their resources, and were later financed from the sale of the books produced. They were used for the one and a half to two years till the arrests preceding the Afyon trials and imprisonment at the start of 1948.

The main parts of the Risale-i Nur to be duplicated on these machines by the Students were, The Staff of Moses, Zülfikar, The Illuminating Lamp, The Ratifying Stamp of the Unseen, A Guide for Youth, and The Short Words. In addition to these collections were thousands of copies of other parts of the Risale-i Nur and the numerous letters Bediuzzaman wrote his students at this time directing these activities and on various subjects. At the same time, the writing out by hand both of these collections, others parts of the Risale-i Nur and Bediuzzaman's letters continued at full pace. Certain collections, mainly A Guide for Youth and The Staff of Moses were now reproduced for the first time in the new Latin alphabet in order to make them immediately available to the younger generation. However, "Since an important function of the Risale-i Nur" was "the preservation of the Arabic script, the script of the vast majority of the Islamic world" [^276] for the greater part it continued to be reproduced in that alphabet.

[^276]:Nursi, Emirdağ Lahikası, i, 81.

This much expanded activity was to have far-reaching results, for now the Risale-i Nur found new students among the younger generation who were to be important figures in the Nur movement in later years. That the Risale-i Nur answers in particular the needs of people whose ideas have been influenced by materialist philosophy was proved by the fact that it now began to draw university students and teachers, and others who had been through the educational system of the Republic. Among these was the teacher in a Village Institute, Mustafa Sungur, who became one of Bediuzzaman's closest and most influential students, and his "spiritual son". Another was Mustafa Ramazanoğlu, a university student, and Zübeyir Gündüzalp, a Post Office official who first visited him in 1946. Although Bediuzzaman appointed no successor, since, as he said, the true 'üstad' of the Risale-i Nur movement was its collective personality, Zübeyir Gündüzalp was to emerge as one of its leaders after 1960.

Moreover, at this time the Risale-i Nur began slowly to spread to the Islamic world. This was assisted when after 1947 it became possible to go on the Hajj. Copies of some of the collections were sent to al-Azhar in Egypt, to Damascus, and Medina, [^277] and some were given to a Kashmiri religious scholar who agreed to convey them to the Indian 'ulema. [^278]

[^277]:Ibid., 234-6.

[^278]:Ibid., 269.