Suavi Efendi and Hoja Tahsin Efendi, [Namık] Kemal Bey, and Sultan Selim. [^44]

[^44]:Nursi, Divan-ı Harb-i Örfî, 19.

It is recorded that it was during this stay in Mardin that Molla Said first engaged in politics. Although it is not clear precisely what is meant by this, the above probably provide the clue, especially when considered in the light of Bediuzzaman's later activities in Istanbul. In any event, the Governor, Mutasarrıf Nadir Bey, saw fit to intervene, and expelled him from the town, sending him to Bitlis under armed guard. [^45]

[^45]:Tarihçe, 42.

The task was to prove an unusual one for the two gendarmes, Savurlu Mehmed Fatih and his friend Ibrahim, assigned to deliver Molla Said to the Governor of Bitlis. The story of it became well-known in the region. They set out on the journey, Said riding with both his hands and feet bound with iron fetters. While they were in the vicinity of a village called Ahmedî, the time for the obligatory prayers came round. Said asked the gendarmes to unfasten his bonds so that he could pray, but they refused, frightened he would try to escape. Whereupon, Said the Famous undid the fetters, dismounted from his horse, took his ablutions at a stream, and performed the prayers under the astonished gazes of the two gendarmes. Recognizing his unusual powers, they said to him when he had finished: "Up to now we were your guards, but from now on we shall be your servants." But Molla Said merely requested them to do their duty.

When asked at a later date how this had occurred, he replied: "I myself do not know, but at the most it was a miracle of the prayers. [^46]

[^46]:Ibid, 42; Şahiner, Said Nursi, 64-5.

And on another occasion Bediuzzaman replied: "I am not a sorcerer, I am not a conjuror. I was someone who had taken the Holy Qur'an as his guide and had turned toward God. In truth such an event happened to me. I faced the qibla, uttered a prayer, and then looked: the manacles had opened. When I handed them to the gendarme, he was frightened." [^47]

[^47]:Mustafa Sevilen, in Son Şahitler, ii, 42. Şahiner, Said Nursi, 65, also gives the event as related by Bediuzzaman's brother, Abdülmecid Nursi, in his memoirs, which is the first-hand account of the gendarme Ibrahim.

Molla Said was indeed famous, and news of his exploits spread throughout the region, reaching also the village of Nurse In later years he described his parents' reactions to what they heard:

In the old days, my father and mother used to be told of my strange doings in that eventful and rough and ready life. When they heard news like, your