The Strife over Declaring the Hanbalis Unbelievers and the Looting of the Nizamiyya Market

In 470 AH strife in Baghdad grew fierce between the Hanbalis and the Ash'aris over the Nizamiyya madrasa, after word reached Nizam al-Mulk that Abu Nasr ibn al-Qushayri had been asked about the foundations of doctrine and had replied in a way contrary to the Hanbali school. ¹

A letter from the vizier reached Abu Ishaq al-Shirazi: "It is not required by the statecraft of the sultan or by the cause of justice that we lean in matters of doctrine toward one side rather than another. We are better served by supporting the Sunnas than by raising up strife. We did not advance the building of this madrasa except to protect the learned and for the public good, not for dispute or to scatter the word. The school that prevails in Baghdad and its surroundings is the school of the Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal." The Hanbalis circulated these words and were pleased by them. On Tuesday, the second of Shawwal, a student of jurisprudence from the madrasa, known as al-Iskandarani, went out to the Tuesday market and preached the takfir of the Hanbalis, and was pelted with a brick. He called for help from the people of the madrasa market, who came out with him and plundered part of the Tuesday market. The people of the Tuesday market prevailed with the common people, entered the madrasa market, plundered it, and killed a sick man they found in a room. Amid al-Mulk sent the Daylamites and the Harsaniyya, who pushed back the common people and killed about a dozen with arrows. The dead were carried to the diwan, where the judges and witnesses viewed them. ¹