Qur'an will gain ascendancy, which relies on rational proofs and makes the reason confirm its pronouncements." [^201]
[^201]:Nursi, Hutbe-i Şamiye, 23 (Eng. tr.: Damascus Sermon, 32).
#### Among the Tribes of Eastern Anatolia
Among the Tribes of Eastern Anatolia
Bediuzzaman spent the summer of 1910 travelling throughout the Eastern Provinces, "Making a medrese of mountain and plain," he wrote, "I gave lessons on constitutionalism." He found that the general understanding of the subject was "extremely odd" and confused, and therefore suggested the people ask the questions, which he then answered. He afterwards made a compilation of these and published it in Turkish in 1913 under the title, Münâzarat, or Debates. He also prepared an Arabic version with the title Rachata al-'Awamm, Prescription for the Common People. [^202]
[^202]:Şahiner, Said Nursi, 134.
The questions cover a number of subjects related to Freedom and the new regime, and its consequences for the tribespeople and their leaders. The answers constitute one of the main sources for Bediuzzaman's ideas on the subject and form a substantial and fascinating work which space does not allow us to examine in detail. Those relating specifically to constitutionalism and Freedom have been described in some detail above; here we shall mention a few additional points which explain further how, through the people "awakening" and becoming conscious, as autonomous, enterprising, self-sacrificing individuals, of their being members of the "the nation of Islam", the new order would secure the progress — in this instance — of the Kurds, and the unity of Islamic world and the Empire. But first it should not go unnoticed that Bediuzzaman did not spare himself in this struggle, nor did he restrict it to the pen or to the theoretical. He had pursued it as far as Istanbul, publicizing in particular the needs of the East and doing what he could to further his plans for educational reform. Now he had returned to his native country and proceeded to travel all over that wild, mountainous, backward, and impoverished region. And it was primarily the ordinary people he was seeking to address, the ordinary people who through the adoption of the Constitution had been raised to the rank of "sovereign", and were the builders of the future.
On giving definitions of despotism and constitutionalism in response to the people's questions, Bediuzzaman was asked by them why they had not seen the great benefits he described. He replied that it was problems associated with the area such as ignorance, poverty, internal enmity, and lack