underfoot. And of the thirty-three men, only two of us survived.”[19. Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 162-4.]
When the Armenians massacred the Muslim women and children as well as the men, Armenian children would sometimes be killed in retaliation. But to a degree Bediuzzaman was able to put a stop to this barbaric practice through his example true Islamic conduct, and was able to bring some humanity to the chaos of war. One time, thousands of Armenian women and children had been gathered together in the place where Bediuzzaman was. He issued an order that none of them were to be touched. Then later he released them and they returned to their families in Russian-held territory. The Armenians were so impressed at this example of Muslim morality that from then on they themselves refrained form slaughtering Muslim children. In this way, many innocent lives were saved.[20. Tarihçe, 101.]
The Fall of Bitlis and Capture of Bediuzzaman
Having taken Van to the east of Lake Van and Mus to the west, the Russians moved south with three divisions to attack Bitlis. Their advance was halted for a time by the fierce resistance they met from the Turkish and volunteer forces at the defence line at Mount Dideban. In the appalling February conditions of eastern Anatolia with snow lying to a depth of three to four metres the important centre of Bitlis was evacuated. Once again the women and children, the sick and the lame, the Government officials and dignitaries retreated before the advancing enemy. The Russians were unable to break the Ottoman lines, and it was only through the treachery of the Armenians, who opened up the way for them by capturing Mount Dideban, and setting up machine-guns at crucial points and gunning down many people, that they were finally able to enter the town. Bediuzzaman was in the town with what remained of his volunteers, and fought a fierce hand to hand battle with the enemy cavalry. With one of his legs broken, Bediuzzaman hid with his four surviving students in an underground water conduit. After thirty hours they surrendered to the Russians. We have a description of this from Bediuzzaman’s own pen:
“...Although in one minute three bullets hit me in vital spots, they had no effect. When Bitlis fell, a number of my students and myself found ourselves in the middle of a battalion of Russians. They surrounded us and there was firing on every side. All my friends were killed with the exception of four. Then we broke through the four lines of the battalion and went into a place that was still where they were. Although they were above us and all around us and could hear our voices and coughs, they did not see us. We remained thirty hours in that way in the mud with me wounded; I was preserved with a tranquil heart by Divine succour.”[21. Sikke-i Tasdik-i Gaybî, 124; Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 168.]
Finally, since their lives were in danger from loss of blood and extreme cold, one of them went and informed the Russians of their whereabouts. The Russians came and took them prisoner.
One of those four surviving students of Bediuzzaman’s was Ali Aras from the village of Çoravanis near Van. Also known as Ali Çavus, he wrote down his memories of Bediuzzaman at the fall of Bitlis, and they were published in the newspaper Ittihad six years after his death, in April 1971. They also give a lively account of Bediuzzaman and his Russian captors after they had been taken prisoner.
“The Russians occupied Mus before we reached it. The people who had evacuated Mus said when we met them on the road that all the ammunition together with fourteen heavy guns had remained there. Ustad Bediuzzaman divided up the three-hundred man force according to the fourteen guns and assigned a six-man squad to capture the ammunition. We captured the guns and ammunition and handed them over to a regular regiment which was posted on the Bitlis-Tatvan road. At this point the Russians began to attack from three sides and left us cut off in the Bitlis valley. The defence against the Russians continued day and night for seven days. Three shells hit Ustad. Of these, one hit the handle of his dagger, another his cigarette case, and the third his right shoulder. Kel Ali, the commander of the regular troops, witnessed this and said to Ustad:
“‘Bullets have no effect on you either, Bediuzzaman!’ To which Bediuzzaman replied: ‘If Allah protects a person, even the shells of a heavy gun cannot kill him!’
“At the end of a week’s fierce resistance, the Russians still could not enter Bitlis, so they evacuated the Papshin Han on the Tatvin road and withdrew. Then it was seen that guided by the Armenians, they had skirted round the south of Bitlis by the Güzeldere road by way of Simek, had cut the Bitlis-Siirt road, and were holding the Arab Bridge. After midnight they started the attack on Bitlis. There was very fierce fighting. At this point Ustad’s nephew, Ubeyd,[22. Ubeyd was the son of Bediuzzaman’s eldest sister, Dürriye.] of whom he was very fond, and many of his students, and our friends, were killed.
“Since the Russians had taken the town’s three bridges, Ustad wanted to get to the other side of the town. We jumped down from on top of a conduit which passed beneath a large building next to what is now Kazim Pasha Primary School. Because the water was entirely covered by snow and it was also night-time, we could not estimate the ground, and Ustad hit his leg on a stone and broke it. Showing me a more suitable place underneath the conduit, he said: ‘Get me in there, Ali. Then go. I give you permission. God willing, you will get away.’ I got him in there and sat him down. He continued to insist that I go, but when I said that I was not going and that I wanted to remain and die as a martyr alongside him, he stroked my head with his hand, and said: ‘Fate has made us prisoners.’ I declared that I too had surrendered to fate.
“We remained in the water for about thirty-six hours. The Russians had occupied the building over the conduit and their voices could be heard from below. We were busy planning how we could get out of there when a squad of fifty Russians soldiers arrived. They pulled us all out and took us to a building which was a hotel beneath and in which the Russian Second Army was billeted. They placed us in a room.
“A regimental commander met us. They brought a chicken for Ustad to eat. Two Russian commanders started to speak with Ustad. It was clear they were talking about the War. Ustad was talking to them standing on one leg. It was as though Ustad was the commander and the two Russian commanders were prisoners. Ustad did not take them seriously at all. They realized that his leg was broken, and called a health orderly, who put it in plaster. After about two and a half hours there, we were taken to the Government Building by a detachment of soldiers. A Tatar officer, who we later learnt was a Muslim, took pity on us, and taking us inside, put us in the Governor’s room.
“It was during the first week of our stay in Government House that an aide-de-camp arrived. He asked for Ustad, then said the General had summoned him. They took Ustad to the place the General was staying in Mahallebasi by stretcher, because his leg was broken. Ustad went in. The General asked a number of questions. These were centred on someone well-known called Abdülmecid, who had gone to Iran and was planning to go from there to the Caucasus to organize the Muslims there to fight against the Russians. They wanted information about him from Ustad. Ustad answered the questions as required. The General’s questioning and the coming and going continued for about two weeks. Since we waited in the room outside, we could hear them speaking. We would hear Ustad’s terse answers and sharp retorts, and from time to time the sound of a fist being thumped on the table. We would get worried and shudder at the possibility of being lined up and shot, and when from time to time Ustad emerged from the room, we did not neglect to reproach him because of these sharp exchanges.
“On the twenty-seventh day of our stay in Government House they took us to what was then the Gendarme Station and is now the Courthouse. They had brought there around twenty-five captured officers and government officials, most of whom were high-ranking. Then the General’s aide-de-camp again came, and said to Ustad: ‘Take one of your students, we are sending you away now.’ Ustad took a student called Said. We did not want to part from him. To console us he said to the police chief, Irfan Bey, who also a prisoner: ‘I entrust my students to you. Show them the police there.’
“Before leaving the Gendarme Station, he said as a prayer: ‘I am hopeful that, God willing, you will return, but I cannot say the same for Said.’ And in fact, the student he took with him called Said was killed while fighting the Russians in Turkestan. They separated us from Ustad, and sent us to Russia. Ustad told me on his return from captivity that they had made him wait a further month because his leg was in plaster.
“A month later, they sent Ustad to Van, and from there on to Khuy in Iran, from where he was put on a train for Russia. We remained in Russia thirty months as prisoners. On the Communist Revolution, we got away to Rumania by way of Hungary and handed ourselves over to a Turkish division there. As for Ustad, I read in the newspapers in Rumania that he had got to Berlin by way of Warsaw, the capital of Poland, and from there had returned to Istanbul.
“The 15th Division in Rumania was formed into the North Caucasus Corps with some reinforcements, and I served a further fourteen months in it before being demobilized after the Treaty of Sèvres, when I returned to Van.”[23. Çavus, Ali, ‘Erek Daginda Bir Islam Mujahidi,’ Ittihad Gazetesi, No. 181, 20 Nisan (April) 1971, as quoted in Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 169-174.]
The heroism of Bediuzzaman and his students in defending the east against the Russians and Armenians became legendary among the people of the area. They told also of how the Russians had tried to kill Bediuzzaman on his surrendering to them, and how this desire had been transformed into wonder at this courage, since Bediuzzaman did not so much as wince when they handled his broken leg.[24. Alp, Siddik, in Son Sahitler, iv, 347.] Also one of his students who fought alongside him tells of Bediuzzaman’s anger on learning, when being questioned by the Russians, that the Armenian interpreter was misinterpreting what they said, so that the Russians brought a Tatar interpreter, and his rejection of the Russians’ proposals that he should write letters to all the tribes calling on them to surrender their arms.[25. Molla Münevver, in Son Sahitler, i, 80-1.]
Further interesting documents which have recently come to light in the Archives of the Prime Minister’s Office in Istanbul show that in September of 1916, Bediuzzaman was still in Tiflis in Georgia, presumably receiving treatment for his leg. The first, dated 9 August 1332 (22 August 1916) is from Memduh, the Deputy Governor of Bitlis, to the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Istanbul. It states that the officials held as prisoners-of-war in Tiflis required their salaries to be sent to them. Also in need of money there was Bediuzzaman Said-i Kürdî, who had saved eight large guns from Mus during the fall of Bitlis and had gathered together volunteers. The second, dated 7 Eylül 1332 (20 September 1916), is from the Interior Minister, Tal'at Bey, to the Director of the Ottoman Red Crescent Society, Besim Ömer Pasha, requesting him to send sixty lira to Bediuzzaman in Tiflis by special courier. And the third is Besim Ömer Pasha’s reply, dated three days later, informing Tal'at Pasha that the sixty liras had been changed into 1254 marks and despatched as requested.[26. Sahiner, N. Article in Zaman Gazetesi, 28 Ocak 1992, p.12.]
The Prisoner-of-War Camps
Bediuzzaman was sent to the province of Kosturma in north-western Russia. Firstly, to the town of Kologrif, and then – according to one source, after a period in a large camp further into the northern wastes – to a camp in the town of Kosturma on the River Volga. It was here that a large part of his two years of captivity was spent. There are various accounts of him and his activities in the camp from a number of his fellow prisoners. As the commanding officer of a regiment, he was in a position of authority. This he used to ensure the prisoners’ freedom to practise their religious duties. He won the right for them to perform the five daily prayers, which he led, and secured a room for use as a mosque. Also, as a commander he received a salary which he spent almost entirely on the mosque and things beneficial for the other prisoners. He was in a group of ninety or so officers, to whom he would give ders or religious instruction. Conditions were hard in the camp. The winters long and dark and extremely cold. In this way he endeavoured to maintain the prisoners’ morale.
Mustafa Yalçin, whose description of Bediuzzaman at the Pasinler Front is quoted above, was already at the camp when one day to his amazement he saw that Bediuzzaman had been brought there. Among his recollections, he says:
“...And on our arriving there, they said that some prisoners had arrived from the Eastern Front. We all gathered outside in the camp with interest. There were a lot of prisoners, but there were two they were bringing from the other side and keeping a close eye on. I looked and suddenly saw that these were MOLLA SAID and one of his students, whom we called Iznikli Osman. He was carrying something like a trunk; it had Ustad’s books in it. He did not allow anyone other than Osman to be with him. Osman saw to his needs. He was wounded. He had been wounded in the leg. They treated it there. They put him in a dormitory.
“It was terribly cold. And you could not tell day from night. [In the summer] the sun did not set. And there as well, Molla Said Efendi was not idle at night; he used to go to other camps and read to them, although it was forbidden. He himself used to lead the prayers for us during the day. First of all they intervened and did not let us perform them. Then Ustad spoke to them and they allowed us a bit more freedom. They did not want too many of us to gather together at the same time. We used to call Bediuzzaman ‘Head of Religious Affairs’. He used to explain religion to the Russian guards even. The Russian officers would harass those of them who listened. Molla Said Efendi always boosted our morale. ‘Do not worry’, he used to say. ‘We shall be saved.’ I never knew him sleep at night there. He always read and took notes. He would say to us: ‘These will be Muslims, too, in the future, but they do not know it now.’ We were never frightened or distressed so long as he was with us.”
Mustafa Yalçin went on to describe how one night he escaped along with a group of seventeen other prisoners. Bediuzzaman declined to join them, but among the group was a major who had been trained by him. He acted as their guide, finding the way “from everything from the stars to the moss on the trees.” He continued:
“Molla Said was completely fearless. Night and day he strove for Islam. He always used to say: ‘It is belief in God that is necessary,’ and, ‘Belief in God is worth everything’.”[27. Yalçin, Mustafa, in Son Sahitler, ii, 23-4.]
Another fellow prisoner, Dr. M. Asaf Disçi, recalled that he first saw Bediuzzaman in the town of Kologrif. They were together there for about six months and then Bediuzzaman was sent to another large prisoner-of-camp further into the interior. In Kologrif they were held in a cinema, and he divided off part of it and made it into a mosque. Dr. Asaf Disçi went on to say:
“...Because he was the commander of a regiment, the other prisoners used to be very respectful towards him, but he used to say: ‘I am a Hoja [teacher]’... He lived very frugally. He would make do with two eggs and a slice of bread a day... His time was always full. He would read his commentary on the Qur'an, and teach the prisoners. The officers and men were all extremely deferential towards him... he commanded respect...”[28. Disçi, Dr. M. Asaf, in Son Sahitler, i, 189-190.]
Mustafa Bolay, a prisoner who spent six months in the Kosturma camp with Bediuzzaman, stated that Russians wanted to kill Bediuzzaman and that it was the military high command that had specified his being sent to that camp. Bediuzzaman’s nephew, Abdurrahman, who wrote a short biography of his uncle, corroborated this claim. He wrote:
“They sent my uncle to Kosturma by way of Van, Julfa, Tiflis, and Kologrif. I wanted to describe in detail all the dangers to which he had been subject at this time – the Russian officers had even wanted to kill him on several occasions, then record that he had committed suicide – but he would not permit it, so I just wrote it briefly.”[29. Sahiner, N. Son Sahitler, i, 78-9; Abdurrahman, Tarihçe, 38.]
Perhaps further insight into this is provided by the following statement in ‘Tal'at Pasha’s Memoirs From Exile’, prepared for publication by Cemal Kutay. According to this, Bediuzzaman informed the Ottoman Government that the Bolshevik Revolution would occur. One passage states: “Bediuzzaman Said-i Kürdî, who was in the structure of the Teshkilat-i Mahsusa (the state intelligence service)... provided information from Siberia where he had been exiled concerning the state of the Russians that we would not have been able to learn from any other source.” “We learnt the Bolshevik Revolution would happen from Bediuzzaman Said-i Kürdî.”[30. Zaman Gazetesi, 29 Ocak 1992, p. 12. Cemal Kutay also quotes Eshref Kusçubasi as recalling Bediuzzaman sending the same message to Enver Pasha by means of a letter carried by a Kazan fur trader. See, Kutay, Bediüzzaman, 84.]
Both Mustafa Bolay and Mustafa Yalçin also corroborate an event concerning Bediuzzaman which happened in the prisoner-of-war camp, and doubtless contributed to the awe in which he was held by captors and captives alike. It is described in Bediuzzaman’s biography, and Necmeddin Sahiner gives a longer version from an article by Abdürrahim Zapsu in the magazine Ehl-i Sünnet, which is what we give here:
On one occasion, Nicola Nicolayavich, the Czar’s uncle who at the same time was Commander-in-Chief of the Russian forces at the Caucasian Front, came on an inspection of the camp. While on his tour of it, he passed by Bediuzzaman, who was seated. Bediuzzaman paid him no attention and did not so much as stir. The General noticed him, and finding some excuse, passed in front of him a second time. Bediuzzaman still did not rise to his feet. So he passed by him a third time then stopped. He said to him through an interpreter:
“Do you not know who I am?”
“Yes, I know,” replied Bediuzzaman, and told him.
“So why do you insult me?” asked the General.
“Forgive me, but I have not insulted you. I only did as my beliefs commanded me.”
“What do your beliefs command?”
