Biography of Bediüzzaman Said Nursi | PART TWO ( THE NEW SAID ) | 253
(242-491)

received such an answer that my spirit, heart, and mind trembled and wept. The man I asked said: `That Office, which for hundreds of years shone with the lights of the Seriat, is now an older girls' lycee and playground.' I was seized by such a mental state that it was as though the world had collapsed on my head. I had no power, no strength. Uttering sighs of anguish in sheer despair, I turned towards the Divine Court. And the feverish sighs of many others whose hearts were burning like mine combined with my sighs. I cannot remember whether or not I sought the assistance of Seyh-i Geylani's prayers and saintly power for our supplications; I do not know. But in any event it was his prayers and influence that set fire to the sighs of those like me in order to save from darkness a place which for so long had been a place of light. For that night the Seyhü’l-Islam’s Office was in part burnt down. Everyone said, what a pity. But I, and those who were burning like me, said, All praise and thanks be to God!"
According to Tahsin Tandogan, who was a Chief Superintendent of Police in Istanbul in 1925, Bediuzzaman also stayed in Süleymaniye near the old Seyhü’l-Islam’s Office. His recollections of Bediuzzaman have been recorded by Necmeddin Sahiner and provide both added proof of Bediuzzaman's innocence and further interesting details of his stay in Istanbul. Tahsin Bey himself arrested those ring-leaders of the Seyh Said Revolt who were in Istanbul and took their statements. Namely, Palulu Sadi, Seyyid Abdülkadir, his son Mehmed Bey, and Nazif Bey. He was also ordered by his Chief, Ziya Bey, to go to Süleymaniye to the Seyhü’l-Islam’s Office, in order to fetch Bediuzzaman to the Police Headquarters and take his statement. The Police Chief told Chief Superintendent Tahsin Bey: "It is the famous Said-i Kürdi, but he is not in touch with these here involved in the Revolt. We could not establish any connection between them at all." Tahsin Bey continued in his conversation with Necmeddin Sahiner:
"They had recently brought him [Bediuzzaman] from the East. He was staying in Süleymaniye. He had one of his students with him called Bitlisli Kürt Hakki, who attended to his needs. I myself went to Süleymaniye to get him and bring him to the Special Branch. I had his file. It was me who took the file to the Police Chief and to the

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