plain text of the Qurʾan while accusing me of citing Hadith for no good reason.94
They kept at it until nearly noon. When al-Muʿtaṣim had had enough, he sent everyone away except for ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Isḥāq, who continued to argue with me. Finally al-Muʿtaṣim rose and went back inside, and I was sent back to the place where they had been holding me.
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أخبرنا المحمّدان ابن ناصر وابن عبد الباقي قالا: أخبرنا حَمْد قال: حدثنا أبو نُعَيم الحافظ قال: حدثنا سليمان بن أحمد قال: حدثنا عبد الله بن أحمد بن حنبل قال:
كتب إليّ الفتح بن شَخْرَف بخطّ يده قال: قال ابنُ حُطَيط، رجلٌ قد سمّاه من أهل الفضل من أهل خُراسان: حُبِس أحمد بن حنبل وبعض أصحابه في المحنة في دار قبل أن يُضرب.
قال أحمد بن حنبل: فلمّا كان الليل نام من كان معي من أصحابي وأنا متفكّر في أمري قال: فإذا أنا برجل طويل يتخطّى الناس حتى دنا منّي فقال: أنت أحمد بن حنبل؟
فسكتُّ فقالها ثانية فسكتّ فقالها ثالثة: أنت أبو عبد الله أحمد بن حنبل؟
قلتُ: نعم.
قال: أصبِر ولك الجنّة.
قال أحمد: فلمّا مَسّني حَرّ السَّوط ذكرتُ قول الرجل.
We cite the two Muḥammads, Ibn Nāṣir and Ibn ʿAbd al-Bāqī, who cite Ḥamd, who heard Abū Nuʿaym al-Ḥāfiẓ report that he heard Sulaymān ibn Aḥmad report that he heard Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal’s son ʿAbd Allāh report:
[ʿAbd Allāh:] Al-Fatḥ ibn Shakhraf wrote to me in his own hand saying that he heard from Ibn Ḥuṭayṭ—a man of learning from Khurasan, whose name he gave in full—that before Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal was flogged, he and some of his fellow victims of the Inquisition were kept in confinement in a house somewhere.
“Night fell,” said Aḥmad, “and the others went to sleep, but I couldn’t stop thinking about what would happen to me. Then I saw a tall man picking his way around the sleepers toward me.
“‘Are you Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal?’ he asked.
“I said nothing and he asked again. When I didn’t answer, he asked a third time: ‘Are you Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal?’
“‘Yes.’
“‘Only endure,’ he said, ‘and the Garden is yours.’
“Later, when I felt the burning of the whips, I remembered what he’d told me.”
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أخبرنا ابن ناصر قال: أخبرنا ابن يوسف قال: أخبرنا البرمكي قال: حدثنا ابن مردك قال: حدثنا ابن أبي حاتم قال: حدثنا صالح بن أحمد قال:
قال أبي: فلمّا كانت الليلة الثالثة قلت: خليق أن يحدث غدًا من أمري شيء. فقلتُ لبعض من كان معي الموكّل بي: أرتَدْ لي١ خيطًا. فجاءني بخيط فشددتُ به الأقياد ورددتُ التكّة إلى سراويلي مخافة أن يحدث من أمري شيء فأتعرّى.
١ ش: اريد لي.
We cite Ibn Nāṣir, who cites Ibn Yūsuf, who cites al-Barmakī, who heard Ibn Mardak report that he heard Ibn Abī Ḥātim report that he heard Aḥmad’s son Ṣāliḥ report:
[Aḥmad:] I remember thinking to myself on the third night that something was bound to happen the next day. I asked one of the men who were assigned to me to find me a cord. He found one and I used it to pull up my chains. Then I put the drawstring back on my trousers to hold them up so I wouldn’t be exposed if something happened to me.
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فلمّا كان من الغد في اليوم الثالث وجّه إليّ فأُدخلتُ١ فإذا الدار غاصَّة فجعلت أدخل من موضع إلى موضع وقوم معهم السيوف وقوم معهم السياط وغير ذلك ولم يكن في اليومين الماضيين كبير٢ أحد من هؤلاء. فلمّا انتهيتُ إليه قال: اقعُد. ثم قال: ناظروه، كلِّموه.
قال: فجعلوا يناظروني ويتكلم هذا فأردّ عليه. ويتكلم هذا فأردّ عليه وجعل صوتي يعلو أصواتهم فجعل بعض من على رأسه قائم يُومئ إليّ بيده.
فلما طال المجلس نحّاني ثم خلا بهم ثم نحّاهم وردّني عليه وقال: ويحك يا أحمد! أَجِبْني حتى أُطلق عنك بيدي.
فرددت عليه نحوًا ممّا كنتُ أردّ فقال لي: عليك – ! وذكر اللعن. ثم قال: خُذوه واسحبوه وخلّعوه.
قال: فسُحبت ثم خُلِّعت.
١ د: فادخلت عليه. ٢ د: كثير.
On the morning of the third day,95 al-Muʿtaṣim sent for me again. I entered the hall to find it packed with people. As I came slowly forward, I saw people with swords, people with whips, and so on—many more than on the first two days. When I reached him, he told me to sit down. “Debate him,” he told the others. “Talk to him!”
They began to argue with me. One would talk and I would answer him, and then another would talk and I’d answer him too. Soon I was winning.96 One of the men standing near al-Muʿtaṣim began pointing at me. After the session had gone on for a while, al-Muʿtaṣim had me led away to one side so he could confer with them alone. Then he sent them to the side and had me brought over.
“Come on, Aḥmad!” he said. “Tell me what I want to hear, and I’ll unchain you with my own hands.”
When I gave him my usual answer, he cursed me, then said, “Drag him away and strip him!”
I was dragged away and stripped.97
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قال: