The next morning he had them brought in while still fettered, and he interrogated them. Sijādah and al-Qawārīrī yielded, so he set them free, whereas Imām Aḥmad and Muḥammad ibn Nūḥ held fast to their position. They were therefore shackled in irons and sent off toward Tarsus (1), and a letter was dispatched ordering that they be delivered to the caliph (2).
Imām Aḥmad—may Allah have mercy on him—said:
“I used to implore Allah that I might never see his face—meaning al-Maʾmūn—for I had been told that he would say, ‘Should my eyes ever alight on Aḥmad, I will cut him to pieces, limb by limb.’” (3)
Allah answered that prayer: al-Maʾmūn died while the two of them were still on their way to him, in the year 218 AH. As for Muḥammad ibn Nūḥ, he died en route; Imām Aḥmad offered the funeral prayer over him and laid him to rest (4).
Imām Aḥmad himself was sent back in chains to Baghdad—after news of al-Maʾmūn’s death and al-Muʿtaṣim’s accession (5)—aboard a vessel alongside other captives, suffering grievous abuse. He was then imprisoned for roughly twenty-eight months, and some say a little over thirty months. Later he was brought out to be flogged in the presence of al-Muʿtaṣim, following a series of debates with the Muʿtazila (6).