chiefs of the area were requesting the speedy payment of sufficient money "from the Imperial pocked' - only a small amount had been paid up to that time due to the financial straits of the Government - to begin the construction of an Islamic university for eighty students in Van, the plans and preliminaries of which had already been completed. It was hoped the running costs would be met by the Imperial Estates. He writes it would be an important point of support for the continued existence of Islam and the Ottomans [in the area] in the face of daily increasing Shi'i propaganda and the ignorance of the Kurdish people. It would strengthen feeling for Islam and remove every sort of misunderstanding, and would be most beneficial and effective.

While in Van, Bediuzzaman spent much of his time teaching his students in his medrese, the Horhor, which took its onomatopoeic name from the spring that rose at its side. A young visitor to the medrese described it as follows: "There was a green-covered table in Bediuzzaman's medrese in Horhor on which he had written out in thumb-tacks the Hadith: `Seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave.' He himself taught the students when they had finished studying. His students were all selected. He taught about twenty-five of them. He was very fond of me and never called me by my name; he used to call me `nephew'. Before the War he used to stay in Nursin and Husrev Pasa Mosques..."

It was also during this visit to the East that what was known as the Bitlis Incident occurred, when, in July 1913, rebelling against the irreligious behavior of some of the military commanders of the Government, Seyh Selim of Hizan occupied the town for a week. The Seyh had first approached Bediuzzaman seeking his support. But as on numerous occasions including the much larger Seyh Said revolt in 1925, Bediuzzaman declined, refusing to draw his sword against fellow Muslims. He told the Seyh:

"Those bad things and that irreligious behavior is peculiar to commanders like those. The Army is not responsible for them. There