of darkness will start to recede one over the other. This veil of despotism shall be rent; it will shrink back, and I shall come and build my medrese here." [^199]

[^199]:Thus in 1910 Bediuzzaman foretold the lifting of "the three darknesses" which would descend on the peoples of Caucasia and Turkestan, the last of which we are now seeing in 1991-2. They may be seen as the collapse of Czarist Russia, the collapse of communism, and the Muslim states of the area gaining their independence with the falling apart of the Soviet Union. Indeed, in Abdurrahman's biography, he quotes the Russian policeman as saying, "Freedom will cause you [the Ottoman Empire] to break up." To which Bediuzzaman replied: "It is you it will cause to break up, and I'll come and build my medrese here." [Bediüzzaman 'ın Tarihçe-i Hayatı, 34-5] Also, in 1990, Bitlis and Tiflis were proclaimed twin towns.

This only increased the policeman's bewilderment. "I'm sorry for you," he said. "I'm astonished that you should entertain such a hope."

"And I am astonished at your not understanding replied Bediuzzaman. "Do you think it possible that this winter will continue? Every winter is followed by spring, and every night by day."

"But the Islamic world is all broken up and fragmented."

"They have gone to study. It is like this: India is an able son of Islam; it is studying in the high school of the British. Egypt is a clever son of Islam; it is taking lessons in the British school for civil servants. Caucasia and Turkestan are two valiant sons of Islam; they are training in the Russian war academy. And so on.

"You see, having received their diplomas, each of these noble sons of Islam will lead a continent, and waving the banner of Islam, their just and mighty father, on the horizons of attainment and perfection, they will proclaim the mystery of pre-eternal wisdom inherent in mankind in the view of pre-eternal divine determining and in the face of obstinate fate." [^200]

[^200]:Nursi, Sünûhat, 63-4; Tarihçe, 72-3; Şahiner, Said Nursi, 133-4.

This short anecdote gives the note for Bediuzzaman's main message for the tribes of eastern Anatolia, and of his celebrated sermon in Damascus early the following year; namely, encouragement and hope for the future. That is to say, despite his disillusion with developments in Istanbul, Bediuzzaman was unwavering in his conviction that constitutionalism was the way to further the cause of Islam and preserve the Empire by securing progress and unity. Indeed, as we shall see when examining the Sermon, he predicted that according to all the signs, Islam and Islamic — or, true — civilization would prevail in the future, and that the majority of mankind would accept and join the religion of Islam. He said: "In the future when reason, science and technology hold sway, that will surely be the time the