and he even produced written treatises on the subject. A royal order was therefore issued to convene a formal hearing. The council was duly held on Monday, the third of that same month, at Dar al-Saʿadah; the matter was settled exactly as the Sultan had commanded, and on Tuesday, the fourth, a proclamation to that effect was made throughout the city.

Despite this, the Shaykh resumed issuing rulings on the question, declaring, “I cannot lawfully withhold knowledge.” Accordingly, on Tuesday, the twenty-ninth of Ramadan in the year 719 AH, the judges and jurists were summoned before the Sultan’s deputy at Dar al-Saʿadah, and the Sultan’s decree was read aloud to them. It contained a separate clause concerning the Shaykh on account of his fatwa in this case. He was brought in, reproached for giving the ruling after it had been prohibited, and the ban was emphatically reaffirmed to him.

Some time later, on Thursday, the twenty-second of Rajab in the year 720 AH (1), another council was convened at Dar al-Saʿadah, attended by the deputy (2), the judges, and a group of muftis (3), as well as the Shaykh himself. They once again questioned him about his legal opinion on the divorce oath (4) and rebuked him for persisting in it. He was then imprisoned in the Citadel (5), where he remained for five months and eighteen days.