1. The Author of the Risale-i Nur
Bediuzzaman Said Nursi
This, the first full-length biography of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi to appear in English,
answers in satisfying fashion a need so far unmet. Drawing largely on Bediuzzaman's
own works and the accounts of those who either knew or met him, it describes the life,
works, and struggle in the cause of Islam of this one the most important thinkers and
servants of the Qur'an to emerge in the Islamic world this century. Also giving outlines of
historical events, the work sets Bediuzzaman's ideas and activities in an historical
context. It describes the enterprising and scholarly endeavours of Bediuzzaman's youth
in the cause of the Ottoman Empire, particularly in the areas of education,
constitutionalism, and Islamic Unity. And in the Second Part, traces both Bediuzzaman's
silent struggle through his collection of written works, the Qur'anic commentary known
as the Risale-i Nur, against the irreligion that was officially propagated in the first
decades of the Turkish Republic, and the growth of the Risale-i Nur movement. This
scrupulous biography, which considers all these subjects in detail, will contribute
significantly to making better known to readers of English this major figure of modern
Islam, and the movement he founded for the renewal of belief .
PART ONE - The Old Said
2. Chapter One - Childhood and Youth
Chapter Two - Istanbul before Freedom
Chapter Three - Freedom and Constitutionalism
Chapter Four - Bediuzzaman and the Thirty-First of March Incident
Chapter Five - "The Future shall be Islam's, and Islam's alone"
Chapter Six - Service in Balkans, and in the 'Special Organization'
Chapter Seven - War and Captivity
Chapter Eight - Return and Appointment to the Daru'l-Hikmeti'l-Islamiye
Chapter Nine - Supremacy of the Qur'an and Birth of the New Said
Chapter Ten - Opposition to the British and Move to Ankara
PART TWO - The New Said
Chapter One - Van
Chapter Two - Barla
Chapter Three - Eskisehir
Chapter Four - Kastamonu
Chapter Five - Denizli
Chapter Six - Emirdag
Chapter Seven - Afyon
PART THREE - The Third Said
CONCLUSION
