Ahmad ibn Abi Du'ad

[3] In 848 Ibn Abi Du'ad suffered a stroke and transferred his position to his son Muhammad, but his family's influence declined during the caliphate of al-Mutawakkil, who gradually abandoned Mu'tazilism and put an end to the mihnah.

[4] Considered a leading Mu'tazilite and one of the chief architects of the mihnah, his persecution of orthodox scholars, including the famed theologian Ahmad ibn Hanbal, caused his reputation to suffer after his death, and he was made into an object of vilification by later Sunni biographers.

[8] Al-Ma'mun was himself inclined toward Mu'tazilism, which represented a moderate alternative between orthodoxy and the Alids while simultaneously affirming his authority as imam to preside over religious matters,[9] and in 827 he proclaimed his belief in a central Mu'tazilite tenet, that the Qur'an had been created.

Initiated by al-Ma'mun just four months before his death, the mihnah required officials, judges and scholars to be tested on their beliefs regarding the nature of the Qur'an; individuals who refused to adhere to the position that it had been created were subject to dismissal, arrest or torture.

[13] Outside of his overseeing of the mihnah, Ibn Abi Du'ad spent his time at court developing a reputation for moderation and compassion, interceding on several occasions to save individuals who had become subject to al-Mu'tasim's wrath from punishment and securing favors from the caliph for various patrons.

[15] Ibn Abi Du'ad additionally took part in the move to the new capital of Samarra in 836, where he received a land allotment in the central city,[16] and in 840 he presided over the heresy trial of the disgraced general al-Afshin.

At the beginning of al-Wathiq's reign, Ibn Abi Du'ad appointed several new qadis to Baghdad who supported the mihnah, and in the provinces there was a marked increase of persecutions against individuals who were considered dissenters.

The new caliph was determined to eliminate the officials who had played a dominant role in the governments of his two predecessors, and in the first years of his rule he succeeded in killing or removing from power the majority of these men, including Ibn al-Zayyat and the chamberlain Itakh.

[24] Less than a year after al-Mutawakkil's accession, however, the chief judge suffered a debilitating stroke that left him partially paralyzed, and his son Muhammad was forced to take up the actual discharge of his duties.

Muhammad proved to be less influential than his father, and the family's standing declined as al-Mutawakkil spent the next several years taking hostile steps against the Mu'tazilites, dismissing a number of Ibn Abi Du'ad's qadis from office and ordering an end to debate over the nature of the Qur'an.

[31] Individuals associated with Ibn Abi Du'ad also occasionally faced discrimination after his death, as when the caliph al-Mu'tazz (r. 866–869) cancelled the appointments of eight men as qadis and exiled them to Baghdad upon learning that they had been followers of the former judge.

Numerous anecdotes consistently portray the chief judge as a man of compromise and generosity, and he is frequently shown as intervening to resolve disputes between the caliphs and their opponents in an effort to prevent bloodshed.

[34] Muhammad Qasim Zaman, who characterized the chief judge as a "much maligned figure" in Sunni sources, likewise saw the portrayal of al-Mu'tasim and al-Wathiq as halfheartedly continuing the policies of al-Ma'mun as a narrative pushed by traditionalists in an attempt to de-legitimize the mihnah.