decorum." Derviş Vahdeti described Bediuzzaman's arrival and address as follows:

Round about ten o'clock Bediuzzaman Said Kurdi Hazretleri arrived at the head of the Society for Students of the Religious Sciences. We greeted him at the outer doors, where we were meeting all who arrived... The turbans on the students' heads were white like light and enspiriting like flowers. But more than anything, it was the religious education they had received which gave the students an exceptional quality.

Since it was requested of him, 'Our Hazret', that is, the Wonder of the World of Islam [Bediuzzaman], mounted the pulpit with that famous Kurdish dress and heroic manner of his and like always with a dagger at his waist, and standing, delivered an eloquent address. [^173]

[^173]:S. Albayrak, 31 Mart, 220, quoted from Volkan, No. 95; Şahiner, Said Nursi, 116.

Bediuzzaman began the address with the words: "The truth has risen naked from the grave of the heart. Let those for whom it is prohibited not gaze on it." And mentioning all the important political, social, and religious subjects of the time, he continued for two hours. In the words of one of those present: "The sermon he delivered standing in the pulpit was a masterpiece." [^174]

[^174]:Ibid., 116-7, quoted from Hafız Ali Sağman, Mevlid Nasil Okunur ve Mevlithanlar, Istanbul 1951.

#### Derviş Vahdetî

Derviş Vahdetî

Bediuzzaman was one of the twenty-six members of the Governing Board of the Istanbul Central Committee of the Muhammadan Union. [^175] It functioned from the offices of the Volkan newspaper, the owner of which was Hafız Derviş Vahdetî, and it was Derviş Vahdetî who had first founded the Society.

[^175]:S. Albayrak, 31 Mart, 174, from Volkan No. 75; also, Tunaya, Siyasal Partiler, i, 182.

Derviş Vahdetî continues to this day to be something of an unknown quantity. While according to the official histories, he has been portrayed as a radical reactionary opposed to Constitutionalism, and even as a subversive and British agent, from recent research these accusations appear to be false. He now appears more as a victim of circumstance who was made the symbol of the Revolt and paid the consequences. [^176] For from the first issue of the Volkan, which appeared on 28 Teşrin-i Sani 1324/11 December

[^176]:See, M. E. Düzdağ, Volkan, ix.