Within a short time of arriving in Istanbul Bediuzzaman was successful in having a petition setting out his ideas for educational reform in the Eastern Provinces presented to Sultan Abdulhamid, following which the Sultan granted him an audience. The text was later printed in The East and Kurdistan Gazette, dated 19 November, 1908. However, as the paper's introduction to the article points out, Bediuzzaman’s meeting with the Sultan was to have unhappy consequences. In the short time he had been in Istanbul, Bediuzzaman had attracted a lot of attention, both favourable, and as far as the authorities were concerned, adverse. As was inevitable during those repressive times, being such a controversial figure, he was kept under close surveillance. He had also attracted the enmity of others in the same profession, jealous at his learning and fame. Bediuzzaman, however, had one aim: to serve the cause of Islam and the Empire, and he knew no fear in doing this. Then, having been given an audience with the sultan, he took the opportunity to put forward his ideas, and criticisms. Besides openly criticizing the apparatus of despotism, which as we shall see, Bediuzzaman considered to be one of the greatest obstacles to progress as well as being contrary to Islam, his main criticism of Abdulhamid seems to have been his failure to carry out the functions of Caliph satisfactorily: it was his prime duty as Caliph of the Muslims to have shown closer and more constructive concern for the question of education and the ulema institution, since this was the basis of the revitalization of Islam and the Islamic world.