to their Master was such that they would have sacrificed everything for him, the Old Said never rested in the face of the Armenian Tasnak revolutionary societies, and was able to silence them to a degree although they were very active. He found Mauser rifles for his students, and for a time his medrese was like a barracks with arms and books side by side..."

"In 1331 (1915), the Armenian and Russian savages were in no way successful in killing Bediuzzaman, although they used to attack him from every quarter and tried to do so. As for Bediuzzaman and his followers, they used to pursue the Armenians mercilessly, who used to flee as hard as they could.”

And a description of a visit to Bediuzzaman's medrese-barracks given to Necmeddin Sahiner by Nureddin Burak, who related it exactly as told by his father, Zeyneddin Burak:

"At that time in the East, studying in the medreses was like this: the hoca (teacher) taught for nothing; in fact, through the mediation of the hoca, the people provided the students' livelihood. So there was no material reason preventing study. The choice of teacher was made only through his standing in regard to learning. So if someone was known as a great scholar, he would have many students; everyone would want to be taught by him. At that time, a few friends and myself gathered together and began to search for a good teacher. We were told of Said the Famous in Van, in a medrese called the Horhor Medrese.

"Three of us went there. Hoca Efendi was not present when we arrived at the medrese. Someone called Molla Habib met us and invited us inside. He told us to wait saying the hoca would come soon. At this point, the medrese's walls caught our attention. Hung up on them in rows were Mauser rifles, and various weapons, swords, daggers, and cartridge-belts. Together with these were books on reading-stands. In truth, we were astonished.

"In a short while they said: `Hoca Efendi is coming.' We straightened ourselves up. He entered, and said: `Welcome!', then