Bediüzzaman Said Nursi Chair in Islamic Studies

Every year the Nursi Chair hosts JCU's Week of Islamic Art and Culture in the spring. For the 2023-2024 academic year, the Week of Islamic Art and Culture will be April 15-19. Check back soon for more details.

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Said Nursi was born in either 1876 in the isolated village of Nurs, in the province of Bitlis, in eastern Anatolia.  Due to the lack of a proper population record system in the village at the time of his birth, we don’t have details on his exact birth date. Even the year of his birth is based on Nursi’s own account throughout his writings. In his early life he was known as Said-i Kurdi, in reference to the region in which he was born. He was also given the title “Bediüzzaman,” or the “peerless of time;” by his teachers as a confirmation of his extraordinary photographic memory and his great ability of analysis. 

His early education was provided by his highly pious parents, his mother Nuriye and his father Mirza. Soon though, Nursi left his home to attend the area madrasa. According to his biographers, what other students would accomplish in nine years, Nursi accomplished in three months. Nursi would ask his teachers to teach him the beginning part of each text book of the curriculum. He would learn the rest by himself. He memorized more than eighty major books of Islamic sciences. Nursi who memorized such an amount of books, interestingly enough, did not memorize the Qur’an. Later he would explain that the Qur’an should be recited carefully and not quickly as many memorizers of the Qur’an do. 

In the first decade of the twentieth century Nursi became much more aware of the importance of education. Nursi closely followed what was going on in the west, particularly in the USA, with regard to the establishment of many universities towards the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries.  He viewed the establishment of al-Zahra University, in the city of Van, eastern Anatolia, as the greatest goal of his life. He was so fascinated by modern sciences and anxious to have both modern and religious sciences taught together in this university. He believed religion and science were the two necessary wings for students to succeed.  He met with ottoman sultans for this purpose, and received financial support from Sultan Reşad. He started the foundation of the buildings, but World War I prevented him from fulfilling his goal.  

After the city of Bitlis was captured by the Russian forces, Nursi participated in the war to defend his hometown, as a volunteer regiment commander. After being wounded in battle, he was captured by the Russian forces. He spent over two years in captivity together with Turkish and German officers.  Nursi managed to escape from captivity during the 1917 Russian Revolution. He made his way to Istanbul via Germany. In Istanbul, Nursi led a nonviolent struggle against the British occupation of the city through his writings. The leaders of the newly established Republic of Turkey wanted to honor Nursi for his nonviolent defense of Istanbul against the British occupation by inviting him to Ankara to give a speech at the parliament. After his famous speech at the parliament, a debate started between Nursi and Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (d. 1938) over the content of his speech, specifically regarding the importance of faith and prayer. Nursi disagreed with Ataturk, and left the capital for eastern Anatolia, his hometown. 

One of the most remarkable decisions made at this time in Nursi’s life was his decision to live in seclusion in a cave in order to distance himself from the political life and dedicate himself to the spiritual life. However, due to some revolts in eastern Anatolia, Nursi, who never approved of any form of physical violence, was forced into exile by the government to spend the rest of his life in western Anatolia.  He faced an unprecedented persecution by the ultra-secular Turkish government of the time. Nursi spent the final 34 years of his life in and out of prison (which he called the “Madrasa of Joseph”) until his death on March 23, 1960. While in exile, Nursi continued writing books, gaining new students and becoming a major figure of a nonviolent opposition in the modern Republic of Turkey. In an obituary of March 24, 1960, The New York Times claimed that Nursi’s students numbered one million.   If one asks the strength of Nursi, probably the answer will be Nursi’s writings, what is called Risale-i Nur (Treatise of Light).  He viewed this work as a spiritual commentary of the Qur’an for the 20th century, written to prove the truth of the Qur’an against the materialism and skepticism of this age.

For more information on Nursi see Dr. Saritoprak's short biography of Nursi found in the Routledge Handbook of the Islamic World.

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