“I am a Muslim scholar. There is faith in my heart. A person with faith is superior to a person without. If I had risen to my feet, it would have been disrespectful to my beliefs. Therefore, I did not.”
“In which case, you are saying that I am without faith, and you are insulting both myself, and the Army of which I am a member, and my nation, and the Czar. A court martial will be set up immediately, and you will be questioned.”
As the General decreed, a court martial was set up. The Turkish, German, and Austrian officers all came to the headquarters and tried to persuade Bediuzzaman to apologize to the General, but he told them:
“I am eager to travel to the realm of the Hereafter and enter the presence of God’s Prophet, and I have to have a passport. I cannot act contrary to my beliefs.”
Unable to dispute this reply, they awaited the court’s verdict. The examination was completed. Then the decision was given for Bediuzzaman’s execution on the grounds of insulting the Czar and the Russian Army.
When the squad arrived to carry out the sentence, Bediuzzaman requested fifteen minutes “to perform his duty.” This was to take his ablutions and perform two rak'ats of prayers. The Russian General arrived on the scene while Bediuzzaman was doing this. He suddenly realized his mistake and said to Bediuzzaman when he had finished praying:
“Forgive me! I thought you behaved as you did in order to insult me and I acted accordingly. Now I realize you were merely acting as your beliefs required. Your sentence is quashed. You should be commended for your firmness of belief. Once again, I apologize.”[31. Zapsu, Abdürrahim, in Ehl-i Sünnet Mecmuasi, vol. 2, No. 46, 15 Te_rin-i Evvel (October) 1948, quoted in, Sualar, 442-3 and Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 174-5; Tarihçe, 103-4.]
Bediuzzaman mentioned this incident, which demonstrates his extraordinary personal qualities, in a letter to one of his students written when being held in another prison, Afyon, in 1949. The story had appeared in the newspapers. He wrote:
“The incident which happened while I was a prisoner-of-war is basically true, but I did not describe it in detail because I had no witnesses. Only, I did not know [at first] that the squad had come to execute me; I understood later. And I did not know that the Russian Commander had said some things in Russian by way of an apology. That is to say, the Muslim captain who was present and told the newspapers of the incident understood that the commander had said repeatedly: ‘Forgive me! Forgive me!’”[32. Sualar, 441.]
In the spring of 1918, Bediuzzaman found a way to escape amid the confusion following the Bolshevik Revolution. In later years, he wrote an evocative description of his “temporary awakening” in the winter darkness of the days preceding his escape, and the almost miraculous ease with which it was accomplished. The following is a translation of part of the piece, which forms part of the Twenty-Sixth Flash.
“In the First World War, as a prisoner, I was in the distant province of Kosturma in Northern Russia. There was a small mosque there belonging to the Tatars beside the famous River Volga. I used to become wearied among my friends, the other officers. I craved solitude, yet I could not wander about outside without permission. Then they took me on bail to the Tatar quarter, to that small mosque on the banks of the Volga. I used to sleep in the mosque, alone. Spring was close. I used to be very wakeful during the long, long nights of that northern land; the sad plashing of the Volga and the mirthless patter of the rain and the melancholy sighing of the wind of those dark nights in that dark exile had temporarily roused me from a deep sleep of heedlessness. I did not yet consider myself old, but those who had experienced the Great War were old. For those were days that, as though manifesting the verse: A day that will turn the hair of children grey,[33. Qur'an, 73:17.] made even children old. And while I was forty years old, I felt myself to be eighty. In those long, dark nights and sorrowful exile and melancholic state, I despaired of life and of my homeland. I looked at my powerlessness and aloneness, and my hope failed.
“Then, while in that state, succour arrived from the All-Wise Qur'an; my tongue said: God is enough for us; and how excellent a guardian is He.[34. Qur'an, 3:173.]
“And weeping, my heart cried out: ‘I am a stranger, I am alone, I am weak, I am powerless: I seek mercy, I seek forgiveness, I seek help from You, O my God!’
“And, thinking of my old friends in my homeland, and imagining myself dying in exile there, like Niyazi Misri, my spirit poured forth these lines:
Fleeing the world’s grief,
Taking flight with ardour and longing,
Opening my wings to the void,
Crying with each breath, Friend! Friend!
It was searching for its friends.
“Anyway... My weakness and impotence became such potent intercessors and means at the Divine Court on that melancholy, pitiful, separation-afflicted, long night in exile that now I still wonder at it. For several days later I escaped in the most unexpected manner, on my own, not knowing Russian, across a distance that would have taken a year on foot. I was saved in a wondrous fashion through Divine favour, which was bestowed as a consequence of my weakness and impotence. Then, passing through Warsaw and Austria, I reached Istanbul, so that to be saved in this way so easily was quite extraordinary. I completed the long flight with an ease and facility that even the boldest and most cunning Russian-speakers could not have accomplished.
“And that night in the mosque on the banks of the Volga made me decide to pass the rest of my life in caves. Enough now of mixing in this social life of people. Since finally I would enter the grave alone, I said that from now on I would chose solitude in order to become accustomed to it.
“But, regretfully, things of no consequence like my many and serious friends in Istanbul, and the glittering worldly life there, and in particular the fame and honour granted me, which were far greater than my due, made me temporarily forget my decision. It was as though that night in exile was a luminous blackness in my life’s eye, and the glittering white daytime of Istanbul, a lightless white in it. It could not see ahead, it still slumbered. Until two years later, Gawth-i Geylani opened my eyes once more with his book Fütuhu’l-Gayb.”[35. Lem’alar, 224-5; Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 181-2; Tarihçe, 107-8.]
Bab Tujuh: Perang dan Captivity
Bediuzzaman dan The War
Untuk Bediuzzaman, Perang yang dapat dilihat sebagai air. Dia ditunjuk oleh Enver Pasha perintah untuk meningkatkan dan milisi memaksa seorang sukarelawan. [1. Menurut riwayat hidup Bediuzzaman dibuat untuk formulir resmi sementara anggota dari Darü'l-Hikmeti'l-Islamiye pada Oktober 1921, dia "pertama kali bergabung dengan Imperial Army sebagai resimen preman", dan kedua sebagai komandan resimen. Lihat, Albayrak, S. unpaged Lampiran untuk Anak Devrin Islam Akademisi, Istanbul 1973.] Ini Bediuzzaman maka itu, sehingga siswa sendiri pusat yang berlaku. It was a Holy War, dan dilakukan Bediuzzaman ini bounden tugas umat Islam di dua fronts. Selain meningkatkan milisi, pelatihan ke sangat standar tertinggi, yang pribadi dan orang-orangnya yang paling tebal dan tindakan berani, dia terus mengajar murid-murid-Nya sendiri dan ia dirayakan menulis komentar tentang Alquran. Wielding kedua pedang dan pena, ia seperti tokoh dari emas usia Islam, Muslim model. Bitlis ketika jatuh ke Rusia pada awal Maret 1916, Bediuzzaman telah diambil dan menghabiskan waktu dua tahun di berbagai prisoner-of-perang di kamp Kosturma di Rusia. Dia escape, perjalanan di Rusia dan aman, datang ke Warsawa dan Berlin, dan tiba kembali di Istanbul pada bulan Juni 1918. Tetapi kemalangan orang tahanan mereka telah diambil tol pada kesehatan, dan ke depan, juga telah berubah. Yang mengerikan dan kekalahan masa pendudukan asing mengikuti Perang merupakan salah satu inti kekacauan untuk Bediuzzaman, meskipun ia duniawi posisi dan sukses, namun dari New Said telah muncul.
Peristiwa di Timur Muka
Gambar yang pertama dari Perang telah fired ketika Rusia menyerang utara-timur Anatolia pada tanggal 31 Oktober 1914. Pada kesempatan ini, Rusia tidak berhasil, dan invasi telah repulsed oleh tentara Usmani di bawah Enver Pasha. Tetapi dia hanya berhasil dalam hal ini setelah memimpin bencana counter-menyinggung di Sarikamis di arktik kondisi Desember dan Januari sebagai akibat dari yang enam puluh ribu dari-Nya seratus ribu tentara perished kuat. Retreated tentara Rusia, dan Grand Duke Nicholas dikeluarkan pada tahun berikutnya untuk menyelesaikan persiapan akhir dari invasi Anatolia. Operasi ini dia mulai pada 13 Januari 1916. Mengalahkan yang Ottomans di Pasinler dengan tentara tiga kali ukuran dari mereka, yang dimasukkan Erzurum Rusia pada 16 Februari. [2. Danismend, iv, 420, 427, 431.]
Rusia yang telah lama inciting the Armenians untuk bertindak melawan terorisme Usmani negara, dan memberikan dukungan material dan moral bagi masyarakat revolusioner. Sekarang, dalam pengejaran yang independen dari negara di kawasan timur Anatolia, Armenians yang bekerjasama dengan Rusia pada skala besar, banyak masuk tentara Rusia. Sama seperti petugas Armenia telah dimainkan peranan yang menonjol di 1877 invasi dari utara-timur Anatolia. Piuh dan besarkan oleh Armenia nationalists account dari peristiwa yang telah direbut pada 1915 oleh negara Powers dan digunakan dalam propaganda perang terhadap orang Turki, karena mereka telah melakukan itu selama bertahun-tahun.
"Buku dan Arms Side oleh Side"
Pada kedatangannya di Van, Bediuzzaman segera mengatur tentang pembentukan milisi. Selain siswa sendiri, dia melakukan tur semua negara di sekitarnya relawan untuk meningkatkan kekuatan, yang saat dibentuk bernomor empat sampai lima ribu orang. Pada saat yang sama, dia terus mengajar murid-murid-Nya.
Memetik salah satu dari dua teman Dogubayezit yang dihadiri Bediuzzaman's medrese, Necmeddin Sahiner menjelaskan cara untuk pelatihan militer, Bediuzzaman digunakan untuk mengambil-Nya recruits atas Gunung Subhan dan menyiapkan telur untuk praktek sasaran. Dia akan memberikan barang siapa yang memukul telur yang mecidiye [sebuah koin perak] sebagai balasan. Siswa Bediuzzaman sehingga pelatihan ini menjadi sangat ahli dan tebal yang apabila mereka datang ke gunung untuk pelatihan, revolutionaries Armenia yang akan membuat dirinya langka dan pergi ke tempat lain. [3. Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 156.]
Karismatik dengan karakter dan kemampuan untuk inspirasi besar cinta dan kesetiaan di mahasiswa dan pengikutnya, yang manifested mereka sendiri terutama dalam masa uji keras dan kondisi, Bediuzzaman mampu menanamkan mereka, dengan sedikit keberanian sendiri mutlak kekuasaan dan daya tahan, dan memindahkan mereka untuk bertindak sangat kekosenan. Berikut adalah beberapa rekening Bediuzzaman kontemporer, ia medrese, dan ia membentuk milisi, tetapi yang pertama, dua penjelasan singkat kepada kegiatan terhadap Armenians, pertama sendiri:
"Sejak saat itu tahun lalu, Old Said dari siswa Master ketaatan mereka seperti yang telah mereka semuanya telah dikorbankan untuk dia, yang lama Said tidak pernah berhenti di muka yang revolusioner Armenia Tashnak masyarakat, dan mampu mereka mendiamkan sedikit banyak walaupun mereka sangat aktif. Dia ditemukan Mauser pasukan penembak untuk siswa, dan untuk waktu yang telah medrese seperti barak dengan senjata dan buku berdampingan ..."[ 4. Sualar, 439-440.]
"Pada 1331 (1915), dan Rusia di Armenia savages yang tidak berhasil membunuh Bediuzzaman, meskipun digunakan untuk menyerang dia dari setiap triwulan dan mencoba untuk melakukannya. Adapun Bediuzzaman dan pengikutnya, mereka digunakan untuk mencari Armenians mercilessly, yang digunakan untuk melarikan diri sebagai keras karena mereka bisa. "[5. Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 158.]
Dan keterangan dari kunjungan ke Bediuzzaman's medrese-barak diberikan kepada Necmeddin Sahiner oleh Nureddin Burak, yang berhubungan sama persis seperti yang dikatakan oleh ayahnya, Zeyneddin Burak:
"Pada waktu itu di Timur, belajar di medreses adalah seperti ini: yang Hoja (guru) untuk tidak mengajar; sebenarnya, melalui mediasi yang Hoja, orang-orang yang diberikan para siswa 'mata pencaharian. Jadi tidak ada alasan mencegah bahan belajar. Pilihan guru dilakukan hanya melalui berdiri dalam hal belajar. Jadi jika seseorang telah dikenal sebagai sarjana yang besar, ia akan memiliki banyak siswa, semua orang ingin menjadi diajar oleh dia. Pada saat itu, beberapa teman dan saya sendiri berkumpul dan mulai untuk mencari guru yang baik. Kami diberitahu tentang Said yang terkenal di Van, di medrese disebut Horhor Medrese.
"Tiga dari kami pergi sana. Hoja Efendi tidak hadir ketika kami tiba di medrese. Seseorang bernama Molla Habib bertemu dengan kami dan kami diundang di dalamnya. Dia mengatakan kepada kami untuk menunggu berkata Hoja yang akan datang segera. Pada saat ini, yang medrese dari dinding tertangkap perhatian kami. Hung up pada mereka yang di baris Mauser pasukan penembak, dan berbagai senjata, pedang, daggers, dan ikat pinggang-cartridge. Bersama dengan ini telah membaca buku di-berdiri. Benar, kami takjub.
"Dalam jangka pendek, sementara mereka berkata:" Hoja Efendi akan datang. "Kami diluruskan atas diri kita sendiri. Dia masuk, dan berkata: "Selamat Datang! ', Maka kami mengapa kami telah datang.
"Kedua hal yang tertangkap perhatian kami dan kami takjub adalah Hoja dan dari cara berpakaian, karena kami tidak melihat adat Hoja dari pakaian yang kita tahu dan telah diharapkan. Berbentuk kerucut dengan topi di kepalanya, boot pada kaki, ketegangan di pinggang, dan langkah tegas, beliau mengingatkan kami tentang seorang tentara atau pejabat tinggi daripada Hoja. Bahkan, karena pemuda itu, kami berpikir untuk diri kita sendiri: "Aku heran jika ia pelajari. Tetapi kemudian Molla Habib, di tingkat mahasiswa, adalah belajar seperti buku Molla Jami. Dia seperti siswa sersan.
"Kami mengatakan kami telah datang untuk belajar di bawah dia. Maka kami berkata: "Baik, tapi saya memiliki kondisi. Anda dapat pada kondisi yang sesuai dengan mereka. "Kemudian ia menambahkan:" Tidak ada kemungkinan untuk kembali seseorang yang dimulai dengan saya. Dia tetap dengan saya sampai akhir hidupnya. Dan kemudian dia berkata: "Dan tidak berpikir anda dapat menerima dan memberikan kata hari ini, maka biarkan nanti jika anda muak atau untuk alasan lain, karena Gubernur Van teman dekat saya. Saya bisa membawa Anda ke sini melalui dia. Malam ini saya tamu anda. Tinggal di sini dan think it over, kemudian membuat keputusan Anda di pagi hari.
"Kami limbung dan tidak tahu apa yang harus berkata pada proposal. Kami berkonsultasi dengan Molla Habib. Kami bertanya: "Apakah Anda tinggal dengan orang-orang di bawah kondisi Hoja? '' Ya, 'dia menjawab. "Kami memberikan kata sekali kami melakukan hal. Memang benar itu tidak semua yang mudah, namun ia belajar benar-benar luar biasa. Tapi Anda tahu terbaik, lakukan apapun yang tampaknya tepat untuk Anda. "Kami di kepala kami tertunduk malu, dan berkata kami tidak dapat menerima, kiri." [6. Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 156-8.]
Dan akhirnya, pemilik surat kabar Hür Adam, Sinan Omur, ini memiliki kenangan yang Bediuzzaman dan milisi, yang berkaitan dengan dia Necmeddin Sahiner dalam sebuah wawancara.
