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: وقد كان صار إليّ شَعر من شعر النبي صلّى الله عليه وسلّم فصررتُه في كمّ قميصي فوجّه إليّ إسحاق بن إبراهيم: ما هذا المصرور في كمّ قميصك؟ فقلت: شعر من شعر النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم . قال: وسعى بعض القوم إلى القميص ليخرقه عليّ فقال لهم، يعني المعتصم: لا تخرقوه. فنُزع القميص عنّي. قال: فظننتُ أنه إنما دُرئ عن القميص الخرق بسبب الشعر الذي كان فيه.
Some time before, I had acquired some of the Prophet’s hair. Noticing that I had something knotted up in the sleeve of my shirt, Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm sent someone over to ask what it was. I told him it was some of the Prophet’s hair. When they started tearing my shirt off, al-Muʿtaṣim told them to stop and they pulled it off me without ripping it. I think he held back because of the hair that was knotted up inside.
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قال أبي: وجلس على كُرسي، يعني المعتصم، ثم قال: العُقابَين والسياط فجئ بالعقابين فمُدّت يداي فقال بعض من حضر خلفي: خُذ نابَيْ١ الخشبتين بيديك وشُدّ عَليهما. فلم أفهم ما قال، فتخلّعت يداي.
١ د: ٮاٮى، ش: يابي عبد الله ، تركي: ناتئ.
Sitting down on a chair, al-Muʿtaṣim called for the posts and the whips. They brought out the posts and made me stretch out my arms. From behind me someone said, “Hold on to the tusks and pull,” but I didn’t understand, so I ended up spraining both my wrists.98
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أخبرنا عبد الملك بن أبي القاسم قال: أخبرنا عبد الله بن محمّد الأنصاري قال: أخبرنا أبو يعقوب قال: أخبرنا جدّي قال: أخبرنا محمّد بن أبي جعفر المُنذِري وأبو أحمد بن أبي أُسامة قالا:
سمعنا محمّد بن إبراهيم البُوشَنْجي يقول: ذكروا أنّ المعتصم لان في أمر أحمد لمّا عُلّق في العقابين ورأى ثبوته وتصميمه وصلابته في أمره حتى أغراه ابن أبي دؤاد وقال له: إن تركته قيل إنّك تركت مذهب المأمون. وسَخِطتَ قولَه فهاجَه ذلك على ضربه.
We cite ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Abī l-Qāsim, who cites ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Anṣārī, who cites Abū Yaʿqūb, who cites his grandfather, who cites Muḥammad ibn Abī Jaʿfar al-Mundhirī, who along with Abū Aḥmad ibn Abī Usāmah heard Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Būshanjī say:
[Al-Būshanjī:] They say that when Aḥmad was suspended from the posts, al-Muʿtaṣim, seeing him undaunted, so admired his bravery that he was prepared to be lenient with him; but then Aḥmad ibn Abī Duʾād provoked him, saying, “If you let him go, people will say that you’ve renounced al-Maʾmūn’s creed and are refusing to enforce it.” It was this that pushed al-Muʿtaṣim to go ahead and flog him.
٢٤،٦٩
أخبرنا ابن ناصر قال: أخبرنا ابن يوسف قال: أخبرنا البرمكي قال: أخبرنا ابن مَرْدَك قال: حدثنا ابن أبي حاتم قال: حدثنا صالح قال:
قال أبي: لما جيء بالسياط نظر إليها المعتصم فقال: ائتوني بغيرها.
فأُتي بغيرها ثم قال للجلّادين: تقدّموا.
قال: فجعل يتقدّم إليّ الرجل منهم فيضربني سوطين فيقول له، يعني المعتصم: شُدّ، قطع الله يدك! ثم يَتنحّى ثم يتقدم الآخر فيضربني سوطين وهو في كل ذلك يقول لهم: شدّوا، قطع الله أيديكم!
We cite Ibn Nāṣir, who cites Ibn Yūsuf, who cites al-Barmakī, who cites Ibn Mardak, who heard Ibn Abī Ḥātim report that he heard Ṣāliḥ report that his father said:
[Aḥmad:] When they brought the whips, al-Muʿtaṣim looked at them and said, “Bring different ones,” which was done.99 Then he said to the lictors,100 “Proceed!”
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