Said Nursî
Said Nursi', born 1876? in the village of Nurs, province Bitlis, died March 23 1960 in Urfa was a Turkish Islamic thinker of Kurdish origin.
Family background and youth
He was born into a family of agriculturalists with an inclination to religious studies. As a boy he was sent to study under the eminent scholars of the surrounding cities. He memorized the manuals of the classical Islamic fields of knowledge in a short time. Therefore he was given the honorific title "Bediüzzaman" (miracle of the epoch) with which his followers use to refer to him.
The "Old Said"
Due to his fame as a scholar he was invited by the governor of Van to stay in his residence. In his library Said gained access to the secular knowledge he did not encounter during his studies. Moreover Said learnt proper Turkish there. During this time he devlopped a plan for a university for the Eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire. By combining secular and religious education it should help to remove the backwardness of these areas.
The "New Said"
H was finally exiled in the village barla (prov. Isparta). He dictated his thoughts to some of his disciples. These manuscripts were sent to Sav, another village in the region were dozens of people duplicated them in Arabic script which were officially replaced by the Latin script in 1928. After being finished these books were sent to Said's disciples all over Turkey via the "Nurcu postal system".
The "Third Said"
He was finally released in 1949. In the last decade of his life he settled in Isparta. After the introduction of the multi-party system he advised his followers to vote for the Democratic Party of Adnan Menderes which intended to remove the anti-Islamic laws introduced by the Kemalists. Because Said Nursi considered communism the greatest danger of that time he also supported the pro-Western orientation of the Democrats (NATO- membership, Baghdad-treaty, Turkey's participation in the Korean war). He tried to unite Muslims and Chrisitians in the struggle against communism and materialism therefore he corresponded with the Pope and the Greek-Orthodox patriarch. Hence his followers praise him as the inventor of interfaith dialogue.
In 1956 he was allowed to have his writings printed.
he died of exhaustation after traveling to Urfa. He was buried in the premise where according to Islamic beliefs Prophet Abraham (Ibrahim) is buried. A military coup brought the Kemalists back into power two months later. In July 1960 a group of soldiers lead by Alpaslan Türkes opened his grave and buried him at an unknown place near Isparta in order to prevent popular veneration.