"Saya adalah seorang pelajar di guru sekolah guru di Istanbul ketika Perang Dunia Pertama pecah. Saya delapan belas tahun pada saat itu, sehingga mereka membawa saya ke dalam Army. Bediuzzaman pertama saya melihat pada bulan Agustus 1331 (1915) di Gunung Subhan. Dia pada kuda putih. Galloping ke atas dan ke bawah, dia meningkatkan prajurit 'semangat. Dia adalah komandan pasukan milisi yang pada saat itu. Dia memiliki serban di kepalanya, dan epaulets pada bahu. Dia terus bergerak di antara relawan di punggung kuda untuk memberikan keberanian. Enver Pasha telah ditunjuk Bediuzzaman kepada kekuatan-kekuatan milisi. Mereka telah lama teman-teman. Bediuzzaman sehingga membentuk milisi di Timur, yang terdiri dari sekitar empat hingga lima ribu orang.
"Para milisi tidak memaksa mereka memperoleh senjata dan ketentuan dari kami, tetapi segala sesuatu yang disediakan untuk mereka sendiri. Mereka selalu pergi di depan Army, dan selalu berjuang di lini depan. Mereka dikenal sebagai merasa Hats. Rusia yang tidak tahu ke mana mereka melarikan diri ketika mendengar: 'yang merasa Hats berasal!'; Mereka tidak tahu apa yang mereka hit. Pada saat itu kami bertengkar hanya untuk prodding, tetapi digunakan untuk menggunakannya pada punggung kuda dan mereka akan memukul apapun di bulus. Mereka digunakan untuk pakaian putih capes sehingga paduan dengan salju tanah dan tidak terdeteksi oleh musuh. Mereka akan melemparkan kuda reins dari lebih dari satu lengan, atau melampirkannya ke kuda dari leher dan membiarkan hewan gratis, maka pada kecepatan galloping, mereka akan api pasukan penembak tak putus-putusnya. Mereka sangat akurat menerus. Sementara komandan relawan yang ditujukan untuk mendorong mereka untuk berjuang, mereka dalam hal-hal yang menyenangkan, relawan yang tidak dapat tetap di tempat mereka squatting di lapangan; secepat pesanan untuk memindahkan diberikan:''Tention! 'Tention!', Mereka akan bertumbuh, dan mereka berada di atas kuda, akan mencongklang off melawan musuh. "[7. Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 158-9.]
Di Muka
Ketika Rusia mulai mereka invasi kedua pada Januari 1916, Bediuzzaman milisi dan dipindahkan ke bagian depan di dekat Pasinler Erzurum. Kedua Rusia memaksa dipindahkan bawah selatan sisi timur Danau Van. Ada di depan yang telah berjuang sengit dingin dan intens. Ottomans yang telah sangat outnumbered. Untuk meningkatkan relawan semangat dalam kondisi yang sulit, jarang Bediuzzaman memasuki trenches, tetapi dipindahkan di sekitar garis depan pada kuda, selalu untuk kedepan yang berjuang. Dia kemudian menulis:
"Pada saat Pasinler Muka Great War, akhir Molla Habib dan saya telah bergerak maju dengan tujuan menyerang musuh. Artileri mereka fired kerang di tiga kami di satu atau dua menit. Tiga kerang lulus kanan atas kepala kami dua meter tinggi, dan meskipun kami prajurit yang bersembunyi di dalam jurang di belakang dan kami tidak dapat dilihat, mereka retreated. Dengan cara tes saya berkata: "What do you say, Molla Habib, saya tidak akan menyembunyikan diri dari kerang ini infidels?" Dan ia menjawab: "Saya tidak akan kembali baik, saya akan tinggal di belakang Anda. 'selanjutnya shell jatuh sangat dekat dengan kita. Divine tertentu yang akan menolong kita melestarikan, saya berkata kepada Molla Habib: "Teruskan! Ini infidels' kerang tidak bisa membunuh kita. Kami tidak akan sudi untuk menarik kembali! ' "[8. Emirdag Lahikasi, ii, 13; Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 160-1.]
Dari beberapa account Necmeddin Sahiner telah dikumpulkan dari prajurit hadir di Pasinler, semua bergerak dari Bediuzzaman menjelaskan tentang trenches di punggung kuda dengan cara ini, dalam menyelesaikan penghinaan dari Rusia shells. Account berikut menyebut terutama kekejaman yang shelling:
"... Ia bersalju dan mana yang putih. Kami mempertahankan negara tercinta kita melawan Rusia. Kami tidak dapat menaikkan kepala kita di atas trenches karena bullets yang jatuh seperti hujan. Kami telah berjuang di bawah tempurung yang jatuh seperti hujan. Ia seolah-olah hanya pecahan peluru telah turun hujan dari langit. Hal yang paling kami berdaya sebelum ini adalah pecahan peluru yang meledak di udara. Ia menghancurkan kami dan kami telah kehilangan berat. Yang pecahan peluru yang meledak di udara yang tersebar ke kanan dan kiri dalam fragmen.
"Hanya saat ini terjadi, Molla Said yang terkenal adalah wisata yang trenches. Dia bergerak naik dan turun di lembah di punggung kuda. Kemudian muncul beberapa orang dari mereka trenches, dan mereka memukul dan dibunuh.
"Saya ingin melihat kedua Molla Said dan mencium kedua tangan, tetapi saya takut menjadi hit. Aku telah mendengar nama sebelumnya, tapi saya telah melihat orang yang besar ini untuk pertama kalinya di depan berdarah di Pasinler. Lalu aku melihat dia datang dengan tingkat saya .... Saya mendengar dia berkata:
"Memerangi bagi Allah! Allah adalah penolong kami! "[9. Arslan, Ahlatli Ismail Hakki, dalam Anak Sahitler, v, 236-7.]
Lain prajurit yang berjuang di bawah Bediuzzaman di Pasinler, Mustafa Yalçin, recalled dia seperti ini:
"... Mereka itu tiba-tiba dari Çanakkale kami, dan kami dikirim ke Front Timur. Kami berada di Divisi kedelapan di Kars, dan di kepala kami adalah Molla Said. Band dari Rusia dan Armenians yang menyerang kami terus-menerus.
"Pada waktu itu, Molla Said digunakan untuk mengajar kami tentang urusan agama. Setiap malam ia digunakan untuk mengajar kita. Pada Hasankale [Pasinler] kami berjuang melawan Rusia dengan mercilessly Molla Said. Sebelumnya, Hoja yang digunakan untuk memakai serban, tetapi ketika ia akan berjuang memakai apa yang kita disebut 'merasa topi'.
"Pada saat itu saya masih di Hasankale luka dan drew kembali. Saya menerima ini luka pecahan peluru di hip, lihat, sekarang masih terbuka .... Saya telah meninggal lama sebelum tetapi Molla Said wrote out doa untuk setiap empat dari kami. Kami hung kami sepanjang leher mereka, dan tidak ada bullets hit kami. Pada saat itu terdapat seratus infidels penembakan pada satu Muslim. Pada akhirnya saya terluka dan mereka membawa saya kembali. Molla Said terus berjuang. Mereka dirawat di Konya saya, saya kemudian dikirim ke Barat, Austria, Carpathian, dan Galisia Fronts.
"Molla Said adalah pahlawan orang. Di depan, ia digunakan untuk memimpin serangan di punggung kuda. He was a good shot. Dia tidak pergi ke trenches. Sekali, Molla Said diberitahu bahwa beberapa unit yang akan berakhir. Dia segera menghapus penyebab perbedaan mereka, dan membuat yakin bahwa mereka tidak bubar. Dia menjelaskan hal sangat baik, ia seolah-olah ia dapat memberikan beristirahat di masyarakat.
"Kemudian selama neraka seperti perang dia menulis sebuah buku. Murid-Nya yang digunakan untuk menulis apa yang dia dictated. Dia penunggang kuda laki-laki yang sangat baik. Mereka digunakan untuk menyembul keluar besar rocks and roll mereka di bawah Rusia. Ia digunakan untuk mengatakan kepada kami: 'Jangan takut tentang apapun, seorang Muslim dari kepercayaan adalah lebih kuat dari segala kuasa. "Setiap malam ia digunakan untuk membaca buku-buku kita dari dia telah tertulis. Saya tidak dapat memahami banyak karena saya tidak berpendidikan, tetapi ketika aku melihat Molla Said, saya keberanian soared. Dia adalah orang yang hebat, namun ia bertindak paling hormat kepada kami. "[10. Yalçin, Mustafa, dalam Anak Sahitler, ii, 21-22.]
"Tanda-tanda Miraculousness"
Buku Yalçin Mustafa menjelaskan Bediuzzaman sebagai menulis di sini adalah komentar-Nya di dalam Alquran, ayat Miraculousness (Ishârât al-I'jaz fi Mazânn Al-Ijaz), dan ia Molla Habib yang digunakan untuk bertindak sebagai sekretaris. Ditulis di punggung kuda, di trenches, dan di skirmishing baris, Arab komentar ini, hanya bagian pertama yang telah selesai, kemudian acclaimed oleh 'ulama di Damaskus dan Baghdad, sementara Ali Riza Efendi, kepala dinas mengeluarkan fatwa di Istanbul [Fatwa Emini], digambarkan sebagai: "Seperti yang handal dan berharga sebagai seribu komentar lainnya." [11. Tarihçe, 99.] Dalam pekerjaan, Bediuzzaman dijelaskan dengan tujuan sebagai berikut:
"Tujuan kami dari karya ini yang berjudul Tanda-tanda Miraculousness adalah untuk menjelaskan tanda-tanda dan indikasi dari miraculousness hadir dalam susunan kata dari Alquran. Untuk itu dalam susunan kata yang penting dari aspek miraculousness adalah manifested. Dan ini yang embroideries dari susunan kata-nya yang paling cemerlang miraculousness terdiri. "[12. Ishârâtü'l-I'jaz, 11.]
Selain itu, dalam Pendahuluan, [13. Ishârâtü'lI'jaz, 7-8; Tarihce, 99-100.] Pengaturan yang metode Qur'anic komentar yang harus ditulis dalam usia yang modern, Bediuzzaman menjelaskan lebih lanjut secara tertulis kepada tujuan itu. Dia pertama menjelaskan sifat Alquran sebagai Divine sambutannya menangani semua orang di setiap usia, maka menunjukkan bahwa ia juga mencakup yang membuat ilmu yang dikenal dengan fisik dunia. Sesungguhnya Alquran dari kebenaran menjadi nyata melalui Discoveries ilmu. Jadi, dalam usia yang modern saat kosmos sedang dibuka dan pekerjaan telah dinyatakan oleh ilmu, komentar pada Alquran harus mengikuti strides raksasa ini adalah mengambil ilmu. Bediuzzaman menunjukkan bahawa ia adalah diluar kemampuan seorang individu atau bahkan sebuah kelompok kecil menjadi akrab dengan semua ilmu, dan komentar itu harus ditulis oleh seorang panitia dari ulama yang ahli dalam sejumlah ilmu pengetahuan, baik agama dan modern . Akan recalled bahwa diantara Bediuzzaman dari usulan untuk reformasi pendidikan adalah 'menggabungkan' dan bersama ajaran agama dan ilmu modern, spesialisasi, dan penerapan prinsip saling konsultasi.
Bediuzzaman bila dipahami bahwa beberapa malapetaka besar akan terjadi - dia memberi peringatan yang diulang dalam tahun-tahun sebelumnya yang Pertama Perang karena banyak orang siswa kesaksian, ia mulai menulis tentang ayat Miraculousness sendiri. Itu karena dia menyadari nya ekstrim urgensi dan pentingnya bahwa ia terus menulis dalam kondisi yang tak baik dari depan. Bahkan, dia telah memiliki visi mimpi atau sekitar awal Perang yang telah ia Corroborated premonitions dan dikonfirmasi kepada niat untuk menulis komentar. [14. Lihat, Mektûbat, 343; Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 73; Tarihçe, 48.] Oleh karena itu, ia menyajikan pekerjaan sebagai model atau contoh yang dapat diikuti oleh komite ulama seperti dia telah dijelaskan di beberapa titik di masa mendatang.
Bediuzzaman Nya Pindahkan Milisi Selatan
Ottomans yang tidak dapat mencegah musuh maju di utara-timur Anatolia, dan Rusia sebagai retreated dipindahkan aktif untuk mengambil Erzurum. Bediuzzaman dan milisi Van diri untuk bergabung dengan pembelaan terhadap kedua kekuatan utama Rusia, walaupun tidak diketahui tepatnya di titik. Di sana, sebagai kota yang sedang diungsikan dalam menghadapi serangan dari Rusia, dia dan sejumlah siswa itu memutuskan untuk bertahan sampai akhir di kubu. Tidak mau kehilangan seperti yang berharga dalam angka demikian, Gubernur Van, Jevdet Bey - yang adalah anak Tahir Pasha yang lama Gubernur - bersikeras bahwa mereka menarik diri ke Gevash, di jalan ke Bitlis. Untuk itu ke Bitlis bahwa semua pejabat, tentara, dan masyarakat di wilayah itu mundur.
Ada banyak peristiwa yang direkam pahlawan tindakan Bediuzzaman dan relawan pada tahap ini yang pahit berjuang untuk menyelamatkan timur Anatolia dari Rusia dan Armenians. Pada Gevash, sebagai massa kepergian banyak orang dari Van telah berlangsung, yang resimen Cossack kavaleri bertahap satu serangan. Bediuzzaman bersama sekitar empat puluh orang telah melawan serangan untuk mencegah orang-orang dan harta benda mereka jatuh ke tangan musuh. Pendakian gunung, mereka menyerang Cossacks pada malam hari dari atas, dan mereka tertipu mengira bahwa sejumlah besar reinforcements telah tiba. Dengan cara ini, Bediuzzaman dan kekuatan yang melemparkannya ke Cossacks cukup mengacaukan untuk mengizinkan orang untuk beralih ke keselamatan, dan terlalu Gevash telah disimpan. [15. Tarihçe, 98; Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 161.]
Banyak dari Bediuzzaman relawan dari mahasiswa dan jatuh saat ini. Molla Habib juga telah dibunuh, di Gevash, setelah berhasil menyampaikan berita tentang musuh dari gerakan ke Halil Pasha di Iran Muka. [16. Tarihçe, 101; Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 161.]
Pada satu kesempatan ketika Ottomans yang mundur, yang merasa Hats lured dengan Rusia dan Armenians - diisi dengan keyakinan palsu - ke dalam sebuah lembah ditutupi, dan membuka menembaki mereka, hendam dari seluruh kekuatan. [17. Sahiner, N. Said Nursi., 162.]
Pada kesempatan lain, Bediuzzaman dan relawan mampu menangkap kembali tiga puluh besar senjata mematikan oleh Rusia mengejutkan mereka di malam hari. Dan menggunakan mereka untuk menunda Rusia muka, diizinkan semua wanita dan anak-anak di area yang diungsikan. Necmeddin Sahiner catatan bahwa semua ini muncul di exploits kontemporer militer catatan dari kekuatan milisi. Bediuzzaman dari siswa, juga untuk mereka yang terkenal keberanian dan kegagahan. Salah satunya bernama Mir Mahey sebenarnya crossed ke Rusia unit beberapa kali, dan membunuh sebanyak sepuluh ke lima belas dari musuh kembali ke baris sendiri. [18. Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 162.]
Bediuzzaman adalah sama seperti yang disebutkan dalam catatan Usmani, sehingga ia juga melakukan kegiatan saat ini muncul di luar catatan. Salah satu ini, dikutip oleh Necmeddin Sahiner, adalah Prancis, Dokumen Sur Les Atrocités Arméno-Russes, salinan yang di Perpustakaan Kota Istanbul. Berikut ini adalah terjemahan dari satu halaman:
"Yusuf dan Abdurrahman, anak-anak Mehmed, mengatakan di bawah sumpah sebagai berikut:
"Kami berasal dari keluarga Nurs, Vavink, Dan, dan i-Mezraa Dan, panas pastures dari Isparit kecamatan di kabupaten yang Hizan. Setelah sub-provinsi Çatak telah dikuasai oleh Rusia, yang Armenians dari tetangga desa Livar, Yukari Kutis, Asagi Kutis, Çaçuan, Sikuar, dan Yukari ADR datang ke desa Yukari Kutis di bawah kepemimpinan Lato, juga dikenal sebagai Mihran, dan Kazar Dilo, baik dari yang telah infiltrated ke Anatolia dari Rusia. Mereka disajikan tiga proposal tertulis kepada kaum bangsawan di sana. Di antara kaum ningrat adalah Molla Said, yang dikenal dengan nama Bediuzzaman. Ia diambil tawanan, atau dia dibunuh? I don't know. Ini merupakan proposal:
1. Menyerah.
2. Mengungsikan kabupaten.
3. Berkelahi.
"Sembilan bulan setelah musuh telah tiba, dengan kekuatan enam ratus menyerang desa. Musuh prajurit yang memakai seragam dan caps. Kami tidak dapat mengetahui apakah terdapat antara tentara Rusia. Jumlah orang-orang yang memandang kekurangan dalam tentara musuh itu sangat tinggi. Ini telah dapat Rusia atau Armenians datang dari Rusia.
