had not taken part in the revolt, and send them into exile in western Anatolia, Rumours began to circulate that Bediuzzaman also was going to be exiled. There were moves to persuade him to leave the area for Iran or Arabia. But he declined the offers, saying that should he go to Anatolia, it would be of his own consent. First Shaykh Masum, the Mufti of Van, was arrested, then a squad of three gendarmes and a captain were seen climbing the lower slopes of Mount Erek; they were going towards the source of the Zernabad and Bediuzzaman's cave.

Bediuzzaman was uninformed of this squad and its orders, and on being surprised in his retreat and ordered in peremptory and overbearing fashion by the captain to accompany them, he responded with the boldness that had always marked his response to such behaviour. A tense and electric situation was suddenly created. In the meanwhile, his students and a number of people from the nearest villages had gathered. They awaited his orders to act; it would have been simple for them to get him away from the area and out of the country. However, Bediuzzaman prevented them attempting action of any sort and permitted the gendarmes to take him to Van. [^20]

[^20]:Ibid., 257-9.

Those arrested and awaiting exile were held in a secondary school in Van, Besides Bediuzzaman and Shaykh Masum were Kör Hüseyin Pasha, the Mufti of Gevaş Hasan Efendi, Küfecizade Shaykh Abdülbaki Efendi, and Abdullah Efendi, the son of Shaykh Hami Pasha, in addition to hundreds of others including the elderly, women, and children. It was the month of Ramadan when they started their long trek, just as it had been in Ramadan that Bediuzzaman had returned to Van almost exactly two years previously. That year, 1925, it began on 25 March. It was still bitterly cold and the whole land covered in snow. They set off from Van, some seventy to eighty sledges drawn by oxen or horses, with many also on foot or on horseback. The whole caravan stretched for about a kilometre. To start with Bediuzzaman was handcuffed to Shaykh Masum. According to Haydar Süphandağlı, Kör Hüseyin Pasha's son, unlike all the others being exiled, who were leaving their homes and native land amid tears and in trepidation like a retreating army, Bediuzzaman was entirely calm and resigned at the turn of events. He also stated that the caravan stopped for three to four days in Patnos, one night in Ağrı, and a week in Erzurum, from where they continued in horse-drawn carts. At Trabzon, where they stayed some twenty days, they boarded a ship for the week-long journey to Istanbul. Here Bediuzzaman stayed some twenty to twenty-five days before travelling on with other exiles to Izmir and Antalya in the same