CHAPTER TWO

 

  

 In November, 1907, Bediuzzaman set off a second time for Istanbul with the intention of obtaining official support and backing for his Islamic university, the Medresetu'z-Zehra. He was now around thirty years of age. From his humble beginnings in the village of Nurs, he had established his reputation among the ulema of Kurdistan, and was a figure well-known not only for his unbeaten record in debate, extensive learning, and extraordinary abilities, but also for his pursuit of justice and defense of right, and his absolute fearlessness before anyone save his Maker. His ambitions matched his ability. This had marked him out from his earliest years. He had never been content with the status-quo, something within himself had perpetually pushed him to seek fresh, new, better paths. As his horizons expanded, this path became clear. As is described in the previous chapter, besides the continuing process of his study, two key events may be seen as being decisive in giving him direction. One was his realization of the extremely severe nature of the threats to the Qur'an by Islam's perennial enemies, and that, through his learning, he should make the defence of it the aim of his life. And the second were the acquaintances he made in Mardin in 1892, and his learning through them of the struggle for freedom and constitutionalism, and of the movement for Islamic Unity and other issues concerning the Islamic world. Until the beginning of the First World War, it was with these issues that Bediuzzaman was chiefly concerned.

 

 

What was the struggle for Freedom and constitutional government? What were the issues involved? Why should a young religious scholar from the remote eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire have embraced the struggle with such conviction? Primarily these questions find their answer in a further question, one that had been asked with increasing urgency as the power of the Otoman