Biography of Bediüzzaman Said Nursi | PART ONE - The Old Said | 22
(11-240)
evil eye.
· Siirt
Molla Said remained with his brother a while longer and then made his way to Siirt. It was here that Said was challenged by the local `ulema for the first time and was successful in debating with them and answering all their questions. His reputation now became firmly established. On his arrival in Siirt, he went to the medrese of the famous Molla Fethullah Efendi, who was to experience the same astonishment as Molla Abdullah at the number of books Said had read and learnt. He also examined Molla Said, who again gave perfect answers. So he then decided to test Said's memory and handed him a work called the Makamat-i Haririye. Molla Said read one page once, memorized it, then repeated it by heart. Molla Fethullah expressed his amazement by saying: "For this degree of memory and intelligence to be combined in one person is indeed rare."
While there, Molla Said memorized the whole of a work on the principles of jurisprudence of the four schools of Islam by the Shafi'i scholar Ibnii'1- Subki, the Cem'u' 1-Cevami', by reading it for one or two hours every day for a week. Whereupon Molla Fethullah wrote in the book, in Arabic, "He memorized the whole of the Cem'u'l-Cevanti' in a week".
From a letter written by Bediuzzaman in 1946 while in exile in Emirdag, it is learnt that it was at this time as a result of these feats of learning that he was first given the name of Bediuzzaman -Wonder of the Age- and by Molla Fethullah Efendi. He wrote to one of his important students:
"My Cbrious Brother, Re'fet Bey, You want information about Bediuzzaman-i Hamadani's duty and written works in the 3rd century [Hicri]. I only know about him that he had an extraordinary intelligence and power of memory.
"Fifty-five years ago one of my first masters, the late Molla Fethullah of Siirt, likened the Old Said to him and gave him his
No Voice

Biography of Bediüzzaman Said Nursi