Sultan's educational policies [^93] must also have provoked their unfavourable reaction.

[^93]:In a newspaper article published in March 1909, Bediuzzaman suggested to the Sultan in an imaginary conversation how he should act as Caliph in the new age of constitutionalism: "Since despotism has left no blood in Istanbul, the heart of the Muslim countries, show that your intention is good and make Yıldız Palace, which is now abhorred, beloved of hearts in the way you compassionately accepted constitutionalism with no bloodshed: raise Yıldız Palace to the Pleiades by filling it with leading 'ulama like angels of mercy in place of the former demons of hell, and by making it like a university and reviving the Islamic sciences, and by promoting the offices of Şeyhü'l-İslam and the Caliphate to their rightful positions, and by curing with your wealth and power the weakness in religion which is the nation's heart disease and the ignorance which is the disease of its head. Then the Ottoman dynasty may scatter the rays of justice in the constellation of the Caliphate." , "Bediüzzaman Kürdi'nin Fihriste-i Makasıdı ve Efkârının Program", Volkan, Nos. 83-4, 11-12 Mart 1325/23-4 March 1909, as in Asar-ı Bedi'iyye, 375-6.

The text of the petition was as follows. It is preceded by a few introductory words by the newspaper:

We are proud to include the exact text of the proposal which Bediuzzaman Molla Said Efendi presented to the Palace, and as a result became the target of many misfortunes.

While, in order to be in harmony in progress like the other brothers in this world of civilization and age of progress and competition, the founding and construction of schools has been ordered as a government service in the towns and villages of Kurdistan — and this has been witnessed with thanks — only children who know Turkish can benefit from them. Since Kurdish children who have not learnt Turkish consider the only mines of perfection to be the medreses [traditional religious schools], and the teachers in the maktabs [new secular schools] do not know the local language, these children continue to be deprived of education. Their resulting uncivilized behaviour and disorder invites the West to rejoice at our misfortune. Moreover, since the people remain in a primitive state, uncivilized and blindly imitating, they become prey to doubts and suspicions. And it as though these three points are preparing a ghastly blow against the Kurds in the future, and have caused suffering to those with insight.

The remedy for this: three educational establishments should be set up in different areas of Kurdistan as examples to be followed, and as encouragement and stimulation: one in Beytüşebab, which is the centre of the Ertuşi tribes; another in the middle of the Mutkan, Belkan and Sasun tribes; and one in Van itself, which is in the middle of the Haydar and Sipkan tribes. These should be known by the familiar name of medrese, and should teach both the religious and modern sciences. Each should have at least fifty students, and their means of subsistence should be provided by the illustrious