"Musuh yang membawa semua orang-orang desa kami untuk Mezraa-i Dan. Abdurrahman, putra Hurshid Bey, salah satu kaum bangsawan, juga hadir bersama istri dan anaknya. Hari berikutnya, tiga puluh tiga laki-laki dan anak laki-laki, dan sekitar delapan puluh perempuan, perempuan muda, dan anak itu pindah ke dalam Müküs terpisah convoys. Perempuan dari konvoi itu di kiri Çaçuan, tetapi pada malam hari semua orang yang membunuh. Saya baru saja disimpan dari pembantaian karena saya telah diberi tugas. Ketika mereka memberi saya tugas, mereka mengatakan ini:
"Kami berjanji untuk memberikan uang. Menuju ke Molla Said, dan kirim ke dia menyampaikan kepada kami yang Armenians yang tetap ada. Kirim dia tidak ada manfaat yang mereka tewas dalam antena. Negara ini hampir seluruhnya diduduki. Rusia yang telah mencapai sejauh Aleppo. Armenia telah menyiapkan. Membawa kami informasi tentang jumlah dan kekuatan Turkish Army di sana. '
"Hal ini dikatakan kepada saya oleh Dilo. Aku segera ditetapkan. Ketika saya mencapai Çaçuan, saya melihat bahwa kami pasukan yang dibentuk dari gendarmes dan Kurds, telah tiba di sana bersama-sama dengan para walikota dan Molla Said. Memaksa kami di bawah pimpinan Bediuzzaman Said Efendi telah berhasil menyelamatkan perempuan konvoi setelah lima jam berjuang sengit. Keadaan perempuan itu benar-benar yg menyedihkan. Mereka tidak memiliki kekuatan untuk berjalan. Sebagian besar anak-anak sudah menjadi biasa telah underfoot. Dan di antara tiga puluh tiga orang, dua di antara kita hanya bertahan. "[19. Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 162-4.]
Bila Armenians Muslim massacred yang perempuan dan anak-anak serta laki-laki, Armenia terkadang anak-anak akan dibunuh di balasan. Tetapi untuk gelar Bediuzzaman mampu menempatkan menghentikan praktek kejam ini melalui contoh Islam yang benar, dan mampu membawa umat manusia ke beberapa kekacauan perang. Satu kali, ribuan Armenia perempuan dan anak-anak telah berkumpul di tempat itu Bediuzzaman. Ia mengeluarkan agar tidak satupun dari mereka adalah untuk disentuh. Lalu kemudian dia dibebaskan mereka dan mereka kembali ke keluarganya di Rusia-wilayah yang diselenggarakan. Armenians yang sangat terkesan saat ini contoh Muslim moralitas yang kemudian dari pada mereka sendiri refrained formulir memotong anak-anak Muslim. Dengan cara ini, banyak kehidupan bersalah telah diselamatkan. [20. Tarihçe, 101.]
The Fall of Bitlis dan Ambil dari Bediuzzaman
Setelah diambil Van di sebelah timur Danau Van Mus dan ke barat, Rusia selatan dipindahkan dengan tiga divisi untuk menyerang Bitlis. Mereka dahulu telah dihentikan untuk waktu yang mereka bertemu dengan perlawanan sengit dari Turki dan relawan pasukan di baris pertahanan di Gunung Dideban. Pada Februari menggemparkan kondisi timur Anatolia dengan salju bohong ke kedalaman tiga sampai empat meter yang penting pusat Bitlis telah diungsikan. Sekali lagi perempuan dan anak-anak, orang sakit dan timpang, pejabat pemerintah dan kehormatan retreated sebelum advancing musuh. Rusia yang tidak dapat memutuskan Usmani baris, dan hanya melalui pengkhianatan dari Armenians, yang membuka jalan bagi mereka menangkap Gunung Dideban, dan menyiapkan mesin-poin penting senjata di bawah pemburuan bersenjata dan banyak orang, bahwa mereka yang akhirnya dapat memasuki kota. Bediuzzaman itu di kota ini dengan apa yang ia tetap relawan, dan yang berjuang sengit peperangan tangan ke tangan dengan kavaleri musuh. Dengan salah satu kakinya patah, Bediuzzaman hid dengan empat siswa hidup di bawah air kanal. Setelah tiga puluh hari mereka menyerah kepada Rusia. Kami memiliki keterangan dari Bediuzzaman kandang sendiri:
"... Meskipun dalam satu menit tiga bullets hit me vital di tempat itu, mereka tidak berpengaruh. Bitlis ketika jatuh, sejumlah mahasiswa dan saya menemukan diri sendiri di tengah sebuah batalyon dari Rusia. Mereka dikelilingi kami dan ada penembakan di setiap sisi. Semua teman-teman saya dibunuh dengan pengecualian empat. Kemudian kita broke melalui empat baris dari batalyon dan pergi ke tempat yang masih di mana mereka. Meskipun mereka di atas kami dan semua di sekeliling kita dan kita dapat mendengar suara dan batuk, mereka tidak melihat kami. Kami tetap tiga puluh hari di jalan di lumpur dengan saya terluka; saya telah diawetkan dengan tenang jantung oleh Divine bantuan. "[21. Sikke-i Tasdik-i Gaybî, 124; Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 168.]
Akhirnya, sejak itu hidup mereka dalam bahaya dari kehilangan darah dan sangat dingin, salah satu dari mereka pergi dan memberitahu mereka di mana Rusia. Rusia yang datang dan mengambil mereka tawanan.
Salah satu dari keempat hidup mahasiswa Bediuzzaman's was Ali Aras dari desa di dekat Çoravanis Van. Juga dikenal sebagai Ali Çavus, dia wrote down his kenangan dari Bediuzzaman pada jatuhnya Bitlis, dan mereka telah diterbitkan di koran Ittihad enam tahun setelah kematiannya, pada bulan April 1971. Mereka juga memberikan hidup rekening Bediuzzaman dan Rusia captors setelah mereka telah diambil pesakitan.
"Rusia yang diduduki Mus sebelum kami mencapai. Orang-orang yang telah diungsikan Mus berkata ketika kita bertemu mereka di semua jalan yang sama dengan empat belas amunisi senjata berat itu tetap ada. Ustad Bediuzzaman dibagi atas tiga ratus orang memaksa sesuai dengan empat belas senjata dan diberi enam-man squad untuk menangkap yang amunisi. Kami yang diambil senjata dan amunisi dan tangan ke atas mereka yang biasa resimen yang diposting di Bitlis-Tatvan jalan. Pada saat ini di Rusia mulai menyerang tiga dari sisi kiri dan kami memotong di Bitlis lembah. Penjagaan terhadap Rusia terus siang dan malam selama tujuh hari. Tiga shells hit Ustad. Dari jumlah tersebut, tekan salah satu gagang pisau belati itu, hal lain yang rokok, dan yang ketiga bahu kanan-Nya. Kel Ali, dengan komandan pasukan yang biasa disaksikan ini dan berkata kepada Ustad:
" 'Bullets ada tidak berpengaruh pada Anda baik, Bediuzzaman" Untuk yang Bediuzzaman menjawab: "Jika Allah melindungi orang, bahkan kerang yang berat senapan tidak dapat membunuh dia!"
"Pada akhir minggu perlawanan sengit, Rusia yang masih tidak dapat masuk Bitlis, sehingga mereka yang diungsikan Papshin Han pada Tatvin jalan dan menarik. Kemudian ia melihat yang dipandu oleh Armenians, mereka skirted sepanjang bagian selatan Bitlis oleh Güzeldere oleh jalan jalan Simek, telah memotong Bitlis Siirt-jalan, dan telah memegang Arab Bridge. Setelah tengah malam mereka memulai serangan pada Bitlis. Ada sangat sengit memerangi. Pada tahap ini Ustad dari keponakan, Ubeyd, [22. Ubeyd adalah anak tertua dari Bediuzzaman saudara, Dürriye.] Dari siapa ia sangat suka, dan banyak orang siswa, dan teman-teman, dibunuh.
"Karena Rusia telah mengambil kota dari tiga jembatan, Ustad ingin mendapatkan ke sisi lain dari kota. Kami melompat turun dari yang di atas saluran air yang lulus di bawah bangunan yang besar sebelah apa sekarang Kazim Pasha Sekolah Dasar. Karena air telah sepenuhnya dilindungi oleh salju dan juga malam-waktu, kami tidak dapat memperkirakan tanah, dan Ustad tekan kakinya di atas batu dan broke it. Menampilkan saya lebih sesuai tempat di bawah saluran air, ia berkata: "Dapatkan saya di sana, Ali. Lalu pergi. Saya memberikan izin. Insya'Allah, Anda akan pergi. 'Saya dia dan duduk di sana dia bawah. Dia terus bersikeras bahwa aku pergi, tetapi ketika saya berkata bahwa saya tidak terjadi dan saya ingin tetap dan mati sebagai martir di samping, ia stroked kepalaku dengan tangan, dan berkata: "Fate telah kami tahanan. Saya menyatakan bahwa saya telah terlalu menyerah kepada nasib.
"Kami tetap di dalam air selama kurang lebih tiga puluh enam jam. Rusia yang telah menempati bangunan di atas saluran air dan mereka dapat mendengar suara dari bawah. Kami sibuk perencanaan bagaimana kita dapat keluar dari sana ketika pasukan dari lima puluh tentara Rusia tiba. Mereka diambil kita semua dan membawa kami ke sebuah gedung yang merupakan hotel di bawah dan di mana Rusia telah billeted Kedua Army. Mereka ditempatkan di kamar kami.
"A komandan resimen kami bertemu. Mereka membawa ayam untuk Ustad untuk dimakan. Rusia dua komandan mulai berbicara dengan Ustad. Ianya jelas mereka berbicara tentang perang. Ustad telah berbicara kepada mereka berdiri pada satu kaki. Ia seolah-olah Ustad adalah komandan dan dua orang tahanan komandan Rusia. Ustad tidak membawa mereka serius sekali. Mereka menyadari bahwa kakinya yang patah, dan disebut kesehatan tertib, yang menaruhnya di turap. Setelah sekitar dua setengah jam di sana, kami dibawa ke Gedung Pemerintah oleh prajurit dari detasemen. J Tatar pejabat, yang kemudian kita pelajari adalah seorang Muslim, mengambil kasihan pada kami, dan kami mengambil di dalam, menempatkan kami di ruang Gubernur.
"Itu pada minggu pertama kami tinggal di Pemerintah House bahwa perwira pembantu tiba. Dia bertanya untuk Ustad, kemudian berkata Umum telah summoned dia. They took Ustad to the place the General was staying in Mahallebasi by stretcher, because his leg was broken. Ustad went in. The General asked a number of questions. These were centred on someone well-known called Abdülmecid, who had gone to Iran and was planning to go from there to the Caucasus to organize the Muslims there to fight against the Russians. They wanted information about him from Ustad. Ustad answered the questions as required. The General’s questioning and the coming and going continued for about two weeks. Since we waited in the room outside, we could hear them speaking. We would hear Ustad’s terse answers and sharp retorts, and from time to time the sound of a fist being thumped on the table. We would get worried and shudder at the possibility of being lined up and shot, and when from time to time Ustad emerged from the room, we did not neglect to reproach him because of these sharp exchanges.
“On the twenty-seventh day of our stay in Government House they took us to what was then the Gendarme Station and is now the Courthouse. They had brought there around twenty-five captured officers and government officials, most of whom were high-ranking. Then the General’s aide-de-camp again came, and said to Ustad: ‘Take one of your students, we are sending you away now.’ Ustad took a student called Said. We did not want to part from him. To console us he said to the police chief, Irfan Bey, who also a prisoner: ‘I entrust my students to you. Show them the police there.’
“Before leaving the Gendarme Station, he said as a prayer: ‘I am hopeful that, God willing, you will return, but I cannot say the same for Said.’ And in fact, the student he took with him called Said was killed while fighting the Russians in Turkestan. They separated us from Ustad, and sent us to Russia. Ustad told me on his return from captivity that they had made him wait a further month because his leg was in plaster.
“A month later, they sent Ustad to Van, and from there on to Khuy in Iran, from where he was put on a train for Russia. We remained in Russia thirty months as prisoners. On the Communist Revolution, we got away to Rumania by way of Hungary and handed ourselves over to a Turkish division there. As for Ustad, I read in the newspapers in Rumania that he had got to Berlin by way of Warsaw, the capital of Poland, and from there had returned to Istanbul.
“The 15th Division in Rumania was formed into the North Caucasus Corps with some reinforcements, and I served a further fourteen months in it before being demobilized after the Treaty of Sèvres, when I returned to Van.”[23. Çavus, Ali, ‘Erek Daginda Bir Islam Mujahidi,’ Ittihad Gazetesi, No. 181, 20 Nisan (April) 1971, as quoted in Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 169-174.]
The heroism of Bediuzzaman and his students in defending the east against the Russians and Armenians became legendary among the people of the area. They told also of how the Russians had tried to kill Bediuzzaman on his surrendering to them, and how this desire had been transformed into wonder at this courage, since Bediuzzaman did not so much as wince when they handled his broken leg.[24. Alp, Siddik, in Son Sahitler, iv, 347.] Also one of his students who fought alongside him tells of Bediuzzaman’s anger on learning, when being questioned by the Russians, that the Armenian interpreter was misinterpreting what they said, so that the Russians brought a Tatar interpreter, and his rejection of the Russians’ proposals that he should write letters to all the tribes calling on them to surrender their arms.[25. Molla Münevver, in Son Sahitler, i, 80-1.]
Further interesting documents which have recently come to light in the Archives of the Prime Minister’s Office in Istanbul show that in September of 1916, Bediuzzaman was still in Tiflis in Georgia, presumably receiving treatment for his leg. The first, dated 9 August 1332 (22 August 1916) is from Memduh, the Deputy Governor of Bitlis, to the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Istanbul. It states that the officials held as prisoners-of-war in Tiflis required their salaries to be sent to them. Also in need of money there was Bediuzzaman Said-i Kürdî, who had saved eight large guns from Mus during the fall of Bitlis and had gathered together volunteers. The second, dated 7 Eylül 1332 (20 September 1916), is from the Interior Minister, Tal'at Bey, to the Director of the Ottoman Red Crescent Society, Besim Ömer Pasha, requesting him to send sixty lira to Bediuzzaman in Tiflis by special courier. And the third is Besim Ömer Pasha’s reply, dated three days later, informing Tal'at Pasha that the sixty liras had been changed into 1254 marks and despatched as requested.[26. Sahiner, N. Article in Zaman Gazetesi, 28 Ocak 1992, p.12.]
The Prisoner-of-War Camps
Bediuzzaman was sent to the province of Kosturma in north-western Russia. Firstly, to the town of Kologrif, and then – according to one source, after a period in a large camp further into the northern wastes – to a camp in the town of Kosturma on the River Volga. It was here that a large part of his two years of captivity was spent. There are various accounts of him and his activities in the camp from a number of his fellow prisoners. As the commanding officer of a regiment, he was in a position of authority. This he used to ensure the prisoners’ freedom to practise their religious duties. He won the right for them to perform the five daily prayers, which he led, and secured a room for use as a mosque. Also, as a commander he received a salary which he spent almost entirely on the mosque and things beneficial for the other prisoners. He was in a group of ninety or so officers, to whom he would give ders or religious instruction. Conditions were hard in the camp. The winters long and dark and extremely cold. In this way he endeavoured to maintain the prisoners’ morale.
