Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal said, “I hope that Allah will have mercy on al-Amīn for the way he repudiated Ibn ʿUlayyah, for when Ibn ʿUlayyah was brought before him al-Amīn said, ‘You son of a wicked woman! Are you the one who claims that kalām Allah (the speech of Allah) is created?’ (1)

I say: Ibn ʿUlayyah never stated that explicitly—far be it from him; he merely uttered a phrase that could be taken to imply some of it.

Al-Amīn lived twenty-seven years. He was killed in Muḥarram of the year 198 AH, and his caliphate lasted a little under five years—may Allah pardon him and forgive him.

His children were ʿAbd Allah, Mūsā, and Ibrāhīm, born to various concubine mothers.

111 – Maʿrūf al-Karkhī, Abū Maḥfūẓ al-Baghdādī *
The model ascetic, the blessing of his age, Abū Maḥfūẓ al-Baghdādī.

His father’s name was Fayrūz; some say Fayrūzān, one of the al-Ṣābiʾah (Sabeans). Another report says both of his parents were Christians who placed him with a tutor who would tell him,
“To say: He is the third of three.”
Maʿrūf would reply, “Rather, He is the One.”
The tutor would beat him, so he would run away, and his parents would say, “If only he would come back.” In the end his parents embraced Islam.

Al-Sulamī relates that he kept company with Dāwūd al-Tāʾī, but this is not sound.