#### Isparta

Isparta

However, Bediuzzaman's activities were contrary to what those inimical to religion had expected when he had been exiled to this small Anatolian town, and they began to raise anxieties among the authorities concerning him. And so in January 1926, Bediuzzaman was taken from Burdur and sent to the centre of Isparta. There he stayed in the Müftü Tahsin Efendi Medrese and at once again began to teach and attract many students. The governor of the town felt consternation at this. According to one eye witness who visited the medrese, when he went there it was full to overflowing and he was only able to sit in the doorway. [^33] So the authorities determined to send Bediuzzaman away to some tiny and remote place where he would not attract attention, and where deprived of all company and civilization, he would just fade away and be forgotten, The place they chose was the village of Barla, a tiny hamlet in the mountains near the north-western shore of Lake Eğridir. After some twenty days in Isparta, Bediuzzaman was taken there.

[^33]:Mehmed Sözer, in Son Şahitler, ii, 211-2.

Always severely self-critical and interpreting events according to their inner or true meaning, Bediuzzaman gave the following reasons for his being exiled to the three places we have described:

This concerns this unfortunate Said: whenever I have flagged in my duties, and saying "what is it to me", have become preoccupied with own private affairs, I have received a slap.

For example, so long as this unfortunate Said was busy teaching the truths of the Qur'an in Van at the time of the Shaykh Said events, the suspicious government did not and could not interfere with me. Then when I said "What is it to me?" and thinking of myself withdrew into a ruined cave on Mount Erek in order to save my life in the hereafter, they took me without cause and exiled me. And I was brought to Burdur.

There, again so long as I was serving the Qur'an — at that time all the exiles were watched very closely, and although I was supposed to report to the police in person every evening, my sincere students and myself remained as exceptions [we did not comply]. The governor there complained to Fevzi Pasha when he came. But Fevzi Pasha said: "Don't interfere with him; treat him with respect." What made him say that was the sacred nature of service to the Qur'an. But whenever I have been overcome by the idea of saving myself and thought only of my life in the hereafter, and there has been a temporary slackening in my serving the Qur'an, I have received a slap contrary to my intentions. That is to say, I was sent from