relevance started between the three on their asking Bediuzzaman: "Which is more necessary and should be stronger, religious zeal or national zeal?" The gist of his answer was that "With us Muslims religion and nationality are united, although there is a theoretical, apparent, and incidental difference between them... Religious zeal and Islamic nationhood have completely fused in Turk and Arab and may not now be separated." And by means of a comparison in which Muslims were represented by a six-year-old child and Europeans or unbelievers by the heroes Hercules and Rustam, he demonstrated the unassailable strength of belief in Divine Unity. [^232] Related from some elderly inhabitants of Skopje who recalled the visit was the following description of Bediuzzaman:

[^232]:Nursi, Hutbe-i Şamiye, 56-65 (Eng. tr.: Damascus Sermon, 59-66).

Bediuzzaman was wearing boots. His moustaches were short and his eyes brilliant. He was a handsome, imposing young man with a darkish complexion. He carried a Circassian, gold tula-work whip and at his waist was an ivory-handled dagger. Within a short time he was known in Skopje as 'Bediuzzaman Molla Said Efendi.' The Skopje 'ulema came group by group to visit him and put their questions to him.

Bediuzzaman was immediately next to Sultan Reşad while the Sultan was greeting the people from the balcony of the High School in Skopje, which was later destroyed by an earthquake. Thousands of Skopjans gave them the most enthusiastic reception. [^233]

[^233]:Şahiner, Said Nursi, 141.

On 16 June, the Sultan and his retinue arrived in Kosova from Priştina, and in the large open space where the tomb of Sultan Murad Hudavendigar is situated, they performed the Friday Prayers, a congregation of two hundred thousand, It was an unforgettable and nostalgic occasion. [^234]

[^234]:Cemal Kutay, "Avrupa Topraklarinda Son Padişah," in Tarih Sohbetleri, v, 226.

While in Kosova, there was much talk of a large university they were attempting to found there, doubtless for reasons similar to Bediuzzaman's Medresetü'z-Zehra. It provided him with just the opportunity he had been waiting for. He suggested to Sultan Reşad and the CUP leaders who were accompanying him that the East was in greater need of such a university, for it was like a centre of the Islamic world. They accepted his arguments and promised that a university would be opened in the Eastern Provinces. At the end of the following year, the Balkan War broke out and Kosova was lost to the Empire, whereupon Bediuzzaman applied for the nineteen thousand gold liras allotted to its proposed university. His application was accepted. He then returned to Van and on a site on the shores of Lake Van