Chapter Ten - Opposition to the British and Move to Ankara

CHAPTER TEN

Opposition to the British and

Move to Ankara

#### Bediuzzaman's Dagger

Bediuzzaman's Dagger

Before continuing with the story of Bediuzzaman's life, it is appropriate to relate the following story of his dagger, which he gave at this time to Gazi Ahmet Muhtar Pasha. Having first been compelled to carry a dagger when attacked by fellow students jealous of his fame and success in scholarly debate in Siirt in 1309 Rumi/1891, Bediuzzaman had followed this local custom ever since. The writer and historian İbrahim Hakkı Konyalı described to Necmeddin Şahiner how he came across the ivory-handled dagger:

There are many mementos of great value, old and new, in the Military Museum, and among them I found an ivory-handled dagger while classifying the weapons. It had the name Said-i Kurdi engraved on it. I made enquiries as to how and when it had come to the Museum. Formerly known as Said-i Kurdi, Said Nursi had been appointed as a member of the Darü'l-Hikmeti'l-İslamiye in the years following the Great War. I knew him personally. He used to go around in the vicinity of Şehzadebaşı and wore a turban wound round a long cap and the local dress of eastern Anatolia with a dagger at his waist. According to what I learnt, the great scholar and historian and second founder and curator of the Military Museum, Ahmed Muhtar Pasha, had got to know Said Nursi and had acquired great respect for his learning. Thus, he had taken his dagger for the Museum as a memento, and had numbered it and put it away. [^346]

[^346]:Şahiner, Said Nursi, 212-213; İbrahim Hakkı Konyalı, in Şahiner, Aydınlar Konuşuyor, 316.