Bediuzzaman and had met the suggestion favourably, telling Dr. Tola to organize it through the Directorate of Religious Affairs. The attempt did not get further than that, however, and it was at that point that Bediuzzaman instructed his students to have it printed. [^71] Dr. Tola was able to secure the paper through the Democrat Government, at a time of shortage, and first of all they had printed Sözler, The Words. Taking advantage of his parliamentary immunity, Tahsin Tola supervised the sending of it to Istanbul to be bound. The Risale-i Nur Students still worked under constant fear of police intervention. Following this, the other main collections of The Flashes Collection (Lem 'alar), and Letters (Mektûbat) were printed. [^72] At the same time, the Students in Istanbul started printing ten thousand copies of The Short Words, two thousand five hundred of which they immediately posted to various places in Anatolia. They also printed were five thousand A Letter to Women. [^73]
[^71]:Şahiner, Said Nursi, 413-5.
[^72]:Said Özdemir, in Son Şahitler, v, 49-50; M. Emin Birinci, in Son Şahitler, i, 266-7.
[^73]:Mehmet Fırıncı, in Son Şahitler, iii, 244.
In 1958 some of Bediuzzaman's close students, primarily Mustafa Sungur and Zübeyir, prepared Bediuzzaman's official biography. Wanting attention to be focussed on the Risale-i Nur, Bediuzzaman cut out most of the sections describing his personal life and exploits. There was dispute as to whether or not photographs should be included, and on Bediuzzaman's indication a number were later added. [^74]
[^74]:M. Emin Birinci, in Son Şahitler, i, 284.
Bediuzzaman gave importance to translations during these years, both from Turkish into Arabic — to further spread the Risale-i Nur in the Islamic world, and of the Arabic parts into Turkish. While he himself translated The Damascus Sermon into Turkish in 1951, his younger brother Abdülmecid, who was then Mufti of Ürgüp near Kayseri, translated The Staff of Moses into Arabic at Bediuzzaman's suggestion. He wanted to interest many quarters in this work. [^75] Later, in 1955 Abdülmecid translated the Qur'anic commentary written during the First World War, Signs of Miraculousness (İşârâtü'l-İ'caz), and his Mesnevî-i Nuriye, from Arabic into Turkish. [^76] The Turkish translation of İşârâtü'l-İ'caz was then printed in Ankara in the new letters, that is, the Latin alphabet.
[^75]:Nursi, Emirdağ Lahikası, ii, 36-7.
[^76]:See, Ahmed Gümüş, in Son Şahitler, i, 319.