When he 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 that had corroborated his premonitions and confirmed his intention to write the commentary. [^257] Thus, he presents the work as a model or example that could be followed by a committee of scholars such as he had described at some point in the future.

[^257]:See, Nursi, Mektûbat, 343 (Eng. tr. Letters 1928-1932. New edn. Istanbul: Sözler Publications, 2010, 424); Şahiner, Said Nursi, 73; Tarihçe, 48.

#### Bediuzzaman and His Militia Move South

Bediuzzaman and His Militia Move South

When the Russians began their second invasion in January 1916, Bediuzzaman and his militia moved to the front at Pasinler near Erzurum. [^258] A second Russian force moved south down the eastern side of Lake Van. The Ottomans were unable to halt 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, Cevdet Bey — who was the son of Tahir Pasha the old Governor — insisted that they withdraw to Gevaş on the road to Bitlis. For it was to Bitlis that all the officials, the army, and people of the area were retreating.

[^258]:Recent research suggests that Bediuzzaman fought at the Pasinler front for six months or so from the time of the first Russian invasion in October 1914, moving south and arriving in Van around the time of the Armenian revolt in April 1915. At the time of the second invasion he was fighting with his force in the Bitlis and Hizan area.

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 Gevaş, 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