be afraid of: make your children study, otherwise this religion will be lost to you in no time at all." [^25]

[^25]:H. Münir Bakan, in Son Şahitler, iv, 371-2.

By the time the exiles boarded the ship for Istanbul in Trabzon, it was spring and approaching summer in the warmer western climate. Two independent witnesses have told of how Bediuzzaman insisted on remaining on deck in the ship, defying the captain when he tried to force him to go below to join the other exiles. [^26]

[^26]:Ahmet Alpaslan, in Son Şahitler, i, 98, and, Said Şamil, in Şahiner, Nurs Yolu, 133-5.

In Istanbul, he stayed in the Arpacılar Mosque in Sirkeci, in the Hidayet Mosque, and with his student Tevfik Demiroğlu. His fears had been justified, for the attempts to uproot Islam and expunge Turkey's Islamic past and identity had already begun, and he saw here some of the results. He described one of these as follows:

When I was brought to Istanbul on my way to exile, I asked what had happened to the Şeyhü'l- slam's Office, for I was connected with it having worked and served the Qur'an in the Darü'l-Hikmeti'l-Islamiye, which was attached to it. Alas! I received such an answer that my spirit, heart, and mind all trembled and wept. The man I asked said: "The Office, which for hundreds of years shone with the lights of the Shari'a, is now a girls' high school and playground." I was seized by such a mental state that it was as though the world had collapsed on my head. I had no power, no strength. Uttering sighs of anguish in sheer despair, I turned to the Divine Court, and the feverish sighs of many others whose hearts were burning like mine combined with my sighs. I cannot remember whether or not I sought the assistance of Shaykh Gilani's prayers and saintly power for our supplications; I do not know. But in any event it was his prayers and influence that set fire to the sighs of those like me in order to save from darkness a place which for so long had been a place of light. For that night the Şeyhü'l-Islam's Office was in part burnt down. Everyone said, What a pity! But I, and those who were burning like me, declared, All praise and thanks be to God! [^27]

[^27]:Nursi, Sikke-i Tasdik-i Gaybî, 130; Şahiner, Said Nursi, 259-60.

According to Tahsin Tandoğan, who was a Chief Superintendent of Police in Istanbul in 1925, Bediuzzaman also stayed in Süleymaniye near the old Şeyhü'l-İslam's Office. His recollections have been recorded by Necmeddin Şahiner and provide both added proof of Bediuzzaman's innocence and further interesting details of his stay in Istanbul. Tahsin Bey himself arrested those ring-leaders of the Shaykh Said Revolt who were in