Mustafa Yalçin, whose description of Bediuzzaman at the Pasinler Front is quoted above, was already at the camp when one day to his amazement he saw that Bediuzzaman had been brought there. Among his recollections, he says:
“...And on our arriving there, they said that some prisoners had arrived from the Eastern Front. We all gathered outside in the camp with interest. There were a lot of prisoners, but there were two they were bringing from the other side and keeping a close eye on. I looked and suddenly saw that these were MOLLA SAID and one of his students, whom we called Iznikli Osman. He was carrying something like a trunk; it had Ustad’s books in it. He did not allow anyone other than Osman to be with him. Osman saw to his needs. He was wounded. He had been wounded in the leg. They treated it there. They put him in a dormitory.
“It was terribly cold. And you could not tell day from night. [In the summer] the sun did not set. And there as well, Molla Said Efendi was not idle at night; he used to go to other camps and read to them, although it was forbidden. He himself used to lead the prayers for us during the day. First of all they intervened and did not let us perform them. Then Ustad spoke to them and they allowed us a bit more freedom. They did not want too many of us to gather together at the same time. We used to call Bediuzzaman ‘Head of Religious Affairs’. He used to explain religion to the Russian guards even. The Russian officers would harass those of them who listened. Molla Said Efendi always boosted our morale. ‘Do not worry’, he used to say. ‘We shall be saved.’ I never knew him sleep at night there. He always read and took notes. He would say to us: ‘These will be Muslims, too, in the future, but they do not know it now.’ We were never frightened or distressed so long as he was with us.”
Mustafa Yalçin went on to describe how one night he escaped along with a group of seventeen other prisoners. Bediuzzaman declined to join them, but among the group was a major who had been trained by him. He acted as their guide, finding the way “from everything from the stars to the moss on the trees.” He continued:
“Molla Said was completely fearless. Night and day he strove for Islam. He always used to say: ‘It is belief in God that is necessary,’ and, ‘Belief in God is worth everything’.”[27. Yalçin, Mustafa, in Son Sahitler, ii, 23-4.]
Another fellow prisoner, Dr. M. Asaf Disçi, recalled that he first saw Bediuzzaman in the town of Kologrif. They were together there for about six months and then Bediuzzaman was sent to another large prisoner-of-camp further into the interior. In Kologrif they were held in a cinema, and he divided off part of it and made it into a mosque. Dr. Asaf Disçi went on to say:
“...Because he was the commander of a regiment, the other prisoners used to be very respectful towards him, but he used to say: ‘I am a Hoja [teacher]’... He lived very frugally. He would make do with two eggs and a slice of bread a day... His time was always full. He would read his commentary on the Qur'an, and teach the prisoners. The officers and men were all extremely deferential towards him... he commanded respect...”[28. Disçi, Dr. M. Asaf, in Son Sahitler, i, 189-190.]
Mustafa Bolay, a prisoner who spent six months in the Kosturma camp with Bediuzzaman, stated that Russians wanted to kill Bediuzzaman and that it was the military high command that had specified his being sent to that camp. Bediuzzaman’s nephew, Abdurrahman, who wrote a short biography of his uncle, corroborated this claim. He wrote:
“They sent my uncle to Kosturma by way of Van, Julfa, Tiflis, and Kologrif. I wanted to describe in detail all the dangers to which he had been subject at this time – the Russian officers had even wanted to kill him on several occasions, then record that he had committed suicide – but he would not permit it, so I just wrote it briefly.”[29. Sahiner, N. Son Sahitler, i, 78-9; Abdurrahman, Tarihçe, 38.]
Perhaps further insight into this is provided by the following statement in ‘Tal'at Pasha’s Memoirs From Exile’, prepared for publication by Cemal Kutay. According to this, Bediuzzaman informed the Ottoman Government that the Bolshevik Revolution would occur. One passage states: “Bediuzzaman Said-i Kürdî, who was in the structure of the Teshkilat-i Mahsusa (the state intelligence service)... provided information from Siberia where he had been exiled concerning the state of the Russians that we would not have been able to learn from any other source.” “We learnt the Bolshevik Revolution would happen from Bediuzzaman Said-i Kürdî.”[30. Zaman Gazetesi, 29 Ocak 1992, p. 12. Cemal Kutay also quotes Eshref Kusçubasi as recalling Bediuzzaman sending the same message to Enver Pasha by means of a letter carried by a Kazan fur trader. See, Kutay, Bediüzzaman, 84.]
Both Mustafa Bolay and Mustafa Yalçin also corroborate an event concerning Bediuzzaman which happened in the prisoner-of-war camp, and doubtless contributed to the awe in which he was held by captors and captives alike. It is described in Bediuzzaman’s biography, and Necmeddin Sahiner gives a longer version from an article by Abdürrahim Zapsu in the magazine Ehl-i Sünnet, which is what we give here:
On one occasion, Nicola Nicolayavich, the Czar’s uncle who at the same time was Commander-in-Chief of the Russian forces at the Caucasian Front, came on an inspection of the camp. While on his tour of it, he passed by Bediuzzaman, who was seated. Bediuzzaman paid him no attention and did not so much as stir. The General noticed him, and finding some excuse, passed in front of him a second time. Bediuzzaman still did not rise to his feet. So he passed by him a third time then stopped. He said to him through an interpreter:
“Do you not know who I am?”
“Yes, I know,” replied Bediuzzaman, and told him.
“So why do you insult me?” asked the General.
“Forgive me, but I have not insulted you. I only did as my beliefs commanded me.”
“What do your beliefs command?”
“I am a Muslim scholar. There is faith in my heart. A person with faith is superior to a person without. If I had risen to my feet, it would have been disrespectful to my beliefs. Therefore, I did not.”
“In which case, you are saying that I am without faith, and you are insulting both myself, and the Army of which I am a member, and my nation, and the Czar. A court martial will be set up immediately, and you will be questioned.”
As the General decreed, a court martial was set up. The Turkish, German, and Austrian officers all came to the headquarters and tried to persuade Bediuzzaman to apologize to the General, but he told them:
“I am eager to travel to the realm of the Hereafter and enter the presence of God’s Prophet, and I have to have a passport. I cannot act contrary to my beliefs.”
Unable to dispute this reply, they awaited the court’s verdict. The examination was completed. Then the decision was given for Bediuzzaman’s execution on the grounds of insulting the Czar and the Russian Army.
When the squad arrived to carry out the sentence, Bediuzzaman requested fifteen minutes “to perform his duty.” This was to take his ablutions and perform two rak'ats of prayers. The Russian General arrived on the scene while Bediuzzaman was doing this. He suddenly realized his mistake and said to Bediuzzaman when he had finished praying:
“Forgive me! I thought you behaved as you did in order to insult me and I acted accordingly. Now I realize you were merely acting as your beliefs required. Your sentence is quashed. You should be commended for your firmness of belief. Once again, I apologize.”[31. Zapsu, Abdürrahim, in Ehl-i Sünnet Mecmuasi, vol. 2, No. 46, 15 Te_rin-i Evvel (October) 1948, quoted in, Sualar, 442-3 and Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 174-5; Tarihçe, 103-4.]
Bediuzzaman mentioned this incident, which demonstrates his extraordinary personal qualities, in a letter to one of his students written when being held in another prison, Afyon, in 1949. The story had appeared in the newspapers. He wrote:
“The incident which happened while I was a prisoner-of-war is basically true, but I did not describe it in detail because I had no witnesses. Only, I did not know [at first] that the squad had come to execute me; I understood later. And I did not know that the Russian Commander had said some things in Russian by way of an apology. That is to say, the Muslim captain who was present and told the newspapers of the incident understood that the commander had said repeatedly: ‘Forgive me! Forgive me!’”[32. Sualar, 441.]
In the spring of 1918, Bediuzzaman found a way to escape amid the confusion following the Bolshevik Revolution. In later years, he wrote an evocative description of his “temporary awakening” in the winter darkness of the days preceding his escape, and the almost miraculous ease with which it was accomplished. The following is a translation of part of the piece, which forms part of the Twenty-Sixth Flash.
“In the First World War, as a prisoner, I was in the distant province of Kosturma in Northern Russia. There was a small mosque there belonging to the Tatars beside the famous River Volga. I used to become wearied among my friends, the other officers. I craved solitude, yet I could not wander about outside without permission. Then they took me on bail to the Tatar quarter, to that small mosque on the banks of the Volga. I used to sleep in the mosque, alone. Spring was close. I used to be very wakeful during the long, long nights of that northern land; the sad plashing of the Volga and the mirthless patter of the rain and the melancholy sighing of the wind of those dark nights in that dark exile had temporarily roused me from a deep sleep of heedlessness. I did not yet consider myself old, but those who had experienced the Great War were old. For those were days that, as though manifesting the verse: A day that will turn the hair of children grey,[33. Qur'an, 73:17.] made even children old. And while I was forty years old, I felt myself to be eighty. In those long, dark nights and sorrowful exile and melancholic state, I despaired of life and of my homeland. I looked at my powerlessness and aloneness, and my hope failed.
“Then, while in that state, succour arrived from the All-Wise Qur'an; my tongue said: God is enough for us; and how excellent a guardian is He.[34. Qur'an, 3:173.]
“And weeping, my heart cried out: ‘I am a stranger, I am alone, I am weak, I am powerless: I seek mercy, I seek forgiveness, I seek help from You, O my God!’
“And, thinking of my old friends in my homeland, and imagining myself dying in exile there, like Niyazi Misri, my spirit poured forth these lines:
Fleeing the world’s grief,
Taking flight with ardour and longing,
Opening my wings to the void,
Crying with each breath, Friend! Friend!
It was searching for its friends.
“Anyway... My weakness and impotence became such potent intercessors and means at the Divine Court on that melancholy, pitiful, separation-afflicted, long night in exile that now I still wonder at it. For several days later I escaped in the most unexpected manner, on my own, not knowing Russian, across a distance that would have taken a year on foot. I was saved in a wondrous fashion through Divine favour, which was bestowed as a consequence of my weakness and impotence. Then, passing through Warsaw and Austria, I reached Istanbul, so that to be saved in this way so easily was quite extraordinary. I completed the long flight with an ease and facility that even the boldest and most cunning Russian-speakers could not have accomplished.
“And that night in the mosque on the banks of the Volga made me decide to pass the rest of my life in caves. Enough now of mixing in this social life of people. Since finally I would enter the grave alone, I said that from now on I would chose solitude in order to become accustomed to it.
“But, regretfully, things of no consequence like my many and serious friends in Istanbul, and the glittering worldly life there, and in particular the fame and honour granted me, which were far greater than my due, made me temporarily forget my decision. It was as though that night in exile was a luminous blackness in my life’s eye, and the glittering white daytime of Istanbul, a lightless white in it. It could not see ahead, it still slumbered. Until two years later, Gawth-i Geylani opened my eyes once more with his book Fütuhu’l-Gayb.”[35. Lem’alar, 224-5; Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 181-2; Tarihçe, 107-8.]
Bediuzzaman dan The War
Untuk Bediuzzaman, Perang yang dapat dilihat sebagai air. Dia ditunjuk oleh Enver Pasha perintah untuk meningkatkan dan milisi memaksa seorang sukarelawan. [1. Menurut riwayat hidup Bediuzzaman dibuat untuk formulir resmi sementara anggota dari Darü'l-Hikmeti'l-Islamiye pada Oktober 1921, dia "pertama kali bergabung dengan Imperial Army sebagai resimen preman", dan kedua sebagai komandan resimen. Lihat, Albayrak, S. unpaged Lampiran untuk Anak Devrin Islam Akademisi, Istanbul 1973.] Ini Bediuzzaman maka itu, sehingga siswa sendiri pusat yang berlaku. It was a Holy War, dan dilakukan Bediuzzaman ini bounden tugas umat Islam di dua fronts. Selain meningkatkan milisi, pelatihan ke sangat standar tertinggi, yang pribadi dan orang-orangnya yang paling tebal dan tindakan berani, dia terus mengajar murid-murid-Nya sendiri dan ia dirayakan menulis komentar tentang Alquran. Wielding kedua pedang dan pena, ia seperti tokoh dari emas usia Islam, Muslim model. Bitlis ketika jatuh ke Rusia pada awal Maret 1916, Bediuzzaman telah diambil dan menghabiskan waktu dua tahun di berbagai prisoner-of-perang di kamp Kosturma di Rusia. Dia escape, perjalanan di Rusia dan aman, datang ke Warsawa dan Berlin, dan tiba kembali di Istanbul pada bulan Juni 1918. Tetapi kemalangan orang tahanan mereka telah diambil tol pada kesehatan, dan ke depan, juga telah berubah. Yang mengerikan dan kekalahan masa pendudukan asing mengikuti Perang merupakan salah satu inti kekacauan untuk Bediuzzaman, meskipun ia duniawi posisi dan sukses, namun dari New Said telah muncul.
Peristiwa di Timur Muka
Gambar yang pertama dari Perang telah fired ketika Rusia menyerang utara-timur Anatolia pada tanggal 31 Oktober 1914. Pada kesempatan ini, Rusia tidak berhasil, dan invasi telah repulsed oleh tentara Usmani di bawah Enver Pasha. Tetapi dia hanya berhasil dalam hal ini setelah memimpin bencana counter-menyinggung di Sarikamis di arktik kondisi Desember dan Januari sebagai akibat dari yang enam puluh ribu dari-Nya seratus ribu tentara perished kuat. Retreated tentara Rusia, dan Grand Duke Nicholas dikeluarkan pada tahun berikutnya untuk menyelesaikan persiapan akhir dari invasi Anatolia. Operasi ini dia mulai pada 13 Januari 1916. Mengalahkan yang Ottomans di Pasinler dengan tentara tiga kali ukuran dari mereka, yang dimasukkan Erzurum Rusia pada 16 Februari. [2. Danismend, iv, 420, 427, 431.]
Rusia yang telah lama inciting the Armenians untuk bertindak melawan terorisme Usmani negara, dan memberikan dukungan material dan moral bagi masyarakat revolusioner. Sekarang, dalam pengejaran yang independen dari negara di kawasan timur Anatolia, Armenians yang bekerjasama dengan Rusia pada skala besar, banyak masuk tentara Rusia. Sama seperti petugas Armenia telah dimainkan peranan yang menonjol di 1877 invasi dari utara-timur Anatolia. Piuh dan besarkan oleh Armenia nationalists account dari peristiwa yang telah direbut pada 1915 oleh negara Powers dan digunakan dalam propaganda perang terhadap orang Turki, karena mereka telah melakukan itu selama bertahun-tahun.
"Buku dan Arms Side oleh Side"
Pada kedatangannya di Van, Bediuzzaman segera mengatur tentang pembentukan milisi. Selain siswa sendiri, dia melakukan tur semua negara di sekitarnya relawan untuk meningkatkan kekuatan, yang saat dibentuk bernomor empat sampai lima ribu orang. Pada saat yang sama, dia terus mengajar murid-murid-Nya.
Memetik salah satu dari dua teman Dogubayezit yang dihadiri Bediuzzaman's medrese, Necmeddin Sahiner menjelaskan cara untuk pelatihan militer, Bediuzzaman digunakan untuk mengambil-Nya recruits atas Gunung Subhan dan menyiapkan telur untuk praktek sasaran. Dia akan memberikan barang siapa yang memukul telur yang mecidiye [sebuah koin perak] sebagai balasan. Siswa Bediuzzaman sehingga pelatihan ini menjadi sangat ahli dan tebal yang apabila mereka datang ke gunung untuk pelatihan, revolutionaries Armenia yang akan membuat dirinya langka dan pergi ke tempat lain. [3. Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 156.]
Karismatik dengan karakter dan kemampuan untuk inspirasi besar cinta dan kesetiaan di mahasiswa dan pengikutnya, yang manifested mereka sendiri terutama dalam masa uji keras dan kondisi, Bediuzzaman mampu menanamkan mereka, dengan sedikit keberanian sendiri mutlak kekuasaan dan daya tahan, dan memindahkan mereka untuk bertindak sangat kekosenan. Berikut adalah beberapa rekening Bediuzzaman kontemporer, ia medrese, dan ia membentuk milisi, tetapi yang pertama, dua penjelasan singkat kepada kegiatan terhadap Armenians, pertama sendiri:
"Sejak saat itu tahun lalu, Old Said dari siswa Master ketaatan mereka seperti yang telah mereka semuanya telah dikorbankan untuk dia, yang lama Said tidak pernah berhenti di muka yang revolusioner Armenia Tashnak masyarakat, dan mampu mereka mendiamkan sedikit banyak walaupun mereka sangat aktif. Dia ditemukan Mauser pasukan penembak untuk siswa, dan untuk waktu yang telah medrese seperti barak dengan senjata dan buku berdampingan ..."[ 4. Sualar, 439-440.]
