believer who lowers himself to look at what is forbidden will day by day eat up his actions and destroy them. I am frightened of such a person's end being grievous..." Then he added:
"The Old Said stayed in Istanbul for ten years during his youth, and he did not look at a woman once."

• The Seyh Said Revolt

Although it was known by everyone that Bediuzzaman had given up all political concerns and gone into retreat, the tribal leaders and those with power .till wished to benefit from his enormous influence in the eastern provinces. Thus among his visitors were chiefs and tribal leaders, besides those who came to him purely as a man of religion. For the problems of the area had found no solution. Among the Kurds were many who favoured independence or autonomy, especially since the abolition of the Sultanate and Caliphate and the establishment of what many of them saw as the godless Republic. It provided too a fertile ground for the British to pursue their ambitions in the area. By early 1925 unrest was widespread, and the tribal chiefs tried to gain Bediuzzaman's support for a full-scale uprising against the Government. As before, Bediuzzaman did all he could to persuade them against such a move. A number complied with his wishes. Thus many thousands of lives were saved when what was to be known as the Seyh Said Revolt finally broke out on 13 February, 1925, so called as it was lead by a Naksibendi seyh called Seyh Said of Palu. He too had tried to gain Bediuzzaman's support in a letter Bediuzzaman's reply to which is still extant and is given below. The Revolt, which was only put down after two months or so, was to have far-reaching results, for Bediuzzaman, who was sent into exile entirely unjustly as a consequence along with many hundreds of others, for the area, and not least for the future of the country as a whole. It set the course for the new regime. For the Government in Ankara used the revolt as a pretext for rushing through the Law for the Maintenance of Order, passed 4 March 1925, which empowered them to set up the notorious `Independence Tribunals' and gave them dictatorial powers to pursue their policies without opposition.'