The Thawri ()

Madhhab A ( ar, مذهب ', , "way to act". pl. مَذَاهِب , ) is a school of thought within '' fiqh'' (Islamic jurisprudence). The major Sunni Mathhab are Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali. They emerged in the ninth and tenth centurie ...

was a short-lived school of

Islamic Jurisprudence ''Fiqh'' (; ar, فقه ) is Islamic jurisprudence. Muhammad-> Companions-> Followers-> Fiqh. The commands and prohibitions chosen by God were revealed through the agency of the Prophet in both the Quran and the Sunnah (words, deeds, and ex ...

. Its founder was

Sufyan Al-Thawri Sufyan al-Thawri ( ar, أبو عبد الله سفيان بن سعيد بن مسروق الثوري, ʼAbu ʿAbd Allāh Sufyān ibn Saʻīd ibn Masrūq al-Thawrī ; 716–778) was a ''Tābi‘ al-Tābi‘īn'' Islamic scholar, jurist, and founde ...

, a great 8th century

scholar A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researche ...

, jurist and hadith compiler.Steven C. Judd, “Competitive hagiography in biographies of al-Awzaʿi and Sufyan al-Thawri”, Journal of the American Oriental Society 122:1 (Jan–March, 2002). After Ath-Thawri's move to Basra later in his life, his jurisprudential thought ( usul) became more closely aligned to that of the Umayyads and of Al-Awza'i. He spent the last year of his life hiding after a dispute between him and the

Abbasid The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Mutta ...

Caliph A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...

Muhammad Ibn Mansur Al-Mahdi. After his death, the Thawri Madhhab was taken up by his students, including notably Yahya al-Qattan. However, his school did not survive, but his jurisprudential thought and especially hadith transmission are highly regarded in Islam, and have influenced all the major

schools A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes compulsor ...

, although not in the form of organized school like other Madhhabs. According to Bilal Philips, the reason that the Madhhab of Thawri became extinct was because Sufyan spent most of his later life in hiding, due to his refusal to be assigned as a judge by the Abbasid authority. The second reason was because he instructed his principal student, Ammar ibn Sayf, to destroy and burn all of his works.

References

{{reflist Islamic jurisprudence Schools of Sunni jurisprudence