"Pada 1331 (1915), dan Rusia di Armenia savages yang tidak berhasil membunuh Bediuzzaman, meskipun digunakan untuk menyerang dia dari setiap triwulan dan mencoba untuk melakukannya. Adapun Bediuzzaman dan pengikutnya, mereka digunakan untuk mencari Armenians mercilessly, yang digunakan untuk melarikan diri sebagai keras karena mereka bisa. "[5. Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 158.]
Dan keterangan dari kunjungan ke Bediuzzaman's medrese-barak diberikan kepada Necmeddin Sahiner oleh Nureddin Burak, yang berhubungan sama persis seperti yang dikatakan oleh ayahnya, Zeyneddin Burak:
"Pada waktu itu di Timur, belajar di medreses adalah seperti ini: yang Hoja (guru) untuk tidak mengajar; sebenarnya, melalui mediasi yang Hoja, orang-orang yang diberikan para siswa 'mata pencaharian. Jadi tidak ada alasan mencegah bahan belajar. Pilihan guru dilakukan hanya melalui berdiri dalam hal belajar. Jadi jika seseorang telah dikenal sebagai sarjana yang besar, ia akan memiliki banyak siswa, semua orang ingin menjadi diajar oleh dia. Pada saat itu, beberapa teman dan saya sendiri berkumpul dan mulai untuk mencari guru yang baik. Kami diberitahu tentang Said yang terkenal di Van, di medrese disebut Horhor Medrese.
"Tiga dari kami pergi sana. Hoja Efendi tidak hadir ketika kami tiba di medrese. Seseorang bernama Molla Habib bertemu dengan kami dan kami diundang di dalamnya. Dia mengatakan kepada kami untuk menunggu berkata Hoja yang akan datang segera. Pada saat ini, yang medrese dari dinding tertangkap perhatian kami. Hung up pada mereka yang di baris Mauser pasukan penembak, dan berbagai senjata, pedang, daggers, dan ikat pinggang-cartridge. Bersama dengan ini telah membaca buku di-berdiri. Benar, kami takjub.
"Dalam jangka pendek, sementara mereka berkata:" Hoja Efendi akan datang. "Kami diluruskan atas diri kita sendiri. Dia masuk, dan berkata: "Selamat Datang! ', Maka kami mengapa kami telah datang.
"Kedua hal yang tertangkap perhatian kami dan kami takjub adalah Hoja dan dari cara berpakaian, karena kami tidak melihat adat Hoja dari pakaian yang kita tahu dan telah diharapkan. Berbentuk kerucut dengan topi di kepalanya, boot pada kaki, ketegangan di pinggang, dan langkah tegas, beliau mengingatkan kami tentang seorang tentara atau pejabat tinggi daripada Hoja. Bahkan, karena pemuda itu, kami berpikir untuk diri kita sendiri: "Aku heran jika ia pelajari. Tetapi kemudian Molla Habib, di tingkat mahasiswa, adalah belajar seperti buku Molla Jami. Dia seperti siswa sersan.
"Kami mengatakan kami telah datang untuk belajar di bawah dia. Maka kami berkata: "Baik, tapi saya memiliki kondisi. Anda dapat pada kondisi yang sesuai dengan mereka. "Kemudian ia menambahkan:" Tidak ada kemungkinan untuk kembali seseorang yang dimulai dengan saya. Dia tetap dengan saya sampai akhir hidupnya. Dan kemudian dia berkata: "Dan tidak berpikir anda dapat menerima dan memberikan kata hari ini, maka biarkan nanti jika anda muak atau untuk alasan lain, karena Gubernur Van teman dekat saya. Saya bisa membawa Anda ke sini melalui dia. Malam ini saya tamu anda. Tinggal di sini dan think it over, kemudian membuat keputusan Anda di pagi hari.
"Kami limbung dan tidak tahu apa yang harus berkata pada proposal. Kami berkonsultasi dengan Molla Habib. Kami bertanya: "Apakah Anda tinggal dengan orang-orang di bawah kondisi Hoja? '' Ya, 'dia menjawab. "Kami memberikan kata sekali kami melakukan hal. Memang benar itu tidak semua yang mudah, namun ia belajar benar-benar luar biasa. Tapi Anda tahu terbaik, lakukan apapun yang tampaknya tepat untuk Anda. "Kami di kepala kami tertunduk malu, dan berkata kami tidak dapat menerima, kiri." [6. Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 156-8.]
Dan akhirnya, pemilik surat kabar Hür Adam, Sinan Omur, ini memiliki kenangan yang Bediuzzaman dan milisi, yang berkaitan dengan dia Necmeddin Sahiner dalam sebuah wawancara.
"Saya adalah seorang pelajar di guru sekolah guru di Istanbul ketika Perang Dunia Pertama pecah. Saya delapan belas tahun pada saat itu, sehingga mereka membawa saya ke dalam Army. Bediuzzaman pertama saya melihat pada bulan Agustus 1331 (1915) di Gunung Subhan. Dia pada kuda putih. Galloping ke atas dan ke bawah, dia meningkatkan prajurit 'semangat. Dia adalah komandan pasukan milisi yang pada saat itu. Dia memiliki serban di kepalanya, dan epaulets pada bahu. Dia terus bergerak di antara relawan di punggung kuda untuk memberikan keberanian. Enver Pasha telah ditunjuk Bediuzzaman kepada kekuatan-kekuatan milisi. Mereka telah lama teman-teman. Bediuzzaman sehingga membentuk milisi di Timur, yang terdiri dari sekitar empat hingga lima ribu orang.
"Para milisi tidak memaksa mereka memperoleh senjata dan ketentuan dari kami, tetapi segala sesuatu yang disediakan untuk mereka sendiri. Mereka selalu pergi di depan Army, dan selalu berjuang di lini depan. Mereka dikenal sebagai merasa Hats. Rusia yang tidak tahu ke mana mereka melarikan diri ketika mendengar: 'yang merasa Hats berasal!'; Mereka tidak tahu apa yang mereka hit. Pada saat itu kami bertengkar hanya untuk prodding, tetapi digunakan untuk menggunakannya pada punggung kuda dan mereka akan memukul apapun di bulus. Mereka digunakan untuk pakaian putih capes sehingga paduan dengan salju tanah dan tidak terdeteksi oleh musuh. Mereka akan melemparkan kuda reins dari lebih dari satu lengan, atau melampirkannya ke kuda dari leher dan membiarkan hewan gratis, maka pada kecepatan galloping, mereka akan api pasukan penembak tak putus-putusnya. Mereka sangat akurat menerus. Sementara komandan relawan yang ditujukan untuk mendorong mereka untuk berjuang, mereka dalam hal-hal yang menyenangkan, relawan yang tidak dapat tetap di tempat mereka squatting di lapangan; secepat pesanan untuk memindahkan diberikan:''Tention! 'Tention!', Mereka akan bertumbuh, dan mereka berada di atas kuda, akan mencongklang off melawan musuh. "[7. Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 158-9.]
Di Muka
Ketika Rusia mulai mereka invasi kedua pada Januari 1916, Bediuzzaman milisi dan dipindahkan ke bagian depan di dekat Pasinler Erzurum. Kedua Rusia memaksa dipindahkan bawah selatan sisi timur Danau Van. Ada di depan yang telah berjuang sengit dingin dan intens. Ottomans yang telah sangat outnumbered. Untuk meningkatkan relawan semangat dalam kondisi yang sulit, jarang Bediuzzaman memasuki trenches, tetapi dipindahkan di sekitar garis depan pada kuda, selalu untuk kedepan yang berjuang. Dia kemudian menulis:
"Pada saat Pasinler Muka Great War, akhir Molla Habib dan saya telah bergerak maju dengan tujuan menyerang musuh. Artileri mereka fired kerang di tiga kami di satu atau dua menit. Tiga kerang lulus kanan atas kepala kami dua meter tinggi, dan meskipun kami prajurit yang bersembunyi di dalam jurang di belakang dan kami tidak dapat dilihat, mereka retreated. Dengan cara tes saya berkata: "What do you say, Molla Habib, saya tidak akan menyembunyikan diri dari kerang ini infidels?" Dan ia menjawab: "Saya tidak akan kembali baik, saya akan tinggal di belakang Anda. 'selanjutnya shell jatuh sangat dekat dengan kita. Divine tertentu yang akan menolong kita melestarikan, saya berkata kepada Molla Habib: "Teruskan! Ini infidels' kerang tidak bisa membunuh kita. Kami tidak akan sudi untuk menarik kembali! ' "[8. Emirdag Lahikasi, ii, 13; Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 160-1.]
Dari beberapa account Necmeddin Sahiner telah dikumpulkan dari prajurit hadir di Pasinler, semua bergerak dari Bediuzzaman menjelaskan tentang trenches di punggung kuda dengan cara ini, dalam menyelesaikan penghinaan dari Rusia shells. Account berikut menyebut terutama kekejaman yang shelling:
"... Ia bersalju dan mana yang putih. Kami mempertahankan negara tercinta kita melawan Rusia. Kami tidak dapat menaikkan kepala kita di atas trenches karena bullets yang jatuh seperti hujan. Kami telah berjuang di bawah tempurung yang jatuh seperti hujan. Ia seolah-olah hanya pecahan peluru telah turun hujan dari langit. Hal yang paling kami berdaya sebelum ini adalah pecahan peluru yang meledak di udara. Ia menghancurkan kami dan kami telah kehilangan berat. Yang pecahan peluru yang meledak di udara yang tersebar ke kanan dan kiri dalam fragmen.
"Hanya saat ini terjadi, Molla Said yang terkenal adalah wisata yang trenches. Dia bergerak naik dan turun di lembah di punggung kuda. Kemudian muncul beberapa orang dari mereka trenches, dan mereka memukul dan dibunuh.
"Saya ingin melihat kedua Molla Said dan mencium kedua tangan, tetapi saya takut menjadi hit. Aku telah mendengar nama sebelumnya, tapi saya telah melihat orang yang besar ini untuk pertama kalinya di depan berdarah di Pasinler. Lalu aku melihat dia datang dengan tingkat saya .... Saya mendengar dia berkata:
"Memerangi bagi Allah! Allah adalah penolong kami! "[9. Arslan, Ahlatli Ismail Hakki, dalam Anak Sahitler, v, 236-7.]
Lain prajurit yang berjuang di bawah Bediuzzaman di Pasinler, Mustafa Yalçin, recalled dia seperti ini:
"... Mereka itu tiba-tiba dari Çanakkale kami, dan kami dikirim ke Front Timur. Kami berada di Divisi kedelapan di Kars, dan di kepala kami adalah Molla Said. Band dari Rusia dan Armenians yang menyerang kami terus-menerus.
"Pada waktu itu, Molla Said digunakan untuk mengajar kami tentang urusan agama. Setiap malam ia digunakan untuk mengajar kita. Pada Hasankale [Pasinler] kami berjuang melawan Rusia dengan mercilessly Molla Said. Sebelumnya, Hoja yang digunakan untuk memakai serban, tetapi ketika ia akan berjuang memakai apa yang kita disebut 'merasa topi'.
"Pada saat itu saya masih di Hasankale luka dan drew kembali. Saya menerima ini luka pecahan peluru di hip, lihat, sekarang masih terbuka .... Saya telah meninggal lama sebelum tetapi Molla Said wrote out doa untuk setiap empat dari kami. Kami hung kami sepanjang leher mereka, dan tidak ada bullets hit kami. Pada saat itu terdapat seratus infidels penembakan pada satu Muslim. Pada akhirnya saya terluka dan mereka membawa saya kembali. Molla Said terus berjuang. Mereka dirawat di Konya saya, saya kemudian dikirim ke Barat, Austria, Carpathian, dan Galisia Fronts.
"Molla Said adalah pahlawan orang. Di depan, ia digunakan untuk memimpin serangan di punggung kuda. He was a good shot. Dia tidak pergi ke trenches. Sekali, Molla Said diberitahu bahwa beberapa unit yang akan berakhir. Dia segera menghapus penyebab perbedaan mereka, dan membuat yakin bahwa mereka tidak bubar. Dia menjelaskan hal sangat baik, ia seolah-olah ia dapat memberikan beristirahat di masyarakat.
"Kemudian selama neraka seperti perang dia menulis sebuah buku. Murid-Nya yang digunakan untuk menulis apa yang dia dictated. Dia penunggang kuda laki-laki yang sangat baik. Mereka digunakan untuk menyembul keluar besar rocks and roll mereka di bawah Rusia. Ia digunakan untuk mengatakan kepada kami: 'Jangan takut tentang apapun, seorang Muslim dari kepercayaan adalah lebih kuat dari segala kuasa. "Setiap malam ia digunakan untuk membaca buku-buku kita dari dia telah tertulis. Saya tidak dapat memahami banyak karena saya tidak berpendidikan, tetapi ketika aku melihat Molla Said, saya keberanian soared. Dia adalah orang yang hebat, namun ia bertindak paling hormat kepada kami. "[10. Yalçin, Mustafa, dalam Anak Sahitler, ii, 21-22.]
"Tanda-tanda Miraculousness"
Buku Yalçin Mustafa menjelaskan Bediuzzaman sebagai menulis di sini adalah komentar-Nya di dalam Alquran, ayat Miraculousness (Ishârât al-I'jaz fi Mazânn Al-Ijaz), dan ia Molla Habib yang digunakan untuk bertindak sebagai sekretaris. Ditulis di punggung kuda, di trenches, dan di skirmishing baris, Arab komentar ini, hanya bagian pertama yang telah selesai, kemudian acclaimed oleh 'ulama di Damaskus dan Baghdad, sementara Ali Riza Efendi, kepala dinas mengeluarkan fatwa di Istanbul [Fatwa Emini], digambarkan sebagai: "Seperti yang handal dan berharga sebagai seribu komentar lainnya." [11. Tarihçe, 99.] Dalam pekerjaan, Bediuzzaman dijelaskan dengan tujuan sebagai berikut:
"Tujuan kami dari karya ini yang berjudul Tanda-tanda Miraculousness adalah untuk menjelaskan tanda-tanda dan indikasi dari miraculousness hadir dalam susunan kata dari Alquran. Untuk itu dalam susunan kata yang penting dari aspek miraculousness adalah manifested. Dan ini yang embroideries dari susunan kata-nya yang paling cemerlang miraculousness terdiri. "[12. Ishârâtü'l-I'jaz, 11.]
Selain itu, dalam Pendahuluan, [13. Ishârâtü'lI'jaz, 7-8; Tarihce, 99-100.] Pengaturan yang metode Qur'anic komentar yang harus ditulis dalam usia yang modern, Bediuzzaman menjelaskan lebih lanjut secara tertulis kepada tujuan itu. Dia pertama menjelaskan sifat Alquran sebagai Divine sambutannya menangani semua orang di setiap usia, maka menunjukkan bahwa ia juga mencakup yang membuat ilmu yang dikenal dengan fisik dunia. Sesungguhnya Alquran dari kebenaran menjadi nyata melalui Discoveries ilmu. Jadi, dalam usia yang modern saat kosmos sedang dibuka dan pekerjaan telah dinyatakan oleh ilmu, komentar pada Alquran harus mengikuti strides raksasa ini adalah mengambil ilmu. Bediuzzaman menunjukkan bahawa ia adalah diluar kemampuan seorang individu atau bahkan sebuah kelompok kecil menjadi akrab dengan semua ilmu, dan komentar itu harus ditulis oleh seorang panitia dari ulama yang ahli dalam sejumlah ilmu pengetahuan, baik agama dan modern . Akan recalled bahwa diantara Bediuzzaman dari usulan untuk reformasi pendidikan adalah 'menggabungkan' dan bersama ajaran agama dan ilmu modern, spesialisasi, dan penerapan prinsip saling konsultasi.
