and set in enormous basins that were lowered from the little cupola by chains and ropes; the whole Ghūṭah would be lit up, and he could look out upon it by night.

Abū Mushir held a teaching circle in the Great Mosque between sunset and the night prayer, next to the eastern wall. One evening a tremendous light shone into the mosque. Abū Mushir asked, “What is that?”

They replied, “It is the fire that is lowered from the mountain for the Commander of the Faithful so that the Ghūṭah will be illuminated for him.”

He thereupon recited, “Do you build on every rise a monument, sporting therein, and erect fortresses, hoping that you will live forever?” (Q 26:128–129).

In the gathering was an informer for al-Maʾmūn. He reported the incident to the caliph, and al-Maʾmūn bore him a grudge. Word had already reached him as well that Abū Mushir had once served as judge under Abū al-ʿAmayṭar.

When al-Maʾmūn left Damascus, he ordered that Abū Mushir be brought to him and examined him at ar-Raqqah about the doctrine of the Qur’an’s createdness.

I say: al-Maʾmūn was a scourge and a trial for Islam.

Abū al-Dahdāḥ Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad narrated to us: al-Ḥasan ibn Ḥāmid al-Naysābūrī told us; he said: Abū Muḥammad told me: I heard Aṣbagh—who, together with Ibn Abī al-Najāʾ, had accompanied Abū Mushir to serve him—relate the following:

When Abū Mushir entered upon al-Maʾmūn in ar-Raqqah, the caliph had just severed a man’s head, the body still lying there. He halted Abū Mushir on the spot and interrogated him; Abū Mushir would not answer. The caliph ordered him placed on the execution mat so that his neck could be struck. Abū Mushir then assented to the claim that the Qur’an is created, whereupon he was removed from the mat. He immediately retracted, was returned to the mat, and again assented. Al-Maʾmūn commanded that he be sent on to Iraq, still distrustful of his statement and taking no special precautions. He remained in the custody of Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm—the acting governor of Baghdad—for less than one hundred days, and he died, may Allah have mercy on him. (1)