asked Bediuzzaman to speak to them, so this time he told them to perform the prayers. When they said they did not know how to, he said he would send his students to teach them. [^233] In this way the greater part of the prisoners began to give up their former ways and to perform the five daily prayers. Bediuzzaman's students also taught them the basic rules of religion and how to read and recite the Qur'an. Together with the Kastamonu prisoners were a number of well-known hojas from Istanbul, one of whom was Gönenli Mehmed Efendi, one of Turkey's best known Qur'an hojas. He also taught the prisoners the Qur'an. One called Mehmed, who had murdered four people, learnt to read the whole Qur'an and memorized the last twenty-two suras, thus earning the right to lead the others in prayer. [^234] Others were taken away to be hanged while reading the Qur'an or performing the prayers, having been saved from every kind of vice and evil-living. What a lesson for secular and humanist sociologists and reformers!

[^233]:İbrahim Fakazlı, in Son Şahitler, i, 178.

[^234]:Selahaddin Celebi, ibid., 144.

When the students from Kastamonu and İnebolu arrived at the prison, Sadık Bey immediately established good relations with the other prisoners, who according to Süleyman Efe were all "his men". Bold-spirited and generous, he won their respect and soon formed a team to carry out the necessary jobs for continuing the work of the Risale-i Nur. Through them it was possible for Bediuzzaman's writings to be distributed round the prison, and be smuggled in and out of it. Süleyman Efe also secured a typewriter, and Sadık Bey and his team used to write out his defence speeches and other writings in the new letters and then have copies sent to various government departments in Ankara or wherever required. He won Bediuzzaman's admiration and gratitude with this unparalleled service, which was reflected in the notes and letters he wrote him, and in his accepting Sadık Bey's soup. Bediuzzaman, who would accept nothing from anyone without giving something in return, was happy to live on the soups Sadık Bey cooked him. [^235] It has also been recorded that the Risale-i Nur was smuggled in and out of the prison by a gendarme stationed there who came from the village of Kuleönü near Isparta. He would take the pieces copied out in the village of Sav for Bediuzzaman to correct, and the presents his students sent him, such as the area's famous rose oil. [^236]

[^235]:See, Süleyman Hünkâr, in Son Şahitler, i, 183-8; Sadık Demirelli, in Son Şahitler, ii, 135-57.

[^236]:Mustafa Gül, in Son Şahitler, iv, 328.

Besides Bediuzzaman's letters and defence speeches, and indeed the