his diploma on completing his studies, he had been too young to don the scholar's gown and turban. Now fifty-six years later Mawlana Khalid had dressed him in his own jubba over a hundred year distance. [^171]

[^171]:Nursi, Kastamonu Lahikası, 63.

Mawlana Khalid was the most important figure in Naqshbandi Sufism after Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi Imam Rabbani, Bediuzzaman's spiritual link with whom has been mentioned in several contexts. Born a hundred or so years later than Imam Rabbani, who was known the Regenerator of the Second Millennium, Mawlana Khalid was recognized by many as the Regenerator or Renewer of the following century. [^172] The movement he started was one of renewal and became very influential in the eastern Ottoman Empire. [^173] In a short piece, one of Bediuzzaman's students, Şamlı Hafız, pointed out some of the parallels, and differences, between Bediuzzaman and Mawlana Khalid, which show that indeed the jubba had found its true owner. The main ones are as follows. The dates are according to the Rumi calendar:

[^172]:In Şualar, a Renewer (mujaddid) is defined in this way: "The high servants of religion who are described in Hadiths as coming at the start of every century are not innovators; they are followers. That is to say, they do not create anything new themselves, they do not bring any new ordinances; they adjust and strengthen religion by way of following to the letter the fundamentals and ordinances of religion and the Sunna of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH); they proclaim the true and original meaning of religion; they remove and render null and void the baseless matters which have been mixed up with it; they reject and destroy the attacks made on religion; they establish the Divine commands, and proclaim and make known the nobility and exaltedness of the Divine ordinances. Only, without spoiling the basic position or damaging the original spirit, they carry out their duties through new methods of persuasion appropriate to the understanding of the age, and in new ways and with new details." Şualar, 563 (Eng. tr.: Rays, 635).

[^173]:Şerif Mardin. Religion and Social Change in Modern Turkey: The Case of Bediüzzaman Said Nursi, 57-9, 149.

Mawlana Khalid was born in 1193, in 1224 went to the capital of India, Jihanabad, where he entered the Naqshi Order and its revivalist (mujaddidi) branch in particular. In 1238 "he attracted the attention of the politicians" and had to migrate to Damascus. Descended from 'Uthman, the third Caliph of Islam, he was brilliant and highly gifted and before reaching the age of twenty became the foremost scholar of his time. These points coincide with corresponding dates in Bediuzzaman's life in a way that cannot be attributed to chance. Bediuzzaman was born in 1293, [^174] in 1224 he went to Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, where he prepared for his struggle in the way of Islam. In 1238 he went to Ankara, saw

[^174]:Şamlı Hafız gives this as Hijri; in fact, according to most documents, the year of Bediuzzaman's birth was 1293 Rumi, 1877.