Ẓāhirī

The Ẓāhirī ( ar, ظاهري, otherwise transliterated as ''Dhāhirī'') ''madhhab'' or al-Ẓāhirīyyah ( ar, الظاهرية) is a Sunnī school of Islamic jurisprudence founded by Dāwūd al-Ẓāhirī in the 9th century CE. It is characterized by strict adherence to literalism and reliance on the outward ('' ẓāhir'') meaning of expressions in the Quran and ''ḥadīth'' literature; 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''), used by other schools of Islamic jurisprudence.

After a limited success and decline in the Middle East, the Ẓāhirī school flourished in the Caliphate of Córdoba (Al-Andalus, today's Spain and Portugal), particularly under the leadership of Ibn Hazm, whose book ''Al-Muhalla'' is considered to be ''adiwalu al fiqhi dhahiri'' (the reference point for the Ẓāhirī school). It is variously said to have "survived for about 500 years in various forms" before being "merged with the Ḥanbalī school", but also to have been revived in the mid-20th century in some regions of the Muslim world.Daniel W. Brown, ''Rethinking Tradition in Modern Islamic Thought'': Vol. 5 of Cambridge Middle East Studies, pp. 28 and 32. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. M. Mahmood, ''The Code of Muslim Family Laws'', p. 37. Pakistan Law Times Publications, 2006. 6th ed.Hassan Ahmed Ibrahim, "An Overview of al-Sadiq al-Madhi's Islamic Discourse." Taken from ''The Blackwell Companion to Contemporary Islamic Thought'', p. 172. Ed. Ibrahim Abu-Rabi'. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell, 2008.

Whereas some analysts describe Ẓāhirism as a distinct school of Islam, others have characterized it as a fifth school of thought (''madhhab'') within the Sunnī branch of Islam, and still retains a measure of influence and is recognized by contemporary Muslim scholars. In particular, members of the Ahl-i Hadith movement have identified themselves with the Ẓāhirī school of thought.

History

Emergence

While those outside the school of thought often point to Dawud al-Zahiri (815–883/4 CE) as the "founder" of the school, followers of the school themselves tend to look to earlier figures such as Sufyan al-Thawri and Ishaq Ibn Rahwayh as the forerunners of Ẓāhirī principles. Umm al-Qura University professor Abdul Aziz al-Harbi has argued that the first generation of Muslims followed the school's methods and therefore it can be called "the school of the first generation."Falih al-Dhibyani
Al-zahiriyya hiya al-madhhab al-awwal, wa al-mutakallimun 'anha yahrifun bima la ya'rifun
. Interview with Okaz. 15 July 2006, Iss. #1824. Photography by Salih Ba Habri.

The Ẓāhirī school was initially called the Dawudi school after Dawud al-Ẓāhirī himself and attracted many adherents, although they felt free to criticize his views, in line with the school's rejection of taqlid. Alongside the Hanbalis, Zahiris constituted one of the major groups that originated from the ''Ahl al-Hadith'' school; which advocated the superiority of ''Qur'an'' and '' Sunnah'' in legal jurisdiction and denied the validity of '' Aql'' (logic) as an independent source of law. By the end of the 10th century, members of the madhhab were appointed as qadis in Baghdad, Shiraz, Isfahan, Firuzabad, Ramla, Damascus, Fustat, and Bukhara.

Westward expansion

Parallel to the school's development in the east, Ẓāhirī ideas were introduced to North Africa by theologians of the Maliki school who were engaged in lively debates with the Hanafi school, and to the Iberian Peninsula by one of Dawud al-Ẓāhirī's direct students. Unlike Abbasid lands, where the Ẓāhirī school developed in parallel and in opposition to other madhhabs (chiefly Hanafi, Shafi‘i, and Hanbali), in the West it only had to contend with its Maliki counterpart, which enjoyed official support of the Umayyad rulers. An increasing number of Ẓāhirī scholars appeared starting from the late 9th century CE in different parts of the Iberian peninsula, though none of their works have survived.

It was not until the rise of the Almohads that the Ẓāhirī school enjoyed official state sponsorship. While not all of the Almohad political leaders were Ẓāhirīs, a large plurality of them were not only adherents but were well-versed theologians in their own right. Additionally, all Almohad leaders – both the religiously learned and the laymen – were extremely hostile toward the Malikis, giving the Ẓāhirīs and in a few cases the Shafi‘is free rein to author works and run the judiciary. In the late 12th century, any religious material written by non-Ẓāhirīs was at first banned and later burned in the empire under the Almohad reforms.

Decline

The Ẓāhirī school enjoyed its widest expansion and prestige in the fourth Islamic century, especially through the works of Ibn al-Mughallis, but in the fifth century it lost ground to the Hanbalite school.Mohammad Sharif Khan and Mohammad Anwar Saleem, ''Muslim Philosophy And Philosophers'', pg. 34. New Delhi: Ashish Publishing House, 1994. Even after the Zahiri school became extinct in Baghdad, it continued to have some followers in Shiraz.Hossein Nasr and Morteza Motahhari, "The Religious Sciences." Taken from ''The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 4: From the Arab Invasion to the Saljuqs''. p. 476. Ed. Richard N. Frye. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Ẓāhirism maintained its prestige in Syria until 788 A.H. and had an even longer and deeper impact in Egypt. In the 14th century C.E., the Zahiri Revolt marked both a brief rekindling of interest in the school's ideas as well as affirmation of its status as a non-mainstream ideology. Al-Muhalla, a Medieval manual on Ẓāhirī jurisprudence, served in part as inspiration for the revolt and as a primary source of the school's positions. However, soon afterwards the school ceased to function and in the 14th century Ibn Khaldun considered it to be extinct. With the Reconquista and the loss of Iberia to Christian rule, most works of Ẓāhirī law and legal theory were lost as well, with the school only being carried on by individual scholars, once again on the periphery.

Wael Hallaq has argued that the rejection of '' qiyas'' (analogical reasoning) in Ẓāhirī methodology led to exclusion of the school from the Sunni juridical consensus and ultimately its extinction in the pre-modern era. Christopher Melchert suggests that the association of the Ẓāhirī school with Mu'tazilite theology, its difficulty in attracting the right patronage, and its reliance on outmoded methods of teaching have all contributed to its decline.

Modern history

In the modern era, the Ẓāhirī school has been described as "somewhat influential", though "not formally operating today". While the school does not comprise a majority of any part of the Muslim world, there are communities of Ẓāhirīs in existence, usually due to the presence of Ẓāhirī scholars of Islamic law. In particular, adherents of the modern-day Ahl-i Hadith movement in India and Pakistan have self-consciously emulated the ideas of the Ẓāhirī school and identified themselves with it. Modernist revival of the general critique by Ibn Hazm – the school's most prominent representative – of Islamic legal theory among Muslim academics has seen several key moments in recent Arab intellectual history, including Ahmad Shakir's republishing of Al-Muhalla, Muhammad Abu Zahra's biography of Ibn Hazm, and the republishing of archived epistles on Ẓāhirī legal theory by Sa'id al-Afghani in 1960 and Ihsan Abbas between 1980 and 1983. In 2004 the Amman Message

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