A literary history of Persia

284 RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHYson al-Wathiq (A.D. 842-847), that the Mu'tazilite schoolwas most powerful. It had taken possession of these Caliphsand their Courts, had enriched its stores of argument andmethods of dialectic by the study of Greek Philosophy, and,supported thus by itsinternal strengthand the external favourof the governing classes, bade fair altogether to extinguishthe orthodox party, towards whom, in spite of its generallyliberal and tolerant attitude, it showed itself irreconcilablyhostile. The orthodox doctrine that the Our'an was uncreatethey held in particular detestation. In the yearA.H. 211 (A.D. 826 : Tabari iii, p. 1099) al-Ma'mun, havingnearly provoked a civil war by his Shi'ite proclivities, andespecially by his nomination of the Eighth Imam of theShi'ites, 'All ar-Rida, as his successor to the throne (a difficultywhence, with singular inconsistency, he extricated himself bythe assassinationsecretly poisoning the Imam and instigatingof the too zealous minister, Fadl b. Sahl, who had counselledthis step), proclaimed the doctrine that the Qur'an was created,not uncreate, as an indisputable truth ;and seven years later,in the last year of his Caliphate, he compelled seven eminentmen of learning (amongst whom was Ibn Sa'd, the secretaryof the great historian al-Waqidi) to declare their adhesion tothis doctrine, after which he wrote a long letter to Ishaq b.Ibrahim bidding him question such theologians as he suspectedof holding the prohibited belief, and punish such as refused todeclare the Qur'anto be created. Some two dozen eminentand highly esteemed Muslims,Ahmad b. Hanbal, the founder of one of the four orthodoxthe most notable of whom wasschools of the Sunnites, were haled before this tribunal, and,by threats and imprisonment, most of them were induced tosubscribe to the Caliph's declaration that the Qur'dnwascreated, save Ahmad b. Hanbal, who stood firm, and, butfor the sudden death of al-Ma'mun, which happened shortlyafterwards, would have been in grave peril of his life. 1 Al-1See Tabari, iii, pp. 1112-1131, where this transaction isvery fullyreported.