Then he was confined in a rented house near the Dār ʿUmārah, after which he was moved to the public prison on Darb al-Mawṣiliyya.
He later said, “I used to lead the prisoners in prayer while my feet were still in irons.”
When Ramadan of the year 219 AH came—and that was fourteen months after al-Maʾmūn’s death—I was transferred to the residence of Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm, the governor of Baghdad.
Hanbal recounted: Abū ʿAbd Allāh was first imprisoned in the Dār ʿUmārah in Baghdad, in the stable of the emir Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm, the brother of Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm. The cell was cramped, and he fell ill during Ramadan. Shortly thereafter he was taken to the public prison, where he remained for nearly thirty months.
We used to visit him there. While in prison he read to me Kitāb al-Irjāʾ (Postponement) and other works, and I saw him leading the inmates in prayer with the shackles still on. At the times of prayer and sleep he would slip his foot out of the iron ring.
Ṣāliḥ ibn Aḥmad said: My father told me, “Every day two men were sent to me—one called Aḥmad ibn Aḥmad ibn Rabāḥ and the other Abū Shuʿayb the barber. They would debate with me constantly, and when they rose to leave a new shackle would be brought, so that my chains increased until four fetters encircled my legs.
“On the third day one of them came again and argued with me. I asked him, ‘What do you say about Allah’s knowledge?’ He replied, ‘It is created.’ I said, ‘You have disbelieved in Allah.’ (1)
“The envoy who attended on behalf of Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm protested, ‘But this man is the messenger of the Commander of the Believers!’ I replied, ‘This man has fallen into disbelief.’
“On the fourth night al-Muʿtaṣim sent Bugha the Elder to Isḥāq with orders to bring me. I was ushered in to Isḥāq, who said:
‘O Aḥmad, by Allah, it is your very life that is at stake. He will not execute you by the sword, but he has sworn that if you do not answer him he will flog you blow after blow and kill you in a place where neither sun nor moon is seen. Has not Allah, Exalted is He, said: “Indeed We…’”