After the failure of the mysterious putsch in Turkey, the rage of President Erdogan is touching a level of paranoia you only see in embattled dictators. The number of his presidential guards is in thousands and over 300 of them have already been arrested.

The Turkish premier, Benali Yildirim, has declared that the presidential guards are of no use and their contingent may be abolished. In all this mayhem, the prime target appears to be Fethullah Gulen and his purported supporters. But before talking about Gulen, another personality is worth understanding that Gulen considers his teacher.

Said Nursi -- commonly known as Bediuzzaman Nursi -- was born in 1877 in a Kurd family in Nurs in Anatolia. That was the time when the Ottoman Empire was dubbed the ‘sick man of Europe’ and there were young Turks who wanted to see the future of Turkey in a secular and progressive dispensation. In the closing decades of the 19^th century, there were also Turkish scholars of Islam who sought the revival of religion as a way to Islamic rule that could lead Turkey out of the morass it was in. Said Nursi emerged as one of the most prominent scholars who challenged all secular and progressive ideas attracting the young people in Turkey.

Said Nursi was a Sunni Muslim who drew inspiration from the works of systematic theology (kalam) of Abu Mansur al-Maturidi (853-944) and Abul Hasan al-Ash’ari (874-936) -- the two outspoken scholars of Islam who waged a relentless struggle against the Mutazalite thought during the late 9^th and early 10^th centuries. The intellectual movement of Mutazilism had begun in the mid-eighth century as a byproduct of massive translation efforts done by rationalist scholars.

Ancient Greek, Latin, Persian, and Indian works were translated into Arabic, mostly at Bayt al-Hikma in the Abbasi capital, Baghdad; that had been established as the fourth centre of Muslim power after Madina, Kufa, and Damascus in the earlier centuries of Muslim rule.

After the decline of the Mutazilas, Maturidi and Ash’ari schools gained prominence and their followers -- such as Imam Ghazali -- continued the battle against rational thinking and philosophy, resulting in the marginalisation and persecution of scientists such as Averroes (Ibne Rushd). Gradually, the followers of Ibn Sina and Jabir bin Hayyan declined in numbers and a pall of obscurantism engulfed the entire Muslim world.

It is in this context that we can try to understand the repeated efforts of Muslim religious scholars -- from Ibne Taimiya and Mujaddid Alf Sani to Said Nursi and Maulana Maududi -- to reestablish a theocratic state. Arguably, the most important work of Said Nursi was Risala-e-Nur (Compendium of Light) that he wrote in the span of 40 years from 1910 to 1950. Consisting of 40 volumes, this magnum opus is a detailed exegesis of the Quran dealing with topical issues rather than follow an ordinal approach. Up until then, most exegeses were written keeping in mind the order of the Quranic verses, but Nursi was one of the pioneers in the 20^th century who preferred to deal with topics irrespective of their order in the Quran.

In his writings, Nursi dealt with the emerging issues of the 20^th century and tried to give an Islamic solution to most of the problems that a Muslim can face in terms of reconciling religion with the modern-day developments in science and technology. His persuasive style and convincing thoughts made inroads into the hearts and minds of the Turks who were baffled at the rejection of all things old by the new secular government of Kemal Ataturk.

His popularity was considered a threat by the Kemalist one-party rule that was desperate to rid Turkey of its centuries-old religious cloak of the dead Ottoman Caliphate. Nursi was arrested and sent into exile; he could only come back after the death of Ataturk when Ismat Inonu introduced a multi-party system and handed over power to the opposition party of Adnan Menderes in 1950. Nursi died in 1960 at the age of 83; Gulen was just 20 years old but had keenly read and observed Nursi’s so-called crusade against secularism and communism -- the two ideas that Nursi had considered lethal for religious revival.

Fethullah Gulen was born in 1941 in Erzurum and had followed a strictly Islamic education and upbringing from his childhood. By the time Nursi died in 1960, Turkey had seen a botched attempt by prime minister Adnan Menderes to weaken the secular hold and reintroduce religious elements in society such as allowing the Azan to be recited in Arabic that had been banned by the Kemalist regime. In his 10-year rule from 1950 to 1960, Menderes had been elected three times and was still popular among the religious right; Nursi had repeatedly asked his followers to vote for Menderes who had emerged as a ray of hope for the revivalist groups in Turkey.

Finally, in 1960, the Turkish army that prided itself in the secularist principles of Kemal Ataturk struck a deadly blow to the religious right by staging a successful coup led by General Cemal Gursel against PM Menderes and President Celal Bayar, both of whom were sentenced to death for violating the Turkish constitution. Bayar was spared for his old age, Menderes was executed. Gulen had seen it all in his young age and had nurtured a simmering desire to do something to bring the Turkish society back to the teachings of Islam.

In 1966, Gulen started to lead prayers in a mosque in Izmir and continued to read and understand about Islam. In a relatively conservative city of Izmir, Gulen became a household name for his preaching style that gradually made him a darling of religious elements across Turkey. His mainstay of support also came from the business classes who donated generously to his cause. By 1990s, Gulen’s influence had penetrated into most segments of society including the civil and military bureaucracy and professions such as education, media and judiciary.

Among politicians -- such as Necmettin Erbakan, Abdullah Gul, and Erdogan -- most right wing activists were influenced by Gulen. When Erbakan became prime minister of Turkey, his government was the second after Menderes’ that overtly tried to deviate from the secular path, resulting in yet another army intervention through which Erbakan was forced to resign in 1997. Of course Gulen was not happy and issued a couple of statements that put him in danger of being arrested; he moved to the USA and set up his shop there in 1999. The Americans always had a soft corner for Said Nursi and his followers for their staunch opposition to communism; hence it was not difficult for the US to offer shelter to one of its old anti-communist allies.

Erdogan and Gulen had enjoyed a good relationship for long, but when Erdogan started establishing himself as an all-powerful ruler and flouted democratic principles just to entrench himself further, Gulen expressed his displeasure. Erdogan -- annoyed as he was at Gulen’s opposition to his absolute rule -- started targeting Gulen’s followers and supporters within and outside the government. Stories about the corruption of the Erdogan family and their coteries are not new, but the crackdown on his opponents is surely unprecedented in a long time.

The recent putsch should serve as a lesson for all democratically elected leaders who try to establish a family-rule. The putsch’s failure also gives a clear signal that the days of army interventions are over and people can no more be duped by the promises of good governance under a military rule. Elected governments should try to establish rule of law and the army should not try to destabilise a civilian government; it should always be left to the people to decide the fate of an elected government in elections.