(1) Ibn al-Jawzi cites this letter in Manaqib al-Imam Ahmad, pp. 461–62 (ed. ʿAbd Allah al-Turki), and Abu Nuʿaym reproduces it in Hilyat al-Awliyaʾ, 9:216–17, under the biography of Imam Ahmad. (2) Jaʿfar ibn al-Muʿtasim ibn Harun al-Rashid ibn Muhammad al-Mahdi ibn Abi Jaʿfar al-Mansur, the ʿAbbasid caliph (born 207/822, proclaimed caliph 232/847), made his rule a victory for the sunnah and its adherents. He released Imam Ahmad during the mihnah over the createdness of the Quran, honoured the scholars of hadith and sunnah, and curtailed the innovators and sectarians (10:349, 352). (3) The house of Ishaq ibn Ibrahim, vizier of the ʿAbbasid caliphate. (4) ʿUmar ibn al-Khattab al-Qurashi, the second Rightly Guided Caliph and one of the ten promised Paradise, embraced Islam five years before the Hijrah. His conversion emboldened the Muslims, and as caliph (from 13/634) he oversaw the conquests of Syria, Iraq and Egypt, founded administrative centres, and instituted the diwans. Celebrated for justice, resolve and political wisdom, he was assassinated in 24/644. See Usd al-Ghabah, 4:52–78. (5) ʿAʾishah bint Abi Bakr, Mother of the Believers, was the Prophet’s only virgin bride. He married her in Mecca when she was six and consummated the marriage in Medina at nine, in the second year after the Hijrah. His most beloved wife, she was exonerated from the slander by revelation and became a foremost authority on the sunnah. Jibril once conveyed to her the greeting of peace. She died in 58/678 at the age of sixty-seven. See Ibn Kathir, al-Bidayah wa-l-Nihayah, 8:91–94.