Bediuzzaman bila dipahami bahwa beberapa malapetaka besar akan terjadi - dia memberi peringatan yang diulang dalam tahun-tahun sebelumnya yang Pertama Perang karena banyak orang siswa kesaksian, ia mulai menulis tentang ayat Miraculousness sendiri. Itu karena dia menyadari nya ekstrim urgensi dan pentingnya bahwa ia terus menulis dalam kondisi yang tak baik dari depan. Bahkan, dia telah memiliki visi mimpi atau sekitar awal Perang yang telah ia Corroborated premonitions dan dikonfirmasi kepada niat untuk menulis komentar. [14. Lihat, Mektûbat, 343; Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 73; Tarihçe, 48.] Oleh karena itu, ia menyajikan pekerjaan sebagai model atau contoh yang dapat diikuti oleh komite ulama seperti dia telah dijelaskan di beberapa titik di masa mendatang.
Bediuzzaman Nya Pindahkan Milisi Selatan
Ottomans yang tidak dapat mencegah musuh maju di utara-timur Anatolia, dan Rusia sebagai retreated dipindahkan aktif untuk mengambil Erzurum. Bediuzzaman dan milisi Van diri untuk bergabung dengan pembelaan terhadap kedua kekuatan utama Rusia, walaupun tidak diketahui tepatnya di titik. Di sana, sebagai kota yang sedang diungsikan dalam menghadapi serangan dari Rusia, dia dan sejumlah siswa itu memutuskan untuk bertahan sampai akhir di kubu. Tidak mau kehilangan seperti yang berharga dalam angka demikian, Gubernur Van, Jevdet Bey - yang adalah anak Tahir Pasha yang lama Gubernur - bersikeras bahwa mereka menarik diri ke Gevash, di jalan ke Bitlis. Untuk itu ke Bitlis bahwa semua pejabat, tentara, dan masyarakat di wilayah itu mundur.
Ada banyak peristiwa yang direkam pahlawan tindakan Bediuzzaman dan relawan pada tahap ini yang pahit berjuang untuk menyelamatkan timur Anatolia dari Rusia dan Armenians. Pada Gevash, sebagai massa kepergian banyak orang dari Van telah berlangsung, yang resimen Cossack kavaleri bertahap satu serangan. Bediuzzaman bersama sekitar empat puluh orang telah melawan serangan untuk mencegah orang-orang dan harta benda mereka jatuh ke tangan musuh. Pendakian gunung, mereka menyerang Cossacks pada malam hari dari atas, dan mereka tertipu mengira bahwa sejumlah besar reinforcements telah tiba. Dengan cara ini, Bediuzzaman dan kekuatan yang melemparkannya ke Cossacks cukup mengacaukan untuk mengizinkan orang untuk beralih ke keselamatan, dan terlalu Gevash telah disimpan. [15. Tarihçe, 98; Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 161.]
Banyak dari Bediuzzaman relawan dari mahasiswa dan jatuh saat ini. Molla Habib juga telah dibunuh, di Gevash, setelah berhasil menyampaikan berita tentang musuh dari gerakan ke Halil Pasha di Iran Muka. [16. Tarihçe, 101; Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 161.]
Pada satu kesempatan ketika Ottomans yang mundur, yang merasa Hats lured dengan Rusia dan Armenians - diisi dengan keyakinan palsu - ke dalam sebuah lembah ditutupi, dan membuka menembaki mereka, hendam dari seluruh kekuatan. [17. Sahiner, N. Said Nursi., 162.]
Pada kesempatan lain, Bediuzzaman dan relawan mampu menangkap kembali tiga puluh besar senjata mematikan oleh Rusia mengejutkan mereka di malam hari. Dan menggunakan mereka untuk menunda Rusia muka, diizinkan semua wanita dan anak-anak di area yang diungsikan. Necmeddin Sahiner catatan bahwa semua ini muncul di exploits kontemporer militer catatan dari kekuatan milisi. Bediuzzaman dari siswa, juga untuk mereka yang terkenal keberanian dan kegagahan. Salah satunya bernama Mir Mahey sebenarnya crossed ke Rusia unit beberapa kali, dan membunuh sebanyak sepuluh ke lima belas dari musuh kembali ke baris sendiri. [18. Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 162.]
Bediuzzaman adalah sama seperti yang disebutkan dalam catatan Usmani, sehingga ia juga melakukan kegiatan saat ini muncul di luar catatan. Salah satu ini, dikutip oleh Necmeddin Sahiner, adalah Prancis, Dokumen Sur Les Atrocités Arméno-Russes, salinan yang di Perpustakaan Kota Istanbul. Berikut ini adalah terjemahan dari satu halaman:
"Yusuf dan Abdurrahman, anak-anak Mehmed, mengatakan di bawah sumpah sebagai berikut:
"Kami berasal dari keluarga Nurs, Vavink, Dan, dan i-Mezraa Dan, panas pastures dari Isparit kecamatan di kabupaten yang Hizan. Setelah sub-provinsi Çatak telah dikuasai oleh Rusia, yang Armenians dari tetangga desa Livar, Yukari Kutis, Asagi Kutis, Çaçuan, Sikuar, dan Yukari ADR datang ke desa Yukari Kutis di bawah kepemimpinan Lato, juga dikenal sebagai Mihran, dan Kazar Dilo, baik dari yang telah infiltrated ke Anatolia dari Rusia. Mereka disajikan tiga proposal tertulis kepada kaum bangsawan di sana. Di antara kaum ningrat adalah Molla Said, yang dikenal dengan nama Bediuzzaman. Ia diambil tawanan, atau dia dibunuh? I don't know. Ini merupakan proposal:
1. Menyerah.
2. Mengungsikan kabupaten.
3. Berkelahi.
"Sembilan bulan setelah musuh telah tiba, dengan kekuatan enam ratus menyerang desa. Musuh prajurit yang memakai seragam dan caps. Kami tidak dapat mengetahui apakah terdapat antara tentara Rusia. Jumlah orang-orang yang memandang kekurangan dalam tentara musuh itu sangat tinggi. Ini telah dapat Rusia atau Armenians datang dari Rusia.
"Musuh yang membawa semua orang-orang desa kami untuk Mezraa-i Dan. Abdurrahman, putra Hurshid Bey, salah satu kaum bangsawan, juga hadir bersama istri dan anaknya. Hari berikutnya, tiga puluh tiga laki-laki dan anak laki-laki, dan sekitar delapan puluh perempuan, perempuan muda, dan anak itu pindah ke dalam Müküs terpisah convoys. Perempuan dari konvoi itu di kiri Çaçuan, tetapi pada malam hari semua orang yang membunuh. Saya baru saja disimpan dari pembantaian karena saya telah diberi tugas. Ketika mereka memberi saya tugas, mereka mengatakan ini:
"Kami berjanji untuk memberikan uang. Menuju ke Molla Said, dan kirim ke dia menyampaikan kepada kami yang Armenians yang tetap ada. Kirim dia tidak ada manfaat yang mereka tewas dalam antena. Negara ini hampir seluruhnya diduduki. Rusia yang telah mencapai sejauh Aleppo. Armenia telah menyiapkan. Membawa kami informasi tentang jumlah dan kekuatan Turkish Army di sana. '
"Hal ini dikatakan kepada saya oleh Dilo. Aku segera ditetapkan. Ketika saya mencapai Çaçuan, saya melihat bahwa kami pasukan yang dibentuk dari gendarmes dan Kurds, telah tiba di sana bersama-sama dengan para walikota dan Molla Said. Memaksa kami di bawah pimpinan Bediuzzaman Said Efendi telah berhasil menyelamatkan perempuan konvoi setelah lima jam berjuang sengit. Keadaan perempuan itu benar-benar yg menyedihkan. Mereka tidak memiliki kekuatan untuk berjalan. Sebagian besar anak-anak sudah menjadi biasa telah underfoot. Dan di antara tiga puluh tiga orang, dua di antara kita hanya bertahan. "[19. Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 162-4.]
Bila Armenians Muslim massacred yang perempuan dan anak-anak serta laki-laki, Armenia terkadang anak-anak akan dibunuh di balasan. Tetapi untuk gelar Bediuzzaman mampu menempatkan menghentikan praktek kejam ini melalui contoh Islam yang benar, dan mampu membawa umat manusia ke beberapa kekacauan perang. Satu kali, ribuan Armenia perempuan dan anak-anak telah berkumpul di tempat itu Bediuzzaman. Ia mengeluarkan agar tidak satupun dari mereka adalah untuk disentuh. Lalu kemudian dia dibebaskan mereka dan mereka kembali ke keluarganya di Rusia-wilayah yang diselenggarakan. Armenians yang sangat terkesan saat ini contoh Muslim moralitas yang kemudian dari pada mereka sendiri refrained formulir memotong anak-anak Muslim. Dengan cara ini, banyak kehidupan bersalah telah diselamatkan. [20. Tarihçe, 101.]
The Fall of Bitlis dan Ambil dari Bediuzzaman
Setelah diambil Van di sebelah timur Danau Van Mus dan ke barat, Rusia selatan dipindahkan dengan tiga divisi untuk menyerang Bitlis. Mereka dahulu telah dihentikan untuk waktu yang mereka bertemu dengan perlawanan sengit dari Turki dan relawan pasukan di baris pertahanan di Gunung Dideban. Pada Februari menggemparkan kondisi timur Anatolia dengan salju bohong ke kedalaman tiga sampai empat meter yang penting pusat Bitlis telah diungsikan. Sekali lagi perempuan dan anak-anak, orang sakit dan timpang, pejabat pemerintah dan kehormatan retreated sebelum advancing musuh. Rusia yang tidak dapat memutuskan Usmani baris, dan hanya melalui pengkhianatan dari Armenians, yang membuka jalan bagi mereka menangkap Gunung Dideban, dan menyiapkan mesin-poin penting senjata di bawah pemburuan bersenjata dan banyak orang, bahwa mereka yang akhirnya dapat memasuki kota. Bediuzzaman itu di kota ini dengan apa yang ia tetap relawan, dan yang berjuang sengit peperangan tangan ke tangan dengan kavaleri musuh. Dengan salah satu kakinya patah, Bediuzzaman hid dengan empat siswa hidup di bawah air kanal. Setelah tiga puluh hari mereka menyerah kepada Rusia. Kami memiliki keterangan dari Bediuzzaman kandang sendiri:
"... Meskipun dalam satu menit tiga bullets hit me vital di tempat itu, mereka tidak berpengaruh. Bitlis ketika jatuh, sejumlah mahasiswa dan saya menemukan diri sendiri di tengah sebuah batalyon dari Rusia. Mereka dikelilingi kami dan ada penembakan di setiap sisi. Semua teman-teman saya dibunuh dengan pengecualian empat. Kemudian kita broke melalui empat baris dari batalyon dan pergi ke tempat yang masih di mana mereka. Meskipun mereka di atas kami dan semua di sekeliling kita dan kita dapat mendengar suara dan batuk, mereka tidak melihat kami. Kami tetap tiga puluh hari di jalan di lumpur dengan saya terluka; saya telah diawetkan dengan tenang jantung oleh Divine bantuan. "[21. Sikke-i Tasdik-i Gaybî, 124; Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 168.]
Akhirnya, sejak itu hidup mereka dalam bahaya dari kehilangan darah dan sangat dingin, salah satu dari mereka pergi dan memberitahu mereka di mana Rusia. Rusia yang datang dan mengambil mereka tawanan.
Salah satu dari keempat hidup mahasiswa Bediuzzaman's was Ali Aras dari desa di dekat Çoravanis Van. Juga dikenal sebagai Ali Çavus, dia wrote down his kenangan dari Bediuzzaman pada jatuhnya Bitlis, dan mereka telah diterbitkan di koran Ittihad enam tahun setelah kematiannya, pada bulan April 1971. Mereka juga memberikan hidup rekening Bediuzzaman dan Rusia captors setelah mereka telah diambil pesakitan.
"Rusia yang diduduki Mus sebelum kami mencapai. Orang-orang yang telah diungsikan Mus berkata ketika kita bertemu mereka di semua jalan yang sama dengan empat belas amunisi senjata berat itu tetap ada. Ustad Bediuzzaman dibagi atas tiga ratus orang memaksa sesuai dengan empat belas senjata dan diberi enam-man squad untuk menangkap yang amunisi. Kami yang diambil senjata dan amunisi dan tangan ke atas mereka yang biasa resimen yang diposting di Bitlis-Tatvan jalan. Pada saat ini di Rusia mulai menyerang tiga dari sisi kiri dan kami memotong di Bitlis lembah. Penjagaan terhadap Rusia terus siang dan malam selama tujuh hari. Tiga shells hit Ustad. Dari jumlah tersebut, tekan salah satu gagang pisau belati itu, hal lain yang rokok, dan yang ketiga bahu kanan-Nya. Kel Ali, dengan komandan pasukan yang biasa disaksikan ini dan berkata kepada Ustad:
" 'Bullets ada tidak berpengaruh pada Anda baik, Bediuzzaman" Untuk yang Bediuzzaman menjawab: "Jika Allah melindungi orang, bahkan kerang yang berat senapan tidak dapat membunuh dia!"
"Pada akhir minggu perlawanan sengit, Rusia yang masih tidak dapat masuk Bitlis, sehingga mereka yang diungsikan Papshin Han pada Tatvin jalan dan menarik. Kemudian ia melihat yang dipandu oleh Armenians, mereka skirted sepanjang bagian selatan Bitlis oleh Güzeldere oleh jalan jalan Simek, telah memotong Bitlis Siirt-jalan, dan telah memegang Arab Bridge. Setelah tengah malam mereka memulai serangan pada Bitlis. Ada sangat sengit memerangi. Pada tahap ini Ustad dari keponakan, Ubeyd, [22. Ubeyd adalah anak tertua dari Bediuzzaman saudara, Dürriye.] Dari siapa ia sangat suka, dan banyak orang siswa, dan teman-teman, dibunuh.
"Karena Rusia telah mengambil kota dari tiga jembatan, Ustad ingin mendapatkan ke sisi lain dari kota. Kami melompat turun dari yang di atas saluran air yang lulus di bawah bangunan yang besar sebelah apa sekarang Kazim Pasha Sekolah Dasar. Karena air telah sepenuhnya dilindungi oleh salju dan juga malam-waktu, kami tidak dapat memperkirakan tanah, dan Ustad tekan kakinya di atas batu dan broke it. Menampilkan saya lebih sesuai tempat di bawah saluran air, ia berkata: "Dapatkan saya di sana, Ali. Lalu pergi. Saya memberikan izin. Insya'Allah, Anda akan pergi. 'Saya dia dan duduk di sana dia bawah. Dia terus bersikeras bahwa aku pergi, tetapi ketika saya berkata bahwa saya tidak terjadi dan saya ingin tetap dan mati sebagai martir di samping, ia stroked kepalaku dengan tangan, dan berkata: "Fate telah kami tahanan. Saya menyatakan bahwa saya telah terlalu menyerah kepada nasib.
"Kami tetap di dalam air selama kurang lebih tiga puluh enam jam. Rusia yang telah menempati bangunan di atas saluran air dan mereka dapat mendengar suara dari bawah. Kami sibuk perencanaan bagaimana kita dapat keluar dari sana ketika pasukan dari lima puluh tentara Rusia tiba. Mereka diambil kita semua dan membawa kami ke sebuah gedung yang merupakan hotel di bawah dan di mana Rusia telah billeted Kedua Army. Mereka ditempatkan di kamar kami.
"A komandan resimen kami bertemu. Mereka membawa ayam untuk Ustad untuk dimakan. Rusia dua komandan mulai berbicara dengan Ustad. Ianya jelas mereka berbicara tentang perang. Ustad telah berbicara kepada mereka berdiri pada satu kaki. Ia seolah-olah Ustad adalah komandan dan dua orang tahanan komandan Rusia. Ustad tidak membawa mereka serius sekali. Mereka menyadari bahwa kakinya yang patah, dan disebut kesehatan tertib, yang menaruhnya di turap. Setelah sekitar dua setengah jam di sana, kami dibawa ke Gedung Pemerintah oleh prajurit dari detasemen. J Tatar pejabat, yang kemudian kita pelajari adalah seorang Muslim, mengambil kasihan pada kami, dan kami mengambil di dalam, menempatkan kami di ruang Gubernur.
