he told me: The Chief Judge Abū Ṭālib ibn al-Ḥadīthī (1) said:

“Abū al-Futūḥ came past us with a throng around him, some of whom were shouting, ‘We neither distort nor correct—this is but worship!’ The common folk began pelting him with stones until they even hurled a dead dog back and forth. The disturbance swelled; had it not taken place so close to the Nubian Gate, a number of people would have perished. Just then the Dean of Baghdad, Muwaffaq al-Mulk, happened to be passing by. Those with Abū al-Futūḥ scattered in flight. He dismounted, slipped into one of the shops, and bolted it shut. Muwaffaq al-Mulk then met with the sultan, told him what had happened, and the sultan ordered Abū al-Futūḥ arrested and deported—first to Hamadhān, then to Isfarāʾīn—and had witnesses testify that should he ever leave the latter town, his blood would be forfeit.

Al-Samʿānī said: ‘He was forced out of Baghdad, and death overtook him at Bustām on the second of Dhū al-Ḥijja in the year 538 AH; he was buried beside Shaykh Abū Yazīd al-Bustāmī.’

Ibn al-Jawzī states in al-Muntaẓam (2): ‘When Sultan Masʿūd entered Baghdad he was accompanied by al-Ḥasan ibn Abī Bakr al-Nīsābūrī, the Ḥanafī, one of the professional debaters. I sat with him; he took his seat in the Palace Mosque and would publicly curse the Ashʿarī, saying: “Be a Shāfiʿī, but do not be an Ashʿarī; be a Ḥanafī, but do not be a Muʿtazilī; be a Ḥanbalī, but do not be an anthropomorphist.”

‘Over the gate of the Niẓāmiyya stood the inscription “Ashʿarī”; the sultan ordered it erased and “Shāfiʿī” written in its place. Al-Isfarāʾīnī was preaching in his ribāṭ, praising the merits of the Ashʿarī school, and disputes kept breaking out. Al-Ghaznawī went to the sultan, informed him of the strife, and said, “Abū al-Futūḥ is a man of sedition; he has been stoned more than once. The right course is to expel him.”

‘So he was expelled, and al-Ḥasan al-Nīsābūrī returned to his homeland, while the public cursing remained in…’