Zahiri school

The Zahiri school^[a] or Zahirism is a school of Islamic jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. It was named after Dawud al-Zahiri and flourished in Spain during the Caliphate of Córdoba under the leadership of Ibn Hazm. It was also followed by the majority of Muslims in Mesopotamia, Portugal, the Balearic Islands, and North Africa. The Zahiri school lost it's presence around the 14th-century.^[1]^[2]^[3] The school is considered to be endangered, but it continues to exert influence over legal thought. Today It is followed by minority communities in Morocco and Pakistan.

The Zahiri school is characterized by strict adherence to literalism and reliance on the outward (ẓāhir) meaning of expressions in the Quran and ḥadīth literature;^[4]^[5] the consensus (ijmāʿ) of the first generation of Muhammad's closest companions (ṣaḥāba), for sources of Islamic law (sharīʿa); and rejection of analogical deduction (qiyās) and societal custom or knowledge (urf),^[5] used by other schools of Islamic jurisprudence, although the anti-Hazm wing of Zahiris usually accept religious inference.^[11]

After a limited success and decline in the Middle East, the Zahiri school flourished in Islamic Iberia, particularly under the leadership of the Andalusian Muslim jurist Ibn Hazm.^[5] The Zahiri school is said to have lingered on in various locations under various manifestations before being superseded by the Hanbali school.^[12]

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^ "Zahiri". Oxford Reference. Retrieved 2025-04-18.
^ Visser, Hans (2009-01-01). Islamic Finance: Principles and Practice. Edward Elgar Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84844-947-3.
^ Esposito, John L. (2000-04-06). The Oxford History of Islam. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-988041-6.
^ Melchert, Christopher (2015) [1999]. "How Ḥanafism Came to Originate in Kufa and Traditionalism in Medina". Hadith, Piety, and Law: Selected Studies. Islamic Law and Society. Vol. 6. Atlanta and Leiden: Brill Publishers/Lockwood Press. pp. 318–347. ISBN 978-1-937040-49-9. JSTOR 3399501. LCCN 2015954883.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Sheikh, Naveed S. (2021). "Making Sense of Salafism: Theological foundations, ideological iterations, and political manifestations – Genealogy A: Ibn Hanbal and the Ahl al-Ḥadīth". In Haynes, Jeffrey (ed.). The Routledge Handbook of Religion, Politics, and Ideology (1st ed.). London and New York: Routledge. p. 165. doi:10.4324/9780367816230-16. ISBN 9780367816230. S2CID 237931579. Ibn Hanbal's reliance on the explicit import of the text (naṣṣ) was exceeded only by the literalism of the Ẓāhirī school, founded by his student, the Persian Dawud al-Zahiri (c. 815–883), and later popularized by Andalusian jurist Ali Ibn Hazm (994–1064). The Zahiris would outright reject analogical reasoning (qiyās) as a method for deducing jurisprudential rulings while considering consensus (ijmāʿ) to be binding only when comprising a first-generation consensus of the Companions of the Prophet.
^ Osman, Amr (2014). "Dāwūd al-Ẓāhirī and the Beginnings of the Ẓāhirī Madhhab". The Ẓāhirī Madhhab (3rd/9th-10th/16th Century): A Textualist Theory of Islamic Law. Studies in Islamic Law and Society. Vol. 38. Leiden and Boston: Brill Publishers. pp. 9–47. doi:10.1163/9789004279650_003. ISBN 978-90-04-27965-0. ISSN 1384-1130.
^ Hallaq, Wael (2005). The Origins and Evolution of Islamic Law. Cambridge University Press. p. 124. ISBN 978-0-521-00580-7.
^ Mallat, Chibli (2007). Introduction to Middle Eastern Law. Oxford University Press. p. 113. ISBN 978-0-19-923049-5.
^ Gleave, Robert (2012). Islam and Literalism: Literal Meaning and Interpretation in Islamic Legal Theory. Edinburgh University Press. p. 150. ISBN 978-0-7486-3113-1.
^ Melchert, Christopher (1997). The Formation of the Sunni Schools of Law: 9th-10th Centuries C.E. Brill. pp. 178–197. ISBN 9004109528. Retrieved 2016-01-03.
^ ^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8]^[9]^[10]
^ "Ẓāhirīyah ISLAMIC LAW". Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved 19 April 2020.

[:0-2] "Zahiri". Oxford Reference. Retrieved 2025-04-18.

[:1-3] Visser, Hans (2009-01-01). Islamic Finance: Principles and Practice. Edward Elgar Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84844-947-3.

[:2-4] Esposito, John L. (2000-04-06). The Oxford History of Islam. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-988041-6.

[Melchert_1999-5] Melchert, Christopher (2015) [1999]. "How Ḥanafism Came to Originate in Kufa and Traditionalism in Medina". Hadith, Piety, and Law: Selected Studies. Islamic Law and Society. Vol. 6. Atlanta and Leiden: Brill Publishers/Lockwood Press. pp. 318–347. ISBN 978-1-937040-49-9. JSTOR 3399501. LCCN 2015954883.

[Sheikh_2021-6] Sheikh, Naveed S. (2021). "Making Sense of Salafism: Theological foundations, ideological iterations, and political manifestations – Genealogy A: Ibn Hanbal and the Ahl al-Ḥadīth". In Haynes, Jeffrey (ed.). The Routledge Handbook of Religion, Politics, and Ideology (1st ed.). London and New York: Routledge. p. 165. doi:10.4324/9780367816230-16. ISBN 9780367816230. S2CID 237931579. Ibn Hanbal's reliance on the explicit import of the text (naṣṣ) was exceeded only by the literalism of the Ẓāhirī school, founded by his student, the Persian Dawud al-Zahiri (c. 815–883), and later popularized by Andalusian jurist Ali Ibn Hazm (994–1064). The Zahiris would outright reject analogical reasoning (qiyās) as a method for deducing jurisprudential rulings while considering consensus (ijmāʿ) to be binding only when comprising a first-generation consensus of the Companions of the Prophet.

[Osman_2014-7] Osman, Amr (2014). "Dāwūd al-Ẓāhirī and the Beginnings of the Ẓāhirī Madhhab". The Ẓāhirī Madhhab (3rd/9th-10th/16th Century): A Textualist Theory of Islamic Law. Studies in Islamic Law and Society. Vol. 38. Leiden and Boston: Brill Publishers. pp. 9–47. doi:10.1163/9789004279650_003. ISBN 978-90-04-27965-0. ISSN 1384-1130.

[8] Hallaq, Wael (2005). The Origins and Evolution of Islamic Law. Cambridge University Press. p. 124. ISBN 978-0-521-00580-7.

[9] Mallat, Chibli (2007). Introduction to Middle Eastern Law. Oxford University Press. p. 113. ISBN 978-0-19-923049-5.

[10] Gleave, Robert (2012). Islam and Literalism: Literal Meaning and Interpretation in Islamic Legal Theory. Edinburgh University Press. p. 150. ISBN 978-0-7486-3113-1.

[11] Melchert, Christopher (1997). The Formation of the Sunni Schools of Law: 9th-10th Centuries C.E. Brill. pp. 178–197. ISBN 9004109528. Retrieved 2016-01-03.

[12] [5]^[6]^[7]^[8]^[9]^[10]

[EB-zahir-13] "Ẓāhirīyah ISLAMIC LAW". Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved 19 April 2020.

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