Overview

In this book, Amr Osman seeks to expand and re-interpret what we know about the history and doctrine of the Ẓāhirī madhhab. Based on an extensive prosopographical survey, he concludes that the founder, Dāwūd al-Ẓāhirī, was closer in profile and doctrine to the Ahl al-Ra’y than to the Ahl al-Ḥadīth. Furthermore, Ibn Ḥazm al-Andalusī may have had a damaging effect on the madhhab, which never actually developed into a full-fledged school of law. By examining the meaning of ‘ẓāhir’ and modern scholarship on ‘literalism’, he challenges the view that Ẓāhirism was literalist, proposing ‘textualism’ as an accurate reflection of its premises, methodology, and goals as a hermeneutical and legal theory.

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9789004276192

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Reviews

The Zahiri Madhhab makes an incisive contribution to the history of Islamic law generally and the Zahiri madhhab in particular. Readers should find Osman's comprehensive discussion of the origin and development of the Zahiri tradition, as well as his elaborate biographies of Dawud al-Za hiri and Ibn Hazm, rich, lucid and highly informative. Mourad Laabdi in Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 27.3 (2015), 345-347. DOI: 10.1080/09596410.2015.1108629

Author Information

Amr Osman, Ph.D. (2010), Princeton University, is Assistant Professor of Islamic History at Qatar University. His publications include Adalat al-Sahaba: The Construction of a Religious Doctrine, and Human Intervention in Divine Speech: The Waqf Rules and the Redaction of the Qur’anic Text.

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