had permeated all aspects of life, most people were not opposed to the truth, they were confused and uncertain; what they needed was to be drawn to the truth through the lights of the Qur’an, where as politics frightened them off. Only a minority embraced misguidance but all the attention was focussed on them, while the bewildered majority remained deprived of the guidance of which they were in need. Bediuzzaman's concern was for this majority. He also pointed out that there were supporters of the truth in all the political currents; thus, one showing the truths of the Qur'an had remain outside all partisanship, so that the Qur'an should not be left open to attack by his political opponents.

• Isparta

In the summer of 1934 Bediuzzaman wrote to one of his students in Isparta, a calligrapher called Tenekeci Mehmed, saying that things had become intolerable in Barla. He wrote:
"My brother, the torments of the teacher and Chief District Officer here have made my situation unbearable. They discomfort me incredibly. I can't even go out into the countryside. I live in my damp room as though living in the grave..."
This student took the letter immediately to the Governor, Mehmed Fevzi Daldal, and the next day, 25 July, Bediuzzaman was collected and taken to Isparta. He was to remain there till the following April, staying first in the medrese he had used before being sent to Barla. He moved then to a twostorey house set amid gardens where his student Re'fet Barutçu was staying, and afterwards rented a wooden house belonging to another student, Sükrü Içhan.
These months in Isparta Bediuzzaman was held under very close surveillance. There were police permanently posted on his door and in the vicinity. One particularly obnoxious police officer has found his place in history, called Dündar. He used to make whatever trouble he could for Bediuzzaman and his students, so that Bediuzzaman called him Murdar, `Foul'. Often his students could not approach Bediuzzaman, he was kept under such strict surveillance. For a time just one, called Mehmed Gülirmak, was