The Life Of Ibn Hanbal by Ibn Al-Jawzi

[Ṣāliḥ:] I remember seeing my father take dry crusts of bread, dust them off, put them in a dish, and pour some water over them to soften them. Then he’d eat them with salt.

I never saw him buy pomegranates, quinces, or any other fruit except for melons, which he’d eat with bread, and grapes or dates, but that’s all. Sometimes people would prepare dishes for him in the oven. He’d put lentils, suet, and Shihrīz dates into a clay pot, and set aside a dish for the children. He would call them and put the dish in front of them, but they would laugh and refuse to eat any of it. He’d often dip his bread in vinegar. They could buy him a dirham’s worth of suet and it would last him a month.

After he got away from al-Mutawakkil he started fasting and stopped eating fat. I had the feeling that he had vowed that if he survived he would give up eating fat. 46.1

[Al-Marrūdhī:] Al-Naysābūrī, who worked for Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm, told me that the emir said, “When Aḥmad’s family brings him a meal, let me see it.” 46.2

What they brought him turned out to be two loaves of flatbread and a cucumber.

When I showed the food to the emir, he said, “If he can live on that, we’ll never win him over.”249

[Al-Marrūdhī:] Once during the festival I heard Aḥmad say, “Yesterday they bought beans for us, and they were quite good.”250 46.3

[Abū l-Sarī:] Aḥmad and I were once at Abū Bakr al-Aḥwal’s house for his son’s circumcision. I was sitting by Aḥmad at the table. He was eating, but then when they brought out a honey nut pudding, he stopped. When Abū Bakr urged him to have some, saying that it was a first-rate dish, he took just one bite. 46.4

[Al-Ḥasan ibn Khalaf:] During Aḥmad’s illness, al-Marrūdhī came to me for help, so I found the doctor and we went to Aḥmad’s house. The doctor asked him how he was feeling. 46.5

“I had myself cupped yesterday,” he said.

“What did you eat afterward?” “Bread and fermented grain paste.”251

“What?” exclaimed the doctor. “You have yourself cupped and then eat only bread and grain paste?” “What else am I supposed to eat?” asked Aḥmad.

[Ḥanbal:] When Aḥmad fell ill, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān prescribed almond oil,252 but he refused to drink it, saying he wanted sesame oil instead. His condition grew worse and so they prepared it for him, but when he realized what it was he pushed it away. 46.6

[Al-Marrūdhī:] I heard Aḥmad say, “My hands and feet are cold. It must be the vinegar and salt I put on my bread.” 46.7

Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Hāniʾ reported: “Aḥmad never ate anything cooked with pepper or garlic. Once I had dinner with him and some of his relatives. As we talked, I noticed that after every bite, he would wipe his hand on a napkin and say ‘God be thanked!’ Later he said to me, ‘Eating with thanks is better than eating in silence.’” 46.8