in solitary confinement in a minute damp, dark cell. He was again poisoned on several occasions. Undoubtedly the intention was to do away with him, and anyway the most important of his students. Two in fact died during the nine months they were held, one of which was Hafız Ali from the village of İslamköy near Isparta. It was widely believed he had been poisoned. Nevertheless, Bediuzzaman relentlessly continued his struggle. His students were forbidden to visit or speak with him, so he wrote them numerous notes and letters encouraging and consoling them, guiding them, and directing the writing-out and copying of these and the Risale-i Nur. Then he wrote the Eleventh Ray, The Fruits of Belief. And he wrote also his petitions and defence speeches. Since he and his students were charged with virtually the same 'crimes' as in Eskişehir and he offered the same defence in Afyon Court some four years later in 1948-9, it shall be described only briefly in this chapter.

#### Life in Denizli Prison

Life in Denizli Prison

The Students who had been gathered together in Isparta were transported to Denizli by train. Handcuffed in pairs, they were packed into windowless coal and straw waggons. Bediuzzaman was handcuffed to a ninety-year-old villager called Hasan Dayı from the village of Sav near Isparta who was so weak he virtually had to carry him. [^229] Their handcuffs were not unfastened during the journey. Of the one hundred and twenty-six Risale-i Nur Students who were taken to Denizli [^230] from all over Turkey, in all seventy-three entered the prison and the remainder were released. [^231] The students from Kastamonu, İnebolu, and Istanbul were brought some two months later. They were then put in with the long-term and condemned prisoners.

[^229]:Osman Yıldırımkaya, in Son Şahitler, ii, 209.

[^230]:Şahiner, Said Nursi, 341.

[^231]:Sadık Demirelli, in Son Şahitler, ii, 146.

The prison was new and outside the town, yet despite this was more cramped and insalubrious than older buildings. It was built of concrete and was damp, dank and airless. With its tiny heavily barred and high up windows, the cells and dormitories were in perpetual gloom. The electricity was of a very low voltage and on only a few hours out of the twenty-four. It was also infested with lice and mosquitoes. At night bed-bugs and mosquitoes descended on the prisoners from the ceilings "like a fine rain". Bediuzzaman was put in a cell so small a bed could scarcely fit in it.