فيقول: واللهِ إنه لَعالم وإنّه لَفقيه، وما يسوؤني١ أن يكون مثلُه معي يردّ عني أهل المِلَل.
ثم قال لي: ما كنت تعرف صالحًا الرشيدي؟
قال: قلت: قد سمعت باسمه.
قال: كان مؤدِّبي وكان في ذلك الموضع جالسًا – وأشار إلى ناحية من الدار – فسألتُه عن القرآن فخالفني فأمرت به فوُطئ وسُحب.
ثم قال لي: يا أحمد أجبني إلى شيء لك فيه أدنى فرَج حتى أُطلق عنك بيدي.
قال: قلت: أعطوني شيئًا من كتاب الله عز وجل أو سنّة رسوله.
١ ش: يسُرني.
As the session dragged on, al-Muʿtaṣim grew bored and restless. “Go!” he said to the scholars. Then he ordered ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Isḥāq and me to stay behind so he could talk to me.
“Come on!” he said. “Why don’t you give up?” Then he said, “I don’t recognize you. Have you never come here before?”
“I know him, Commander of the Faithful,” said ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Isḥāq. “For thirty years, he’s been saying that Muslims owe obedience to you and should follow you in the holy war and join you on the pilgrimage.”
“By God,” said al-Muʿtaṣim, “he’s a man of learning—a man of understanding! I wouldn’t mind having someone like him with me to argue against people from other religions.” Then, turning to me, “Did you know Ṣāliḥ al-Rashīdī?”
“I’ve heard of him,” I said.
“He was my tutor, and he was sitting right there,” he said, pointing to a corner of the room. “I asked him about the Qurʾan and he contradicted me, so I had him trampled and dragged out. So Aḥmad: find something—anything—you can agree to, and I’ll unchain you with my own hands.”
“Give me something from the Book of God,” I said, “or the sunnah of His Emissary.”
١٥،٦٩
فطال المجلس فقام فدخل ورددت إلى الموضع الذي كنت فيه.
فلمّا كان بعد المغرب وجّه إليّ برجلين من أصحاب ابن أبي دُؤاد يبيتان عندي ويناظراني ويقيمان معي حتى إذا كان وقت الإفطار جيء بالطعام ويجتهدان بي أن أفطر فلا أفعل.
قال أبي: ووجه إليّ، يعني المعتصم، ابن أبي دُؤاد في بعض الليل فقال: يقول لك أمير المؤمنين: ما تقول؟ فأردّ عليه نحوًا ممّا كنت أردّ.
فقال ابن أبي دؤاد: والله لقد كتب اسمك في السبعة، يحيى بن مَعِين وغيره، فمحوتُه – والسبعة يحيى بن مَعِين وأبو خَيْثمة١ وأحمد الدَّورقي والقَواريري وسَعدويه وسَجادة وأحمد بن حنبل وقيل خَلَف المخزومي – ولقد سائني أخْذهم إياك، ثم يقول: إن أمير المؤمنين قد حلف أن يضربك ضربًا بعد ضرب وأن يُلقيك في موضع لا ترى فيه الشمس ويقول: إن أجابني جئتُ إليه حتى أُطلق عنه بيدي. ثم انصرف.
١ ش: يحيى ابو خيثمة.
The session dragged on. Finally al-Muʿtaṣim rose and went back inside, and I was sent back to the place where they had been keeping me.
After sunset prayers, two of Ibn Abī Duʾād’s associates were sent in to spend the night there and continue debating with me. They stayed until it was time to break the fast.90 When the meal arrived they pressed me to eat but I wouldn’t. Then, at some point during the night, al-Muʿtaṣim sent over Ibn Abī Duʾād.
“The Commander of the Faithful wants to know if you have anything to say.”
I gave him my usual answer.
“You know,” he said, “your name was one of the seven—Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn and the rest—but I rubbed it out.”91
The seven were Yāḥyā ibn Maʿīn, Abū Khaythamah, Aḥmad al-Dawraqī, al-Qawārīrī, Saʿduwayh, and—in some accounts—Khalaf al-Makhzūmī.92
Ibn Abī Duʾād continued: “I was sorry to see them arrest you.” Then he said, “The Commander of the Faithful has sworn to give you a good long beating and then throw you somewhere where you’ll never see the sun. But he also says that if you capitulate he’ll come and unchain you himself.”
Then he left.
١٦،٦٩
فلمّا أصبح، وذلك في اليوم الثاني، جاء رسوله فأخذ بيدي حتّى ذهب بي إليه فقال لهم: ناظروه، كلّموه.
فجعلوا يناظروني ويتكلم هذا من ها هنا فأردّ عليه ويتكلّم هذا من ها هنا فأردّ علي، فإذا جاؤوا بشيء من الكلام ممّا ليس في كتاب الله عزّ وجلّ ولا سنّة رسوله ولا فيه خبر قلت: ما أدري ما هذا.
قال: يقولون: يا أمير المؤمنين إذا توجَّهتْ١ له الحُجّة علينا ثبت وإذا كلّمناه بشيء يقول: لا أدري ما هذا فيقول: ناظروه!
١ مشكلة في ش.
The next morning—on my second day there—al-Muʿtaṣim’s envoy came, took me by the arm, and brought me before him. Again al-Muʿtaṣim ordered them to debate me. “Talk to him!” he said.
So the debate began again. One of them would speak from over here and I would answer him, and another from over there and I’d answer him too. Whenever they mentioned anything not in the Book of God or the sunnah of His Emissary, or in a report about the early Muslims, I would say, “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Commander of the Faithful,” they would protest, “when he has an argument against us he stands his ground, but whenever we make a point he says he doesn’t know what we’re talking about.”
“Keep debating him!” said al-Muʿtaṣim.
١٧،٦٩
فقال رجل: