MIḤNA, an Arabic term “meaning in general usage a ‘testing’ or ‘trial', whether by the accidents of fortune or the actions of men” . This general sense is reflected in the Kitāb al-miḥan by Abū ‘1-'A.rab where the author sets out to give an account of “those who have been afflicted ( ubtuliya) by being killed, imprisoned, flogged, or threatened … ”. More particularly, the term (together with its counterpart imtihān) signifies the procedure adopted by the caliph al-Ma'mūn, and officially applied under his two immediate successors, for the purpose of imposing the view that the Qur'ān had been created.

THE COURSE OF HISTORICAL EVENTS

The circumstances of this initiative, which was set in motion by al-Ma'miln in a letter in Rabī’ I 218/ April 833, four months before his death, are most fully described by al-'fabarī and have been examined in detail by Patton. In the first instance, al-Ma'miln, who was at al-Raqqa (or Damascus, according to al-Ya'qūbī), desired his deputy in Baghdād, lsḤāq ibn Ibrāhīm, to test the qādīsin his jurisdiction concerning God's creation of the Qur'ān. The language of his letter to this effect is powerful and direct: God has the right to have His religion carried out properly, and the great mass of the common people, who know no better, being without the light of knowledge, are mistaken when they espouse the view that the Qur'an is eternal ( qadīm awwal); for God has said in the Qur'an “We have made it (ja'alnāhu) an Arabic Qur'an” (XLIII.3), and everything He has made (ja ‘ala) He has created (khalaqa). In addition, they have made a fallacious link between themselves and the sunna, making themselves out to be ‘the people of truth, religion and unity’ and characterising those who do not agree with them as ‘the people of falsehood, unbelief and schism'; but in reality they are, inter alia, ‘the worst of the umma’ and ‘the tongue of the Devil’ and are in no way to be trusted. The Commander of the Faithful will not rely on anyone who does not conform in this regard, nor are qādīs to accept the testimony of such people.”