“al-Ibānah,” which he composed in Baghdad when he arrived there; yet the Ḥanbalīs would not accept it from him and they shunned him.”

I (1) heard Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥamrānī say: “When al-Ashʿarī entered Baghdad he went to al-Barbahārī (2) and began declaring, ‘I have refuted al-Jubbāʾī and Abū Hāshim and demolished their arguments, and I have rebutted the Jews, the Christians, and the Magians; I said (3) such-and-such and they replied,’ and he spoke at great length about that.

When he finally fell silent, al-Barbahārī said, ‘I do not understand a thing—little or much—of what you have just said; we know only what Abū ʿAbd Allāh Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal (4) said.’

He continued, ‘So al-Ashʿarī left his presence and authored the book al-Ibānah, but they would not accept it (5) from him, and it did not become known in Baghdad until after he had departed.’

He (6) said: “As for al-Ahwāzī’s claim that the Ḥanbalīs did not accept what he publicized (7) of the book (8) al-Ibānah and consequently shunned him, had the matter been as he alleged they would have transmitted it from their elders (9); yet I have continually heard from trustworthy people that he was a close friend…"