of Isparta for someone of that name. During the operation it was learnt that the neighbour of a house searched in some remote village was called Ramazan. So they came and clapped handcuffs on the unfortunate villager who knew neither how to read nor write, and sent him to Eskisehir Prison, despite his bewildered protestations of innocence. And there he remained for two months until the authorities admitted their mistake and released him.

• "The Prison Became Like a Mosque"

The prison authorities did not neglect to plant an informer in the ward where Bediuzzaman's students were. `Postman Kâmil' as he was called was doing his military service as a gendarme in Eskisehir when he was assigned to the job. Bediuzzaman sent his students a note one day stuck to the bottom of the teapot warning them not to speak against the Government as there was an informer amongst them. In the event, `Postman Kâmil' was so impressed by Bediuzzaman and these completely innocent individuals that he himself began to perform the obligatory prayers and in his reports wrote that they were innocent. When describing these days to Necmeddin Sahiner in 1985, he told him:
"...While serving in the prison, I was startled by some sudden news: `Some condemned prisoners are coming, and they are hocas!'... Several days later Hoca Efendi [Bediuzzaman] arrived, and after him, the other hocas, his students..."
After Kâmil had been instructed to act as informer on the new arrivals, he joined them inside, ostensibly serving the sentence for some crime. He continued:
"Everyone got on well with each other in Eskisehir Prison... They used to perform the prescribed prayers all together, recite the Qur'an, and offer prayers.
"They emptied the juveniles' ward for Bediuzzaman and put him in it. His students were somewhere else. The juveniles' ward was large and Bediuzzaman stayed in it all alone. They [the authorities]