added element in the pressure RPP supporters now endeavoured to bring to bear on the Risale-i Nur Students.

At the same time, with the officially free publication of the Risale-i Nur, as well as the freedoms that had been gained with the Democrat government, the Nur movement had been greatly strengthened and expanded. Risale-i Nur study-centres (dershane) were opened in every part of the country. It was the custom to bring the key of each as it was newly opened to Bediuzzaman, who would offer prayers for its success. In eastern Turkey also, through the endeavours of old students such as Hulûsi Bey and Çaycı Emin, the Risale-i Nur spread rapidly at this time, so that from one letter we learn that there were around two hundred dershanes in Diyarbakir and the east, including four or five specifically for women in Diyarbakir itself. [^91] On occasion as many as a thousand people would attend the ders, the readings of the Risale-i Nur. In Ankara, Istanbul, Eskişehir, and all the main centres in Anatolia, the Risale-i Nur and its associated activities flourished.

[^91]:Nursi, Emirdağ Lahikası, ii, 203.

The corollary of these successes was increased pressure and harassment. Bediuzzaman told Hulûsi Bey when he visited him in Emirdağ in 1957 that in the face of the threats he had been forced to take further precautions to protect himself. For another attempt had been made on his life, when an unknown person had entered his house by way of the roof and thrown poison in his water jug. [^92] Then in April, 1958, RPP supporters in Nazıllı in western Anatolia hatched a plot against the local Risale-i Nur Students, two of whom were arrested. In concert with them, the newspapers started a furore describing the Nurcus as "enemies of the reforms". [^93] In response the Risale-i Nur Students in Ankara wrote and published a letter answering their misrepresentations and lies, whereupon eleven of the leading Students were arrested and held in Ankara Prison. This was the first case the lawyer Bekir Berk undertook for the Risale-i Nur Students, who were all acquitted. [^94] Bekir Berk, subsequently famous as "the Muslims' lawyer" was also appointed by Bediuzzaman as his attorney. [^95] In Konya too, where the Risale-i Nur Students were active, there were arrests and court cases, [^96] and in many other centres. At the same time the country-

[^92]:Hulûsi Yahyağil, in Son Şahitler, i, 40; Nursi, Emirdağ Lahikası, ii, 14.

[^93]:See, Son Şahitler, iv, 307-316.

[^94]:See, M. Emin Birinci, in Son Şahitler, i, 267-7; Mustafa Türkmenoğlu, in Son Şahitler, iv, 110-12.

[^95]:Şahiner, Said Nursi, 419-20.

[^96]:Ali Tayyar, in Son Şahitler, v, 110-14.