Muslim scholar’s animated tale

DIRECTOR Orhan Öztürk Esin’s animated Turkish film God’s Faithful Servant: Barla, which opens at selected cinemas today, is the story of a man’s exile.

Muslim theologian Said Nursi, also known as Bediuzzaman, was educated at an early age by some of the Ottoman’s best scholars.

He developed a plan for university education for the eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire that would combine scientific and Islamic education.

He was put on trial for his apparent involvement in the 1909 countercoup on the side opposing the Committee of Union and Progress, but was acquitted and released.

A supporter of democracy, he protested against the-then common era dictatorship.

Active as an educational reformer, he became a concern to the leader of the Turkish Republic, Kemal Ataturk.

Declining an offer to assume the role of Minister of Religious Affairs for the eastern provinces, he became a member of the Sperical Organisation of the Ottoman Empire.

He was eventually sent into exile in the village Barla in the Isparta Province where his attracted many people.

Bediuzzaman immersed himself in the Qur’an, searching for a way to relate its truths to modern man. In his isolation he began to write treatises explaining and proving these truths, because the Qur’an was under attack.

Facing arrest, imprisonment and even poisoning, his journey was not an easy one.

The film features Faruk Akgören, Ugur Aslanoglu and Murat Aydin.

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