When Ken’ân Rifâ was appointed to Istanbul in January 1897, his first assignment was as the principal of Dersaâdet Secondary School. However, before he could start this position, he was appointed as the principal of Numûne-i Terakkî High School. He also taught geography and science at this school.
When Rifâî arrived in Istanbul in November 1896, the atmosphere of the city was turbulent. On the agenda in Istanbul were the Armenian demonstrations that had been going on since 1895 and the Ottoman Bank incident that had taken place three months earlier. The Dashnak-Hnchak committees had a great influence on this. In August 1896, the organization raided the Ottoman Bank in a sudden action and started a bloody uprising in the city. Ken’ân Rifâî took office in such an atmosphere.
In addition, the school where he worked had a “special situation”. Nadir Bey, the founder of Numûne-i Terakkî, returned to Istanbul after his studies in England and opened this private high school. However, when Nadir Bey’s activities against the government were revealed, he was exiled, the state seized the school and the staff was completely replaced. When the school reopened as an official school in January 1897, Ken’ân Rifâî was the first principal to take office. He worked hard to rebuild the school.
Another detail from this period when Ken’ân Rifâî was on duty in Istanbul is his friendship with his old friend Dr. Server Hilmi from Galatasaray High School. The friendship that started during their school years turned into a spiritual journey years later in Istanbul. In those years, Server Hilmi, who had a materialist perspective, experienced an inner transformation under Rifai’s guidance and began to shape his life with the world of values introduced by Rifai.
About three months after his appointment in Istanbul, Ken’ân Rifâî applied to the ministry for a post in the city of Medîna. Rifâî expressed the reason for this application as follows: “Afterwards, or ten years later, I saw the sign of the Prophet… I went there out of love. I could see nothing else. My duty in Istanbul was very bright. Because I was going to leave this duty and go there, I left the sciences: That place is a desert, how can you leave your good job here and go there, are you crazy? However, if they had sent me there not as a director, but as a mubassır or a janitor, I would still have gone.” This request was fulfilled only two years later.
