rising nor sleeping, and at dawn the birds would fly round the tree as though drawn by the sound of his supplications and join their songs to his prayers. [^45]

[^45]:Tarihçe, 147-8.

Barla's situation is one of great beauty. Mountains rise up behind it, and before it the land falls away to Lake Eğridir, with orchards and fields along the curve if its valley, Bediuzzaman spent much of his time walking through this country and down along the lake. High above the lake some four hours' distance from Barla is Cam Dağı, Pine Mountain. Here Bediuzzaman spent much time, particularly after 1930, staying weeks on end in complete solitude. Here too he had tree-houses made, two of them, one in a pine tree and one in a cedar, where he would write and also correct the handwritten copies of The Words, and other parts of the Risale-i Nur, which by that time were becoming increasingly numerous as it became better known and more widely spread.

The way the Risale-i Nur was written and disseminated was another of its unique aspects. Together with his extraordinary learning and abilities, Bediuzzaman himself had very poor handwriting, so that he described himself as "semi-literate". He interpreted this as a Divine bounty, however, because in consequence of this need, Almighty God sent him students who were "heroes of the pen". [^46] He would dictate at speed to these scribes, who would write down what he dictated with equal speed. The actual act of writing, therefore, was very fast, so that some of the parts of the Risale-i Nur were written in an incredibly short space of time, like one or two hours. This shall be discussed at greater length later. And Bediuzzaman himself was busy with the actual writing for only an hour or two each day. Copies of the original were written out by hand, and distributed. These then were copied and passed on to others who would write out further copies. In this way The Words passed from village to village, and in the course of time, from town to town, and throughout Turkey, as we shall see.

[^46]:Nursi, Barla Lahikası, 178.

#### Resurrection and the Hereafter

Resurrection and the Hereafter

Since the New Said had emerged from the Old Said in the years following the First World War, Bediuzzaman had immersed himself in the Qur'an in his search for a new way to reach and relate its truths in the fast-changing conditions of the times. He had withdrawn from public life of every sort and given himself over to an intense inner life of worship,