seeing persons like yourself who have laid hands on the nation's government and destiny, is that in conformity with the justice of government, your high office, and equity and generosity, justice be accorded this person who due to the malicious words of informers has been deprived of the bounty of freedom, of breathing fresh air, and of meeting with any of his Turkish brothers, and that at least once he be granted a meeting with good will. After this, whether you graciously rule on his remaining or on his departing, you will have performed your weighty duty within the law and will have added an admirable act to the record of your life. You will have shown your love of justice to the people and to free-thinking historians like myself who have lost a leg and are now outside of politics.

One-legged Yeşiloğlu Mehmed Salih, former deputy for Erzurum, who loves his nation and country more than his life, and who evinces not the slightest trace of Kurdish, Albanian, or Bosnian nationalism. ∗∗∗

► (099) ◄

My Esteemed Brother in Religion!

For forty days I have been preoccupied with you as I lie ill. Owing to what I have heard and imagined, in line with "the believer is beset by many tribulations," [^55] it seems to me that you must be suffering some indisposition. Around ten days ago I called from my window to someone who was selling pure Afyon butter, and bought some from him. My intention was to ask about you. I was very upset to learn that you had been exiled to Emirdağ and that its people were forbidden to meet with you.

[^55]:al-Suyūṭī, al-Fatḥ al-Kabīr, i, 325; al-'Ajlūnī, Kashf al-Khafā', i, 295. [Tr.]

My esteemed brother! The person writing this letter to you is the former Erzurum deputy, Yeşiloğlu Mehmed Salih, who thirty-one years ago was with you during the Great War in the Esad Paşa Medrese in Erzurum and the snowy Caucasian mountains, and twenty-four years ago when I was a deputy met you in the hall of the Parliament building together with your friend, the Governor of Van, Haydar Bey.

Mehmed Salih ∗∗∗

► (100) ◄

The Reply to Yeşil Salih:

My Dear Brother Hasan Efendi!

Please write on my behalf to our esteemed brother Salih Efendi and tell