with whips?’

Saʿīd then turned to me and said, ‘Did you not hear that—did you hear it?’
‘I did indeed,’ I replied.

Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr continued, ‘If that voice spoke truly, it was one of the righteous jinn or an angel, for Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal was certainly flogged today.’ We made inquiries and discovered that he really had been beaten that very day.

Abū ʿAbd Allāh said, ‘When they struck me, my clothes were drenched in blood. I was fasting, and they brought me siwīq (ground roasted barley mixed with water), but I would not drink it; I completed my fast. One of the attendants was present, and—because I refused the siwīq—something befell him, though I do not know whether it was Ishāq ibn Ibrāhīm himself or someone else. I was later told that no food was allowed to reach me in Ishāq’s palace; he had forbidden anyone to bring it in, saying, “He will eat from our food.” So I went two full days without eating.’

Al-Marwazī added, ‘The man from Nīshāpūr—an aide of Ishāq ibn Ibrāhīm—told me, “The amīr said to me, ‘When his ifṭār is brought in, show it to me.’” They brought two coarse loaves and a small flat cake. He showed them to the amīr, who remarked, “A man content with fare such as this will never give in to us.”’

Abū ʿAmr (ʿUthmān ibn ʿUmar) told me: Abū Bakr (Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Hārūn) related to us, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad reported from his father, Abū ʿAbd Allāh, in a lengthy account, that he said, ‘They kept posing their questions to me, and I replied, “This is a matter on which I will not speak, for it is found neither in the Book of Allah nor in the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him.”’