and his statement, “The Commander of the Faithful has spared me from everything I find distasteful,” together with the incident in which the governor of Baghdad, Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Ṭāhir, sent to summon Aḥmad, Aḥmad’s refusal, and his words: “I am a man who has never mixed with the authorities; the Commander of the Faithful has excused me from what I dislike, and this is something I dislike.”

He went on to say: After he had returned from Sāmarrāʾ he became constant in fasting and ceased eating any kind of fat. Formerly they would buy him suet for one dirham, and he would make it last an entire month (1)!!

Al-Khallāl said: Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn narrated to me that al-Marwadhī narrated to them, saying:

“When Abū ʿAbd Allah was in the camp he would say, ‘See if you can find any māʾ bāqillā (2).’ At times I would simply moisten his bread with water, and he would eat it with salt (3).

“From the moment we entered the camp until we left it, he did not taste a cooked dish or anything fatty.

“On one night Abū ʿAbd Allah woke me up—he had been observing a continuous fast—and said, ‘I am reeling from hunger; give me something to eat.’

“I brought him less than a loaf, which he ate, saying, ‘Had I not feared giving assistance to my lower self, I would not have eaten.’

“He would stand to go to the latrine but would have to sit down again to ease the hunger, so that I would wet a cloth and he would throw it (4) over his face until his strength returned. Matters reached the point that, out of sheer weakness—though not from illness—he dictated his will. I heard him say, while we were still in that camp:

‘This is what Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad bequeaths: he bequeaths that he bears witness that there is no god but Allah, alone without partner, and that Muḥammad is His servant and Messenger.’