"Itu pada minggu pertama kami tinggal di Pemerintah House bahwa perwira pembantu tiba. Dia bertanya untuk Ustad, kemudian berkata Umum telah summoned dia. They took Ustad to the place the General was staying in Mahallebasi by stretcher, because his leg was broken. Ustad went in. The General asked a number of questions. These were centred on someone well-known called Abdülmecid, who had gone to Iran and was planning to go from there to the Caucasus to organize the Muslims there to fight against the Russians. They wanted information about him from Ustad. Ustad answered the questions as required. The General’s questioning and the coming and going continued for about two weeks. Since we waited in the room outside, we could hear them speaking. We would hear Ustad’s terse answers and sharp retorts, and from time to time the sound of a fist being thumped on the table. We would get worried and shudder at the possibility of being lined up and shot, and when from time to time Ustad emerged from the room, we did not neglect to reproach him because of these sharp exchanges.
“On the twenty-seventh day of our stay in Government House they took us to what was then the Gendarme Station and is now the Courthouse. They had brought there around twenty-five captured officers and government officials, most of whom were high-ranking. Then the General’s aide-de-camp again came, and said to Ustad: ‘Take one of your students, we are sending you away now.’ Ustad took a student called Said. We did not want to part from him. To console us he said to the police chief, Irfan Bey, who also a prisoner: ‘I entrust my students to you. Show them the police there.’
“Before leaving the Gendarme Station, he said as a prayer: ‘I am hopeful that, God willing, you will return, but I cannot say the same for Said.’ And in fact, the student he took with him called Said was killed while fighting the Russians in Turkestan. They separated us from Ustad, and sent us to Russia. Ustad told me on his return from captivity that they had made him wait a further month because his leg was in plaster.
“A month later, they sent Ustad to Van, and from there on to Khuy in Iran, from where he was put on a train for Russia. We remained in Russia thirty months as prisoners. On the Communist Revolution, we got away to Rumania by way of Hungary and handed ourselves over to a Turkish division there. As for Ustad, I read in the newspapers in Rumania that he had got to Berlin by way of Warsaw, the capital of Poland, and from there had returned to Istanbul.
“The 15th Division in Rumania was formed into the North Caucasus Corps with some reinforcements, and I served a further fourteen months in it before being demobilized after the Treaty of Sèvres, when I returned to Van.”[23. Çavus, Ali, ‘Erek Daginda Bir Islam Mujahidi,’ Ittihad Gazetesi, No. 181, 20 Nisan (April) 1971, as quoted in Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 169-174.]
The heroism of Bediuzzaman and his students in defending the east against the Russians and Armenians became legendary among the people of the area. They told also of how the Russians had tried to kill Bediuzzaman on his surrendering to them, and how this desire had been transformed into wonder at this courage, since Bediuzzaman did not so much as wince when they handled his broken leg.[24. Alp, Siddik, in Son Sahitler, iv, 347.] Also one of his students who fought alongside him tells of Bediuzzaman’s anger on learning, when being questioned by the Russians, that the Armenian interpreter was misinterpreting what they said, so that the Russians brought a Tatar interpreter, and his rejection of the Russians’ proposals that he should write letters to all the tribes calling on them to surrender their arms.[25. Molla Münevver, in Son Sahitler, i, 80-1.]
Further interesting documents which have recently come to light in the Archives of the Prime Minister’s Office in Istanbul show that in September of 1916, Bediuzzaman was still in Tiflis in Georgia, presumably receiving treatment for his leg. The first, dated 9 August 1332 (22 August 1916) is from Memduh, the Deputy Governor of Bitlis, to the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Istanbul. It states that the officials held as prisoners-of-war in Tiflis required their salaries to be sent to them. Also in need of money there was Bediuzzaman Said-i Kürdî, who had saved eight large guns from Mus during the fall of Bitlis and had gathered together volunteers. The second, dated 7 Eylül 1332 (20 September 1916), is from the Interior Minister, Tal'at Bey, to the Director of the Ottoman Red Crescent Society, Besim Ömer Pasha, requesting him to send sixty lira to Bediuzzaman in Tiflis by special courier. And the third is Besim Ömer Pasha’s reply, dated three days later, informing Tal'at Pasha that the sixty liras had been changed into 1254 marks and despatched as requested.[26. Sahiner, N. Article in Zaman Gazetesi, 28 Ocak 1992, p.12.]
The Prisoner-of-War Camps
Bediuzzaman was sent to the province of Kosturma in north-western Russia. Firstly, to the town of Kologrif, and then – according to one source, after a period in a large camp further into the northern wastes – to a camp in the town of Kosturma on the River Volga. It was here that a large part of his two years of captivity was spent. There are various accounts of him and his activities in the camp from a number of his fellow prisoners. As the commanding officer of a regiment, he was in a position of authority. This he used to ensure the prisoners’ freedom to practise their religious duties. He won the right for them to perform the five daily prayers, which he led, and secured a room for use as a mosque. Also, as a commander he received a salary which he spent almost entirely on the mosque and things beneficial for the other prisoners. He was in a group of ninety or so officers, to whom he would give ders or religious instruction. Conditions were hard in the camp. The winters long and dark and extremely cold. In this way he endeavoured to maintain the prisoners’ morale.
Mustafa Yalçin, whose description of Bediuzzaman at the Pasinler Front is quoted above, was already at the camp when one day to his amazement he saw that Bediuzzaman had been brought there. Among his recollections, he says:
“...And on our arriving there, they said that some prisoners had arrived from the Eastern Front. We all gathered outside in the camp with interest. There were a lot of prisoners, but there were two they were bringing from the other side and keeping a close eye on. I looked and suddenly saw that these were MOLLA SAID and one of his students, whom we called Iznikli Osman. He was carrying something like a trunk; it had Ustad’s books in it. He did not allow anyone other than Osman to be with him. Osman saw to his needs. He was wounded. He had been wounded in the leg. They treated it there. They put him in a dormitory.
“It was terribly cold. And you could not tell day from night. [In the summer] the sun did not set. And there as well, Molla Said Efendi was not idle at night; he used to go to other camps and read to them, although it was forbidden. He himself used to lead the prayers for us during the day. First of all they intervened and did not let us perform them. Then Ustad spoke to them and they allowed us a bit more freedom. They did not want too many of us to gather together at the same time. We used to call Bediuzzaman ‘Head of Religious Affairs’. He used to explain religion to the Russian guards even. The Russian officers would harass those of them who listened. Molla Said Efendi always boosted our morale. ‘Do not worry’, he used to say. ‘We shall be saved.’ I never knew him sleep at night there. He always read and took notes. He would say to us: ‘These will be Muslims, too, in the future, but they do not know it now.’ We were never frightened or distressed so long as he was with us.”
Mustafa Yalçin went on to describe how one night he escaped along with a group of seventeen other prisoners. Bediuzzaman declined to join them, but among the group was a major who had been trained by him. He acted as their guide, finding the way “from everything from the stars to the moss on the trees.” He continued:
“Molla Said was completely fearless. Night and day he strove for Islam. He always used to say: ‘It is belief in God that is necessary,’ and, ‘Belief in God is worth everything’.”[27. Yalçin, Mustafa, in Son Sahitler, ii, 23-4.]
Another fellow prisoner, Dr. M. Asaf Disçi, recalled that he first saw Bediuzzaman in the town of Kologrif. They were together there for about six months and then Bediuzzaman was sent to another large prisoner-of-camp further into the interior. In Kologrif they were held in a cinema, and he divided off part of it and made it into a mosque. Dr. Asaf Disçi went on to say:
“...Because he was the commander of a regiment, the other prisoners used to be very respectful towards him, but he used to say: ‘I am a Hoja [teacher]’... He lived very frugally. He would make do with two eggs and a slice of bread a day... His time was always full. He would read his commentary on the Qur'an, and teach the prisoners. The officers and men were all extremely deferential towards him... he commanded respect...”[28. Disçi, Dr. M. Asaf, in Son Sahitler, i, 189-190.]
Mustafa Bolay, a prisoner who spent six months in the Kosturma camp with Bediuzzaman, stated that Russians wanted to kill Bediuzzaman and that it was the military high command that had specified his being sent to that camp. Bediuzzaman’s nephew, Abdurrahman, who wrote a short biography of his uncle, corroborated this claim. He wrote:
“They sent my uncle to Kosturma by way of Van, Julfa, Tiflis, and Kologrif. I wanted to describe in detail all the dangers to which he had been subject at this time – the Russian officers had even wanted to kill him on several occasions, then record that he had committed suicide – but he would not permit it, so I just wrote it briefly.”[29. Sahiner, N. Son Sahitler, i, 78-9; Abdurrahman, Tarihçe, 38.]
Perhaps further insight into this is provided by the following statement in ‘Tal'at Pasha’s Memoirs From Exile’, prepared for publication by Cemal Kutay. According to this, Bediuzzaman informed the Ottoman Government that the Bolshevik Revolution would occur. One passage states: “Bediuzzaman Said-i Kürdî, who was in the structure of the Teshkilat-i Mahsusa (the state intelligence service)... provided information from Siberia where he had been exiled concerning the state of the Russians that we would not have been able to learn from any other source.” “We learnt the Bolshevik Revolution would happen from Bediuzzaman Said-i Kürdî.”[30. Zaman Gazetesi, 29 Ocak 1992, p. 12. Cemal Kutay also quotes Eshref Kusçubasi as recalling Bediuzzaman sending the same message to Enver Pasha by means of a letter carried by a Kazan fur trader. See, Kutay, Bediüzzaman, 84.]
Both Mustafa Bolay and Mustafa Yalçin also corroborate an event concerning Bediuzzaman which happened in the prisoner-of-war camp, and doubtless contributed to the awe in which he was held by captors and captives alike. It is described in Bediuzzaman’s biography, and Necmeddin Sahiner gives a longer version from an article by Abdürrahim Zapsu in the magazine Ehl-i Sünnet, which is what we give here:
On one occasion, Nicola Nicolayavich, the Czar’s uncle who at the same time was Commander-in-Chief of the Russian forces at the Caucasian Front, came on an inspection of the camp. While on his tour of it, he passed by Bediuzzaman, who was seated. Bediuzzaman paid him no attention and did not so much as stir. The General noticed him, and finding some excuse, passed in front of him a second time. Bediuzzaman still did not rise to his feet. So he passed by him a third time then stopped. He said to him through an interpreter:
“Do you not know who I am?”
“Yes, I know,” replied Bediuzzaman, and told him.
“So why do you insult me?” asked the General.
“Forgive me, but I have not insulted you. I only did as my beliefs commanded me.”
“What do your beliefs command?”
“I am a Muslim scholar. There is faith in my heart. A person with faith is superior to a person without. If I had risen to my feet, it would have been disrespectful to my beliefs. Therefore, I did not.”
“In which case, you are saying that I am without faith, and you are insulting both myself, and the Army of which I am a member, and my nation, and the Czar. A court martial will be set up immediately, and you will be questioned.”
As the General decreed, a court martial was set up. The Turkish, German, and Austrian officers all came to the headquarters and tried to persuade Bediuzzaman to apologize to the General, but he told them:
“I am eager to travel to the realm of the Hereafter and enter the presence of God’s Prophet, and I have to have a passport. I cannot act contrary to my beliefs.”
Unable to dispute this reply, they awaited the court’s verdict. The examination was completed. Then the decision was given for Bediuzzaman’s execution on the grounds of insulting the Czar and the Russian Army.
When the squad arrived to carry out the sentence, Bediuzzaman requested fifteen minutes “to perform his duty.” This was to take his ablutions and perform two rak'ats of prayers. The Russian General arrived on the scene while Bediuzzaman was doing this. He suddenly realized his mistake and said to Bediuzzaman when he had finished praying:
“Forgive me! I thought you behaved as you did in order to insult me and I acted accordingly. Now I realize you were merely acting as your beliefs required. Your sentence is quashed. You should be commended for your firmness of belief. Once again, I apologize.”[31. Zapsu, Abdürrahim, in Ehl-i Sünnet Mecmuasi, vol. 2, No. 46, 15 Te_rin-i Evvel (October) 1948, quoted in, Sualar, 442-3 and Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 174-5; Tarihçe, 103-4.]
Bediuzzaman mentioned this incident, which demonstrates his extraordinary personal qualities, in a letter to one of his students written when being held in another prison, Afyon, in 1949. The story had appeared in the newspapers. He wrote:
“The incident which happened while I was a prisoner-of-war is basically true, but I did not describe it in detail because I had no witnesses. Only, I did not know [at first] that the squad had come to execute me; I understood later. And I did not know that the Russian Commander had said some things in Russian by way of an apology. That is to say, the Muslim captain who was present and told the newspapers of the incident understood that the commander had said repeatedly: ‘Forgive me! Forgive me!’”[32. Sualar, 441.]
In the spring of 1918, Bediuzzaman found a way to escape amid the confusion following the Bolshevik Revolution. In later years, he wrote an evocative description of his “temporary awakening” in the winter darkness of the days preceding his escape, and the almost miraculous ease with which it was accomplished. The following is a translation of part of the piece, which forms part of the Twenty-Sixth Flash.
“In the First World War, as a prisoner, I was in the distant province of Kosturma in Northern Russia. There was a small mosque there belonging to the Tatars beside the famous River Volga. I used to become wearied among my friends, the other officers. I craved solitude, yet I could not wander about outside without permission. Then they took me on bail to the Tatar quarter, to that small mosque on the banks of the Volga. I used to sleep in the mosque, alone. Spring was close. I used to be very wakeful during the long, long nights of that northern land; the sad plashing of the Volga and the mirthless patter of the rain and the melancholy sighing of the wind of those dark nights in that dark exile had temporarily roused me from a deep sleep of heedlessness. I did not yet consider myself old, but those who had experienced the Great War were old. For those were days that, as though manifesting the verse: A day that will turn the hair of children grey,[33. Qur'an, 73:17.] made even children old. And while I was forty years old, I felt myself to be eighty. In those long, dark nights and sorrowful exile and melancholic state, I despaired of life and of my homeland. I looked at my powerlessness and aloneness, and my hope failed.
“Then, while in that state, succour arrived from the All-Wise Qur'an; my tongue said: God is enough for us; and how excellent a guardian is He.[34. Qur'an, 3:173.]
“And weeping, my heart cried out: ‘I am a stranger, I am alone, I am weak, I am powerless: I seek mercy, I seek forgiveness, I seek help from You, O my God!’
“And, thinking of my old friends in my homeland, and imagining myself dying in exile there, like Niyazi Misri, my spirit poured forth these lines:
Fleeing the world’s grief,
Taking flight with ardour and longing,
Opening my wings to the void,
Crying with each breath, Friend! Friend!
It was searching for its friends.
“Anyway... My weakness and impotence became such potent intercessors and means at the Divine Court on that melancholy, pitiful, separation-afflicted, long night in exile that now I still wonder at it. For several days later I escaped in the most unexpected manner, on my own, not knowing Russian, across a distance that would have taken a year on foot. I was saved in a wondrous fashion through Divine favour, which was bestowed as a consequence of my weakness and impotence. Then, passing through Warsaw and Austria, I reached Istanbul, so that to be saved in this way so easily was quite extraordinary. I completed the long flight with an ease and facility that even the boldest and most cunning Russian-speakers could not have accomplished.
“And that night in the mosque on the banks of the Volga made me decide to pass the rest of my life in caves. Enough now of mixing in this social life of people. Since finally I would enter the grave alone, I said that from now on I would chose solitude in order to become accustomed to it.
“But, regretfully, things of no consequence like my many and serious friends in Istanbul, and the glittering worldly life there, and in particular the fame and honour granted me, which were far greater than my due, made me temporarily forget my decision. It was as though that night in exile was a luminous blackness in my life’s eye, and the glittering white daytime of Istanbul, a lightless white in it. It could not see ahead, it still slumbered. Until two years later, Gawth-i Geylani opened my eyes once more with his book Fütuhu’l-Gayb.”[35. Lem’alar, 224-5; Sahiner, N. Said Nursi, 181-2; Tarihçe, 107-8.]
