Editing Mu'tazilism (section)

===Mihna===
The persecution campaign, nonetheless, cost them their theology and generally, the sympathy of the Muslim masses in the Abbasid state. As the number of Muslims increased throughout the [[Abbasid Caliphate]], and in reaction to the excesses of this newly imposed rationalism, theologians began to lose ground. The problem was exacerbated by the [[Mihna]], the inquisition launched under the Abbasid [[Caliphate|Caliph]] [[al-Ma'mun]] (died 218 AH/833 AD).

The movement reached its political height during the Mihna, the period of [[religious persecution]] instituted by the 'Abbasid Caliph al-Ma'mun in AD 833 in which religious scholars (such as [[Sunnis]] and [[Shias]]) were punished, imprisoned, or even killed unless they conformed to Mu'tazila doctrine. The policy lasted for 18 years (833–851 CE) as it continued through the reigns of al-Ma'mun's immediate successors, [[al-Mu'tasim]] and [[al-Wathiq]], and the first four years of the reign of [[al-Mutawakkil]], who reversed the policy in 851.<ref name="Zaman1997b"/><ref>[https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/downloads/4x51hp478?locale=en] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210614002428/https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/downloads/4x51hp478?locale=en|date=2021-06-14}} (PDF)</ref>

[[Ahmad ibn Hanbal]], the Sunni jurist and founder of the [[Hanbali]] school of thought was a victim of al-Ma'mun's Mihna. Due to his rejection of al-Ma'mun's demand to accept and propagate the Mu'tazila creed, ibn Hanbal was imprisoned and tortured by the Abbasid rulers.<ref name="Hadith Literature">{{cite book|last=Siddiqi|first=Muhammad|title=Hadith Literature|year=1993|publisher=The Islamic Texts Society|location=Oxford|isbn=0-946621-38-1|page=47}}</ref>