794–842 CE · Abbasid caliph; continued the Mihna, imprisoned and flogged Ahmad ibn Hanbal

Al-Mu'tasim

Al-Mu'tasim (r. 833-842 CE) inherited the Mihna from his brother al-Ma'mun and enforced it with greater severity, most notably against Ahmad ibn Hanbal, who was imprisoned and flogged unconscious rather than recant the traditionalist position that the Qur'an was uncreated.

Content referencing this person

Research Paper
Islam or Muslim Culture? Measuring the Distance Between Revelation and Practice
A historical-critical essay testing whether practices commonly defended as Islamic -- from denying women their Qur'anic inheritance shares to state corruption and the political shaping of orthodoxy -- rest on the Qur'an itself, or on later interpretation, historical tradition, absorbed local custom, and political authority defended in revelation's name.

Al-Mu'tasim

Content referencing this person

Islam or Muslim Culture? Measuring the Distance Between Revelation and Practice