al-Awza'i
c. 707 CE–c. 774 CE · Baalbek
Abd al-Rahman ibn Amr al-Awza'i (called Abu Amr) was the foremost jurist (faqih, expert in Islamic law) of Syria in the eighth century and the namesake of the Awza'i madhhab, a school of law that was once dominant in the Levant, North Africa, and Muslim Spain before dying out. His nisba "al-Awza'i" derives from the al-Awza' quarter of Damascus, named for the mixed tribes who settled there.
Tradition reports that he was born in Baalbek (in modern Lebanon) around 88 AH/707 CE, of non-Arab — possibly Sindhi — descent, and was raised in poverty in the Bekaa valley. As a young man he travelled to centres of learning such as Basra and the Yamama to collect hadith (reports of the Prophet's words and deeds), studying with teachers including al-Zuhri and Ata ibn Abi Rabah. He settled in Damascus and later moved to Beirut, then a frontier garrison town, where he taught and issued legal opinions until his death.
His legal method is traditionally described as resting on the "living tradition" — the continuous, inherited practice of the community — rather than on speculative reasoning. His positions survive largely through Abu Yusuf's refutation of them. He is also remembered for a reported act of courage: rebuking the Abbasid governor Abd Allah ibn Ali after the violent purge of the Umayyads. He died in Beirut, where his tomb is still visited.
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Baalbek
What they did here
Biographical tradition (e.g. al-Dhahabi, summarized in EI2 and later notices) reports that al-Awza'i was born in Baalbek, in the Bekaa valley of modern Lebanon, around 88 AH/707 CE. His exact birthplace and the family's origins (he is described as a non-Arab client, possibly of Sindhi/Zutt descent) rest on later tradition, not contemporary attestation.
About Baalbek
Baalbek (classical Heliopolis), in the Beqaa Valley of modern Lebanon, is famed for its monumental Roman temples and was a town of Bilad al-Sham under Muslim rule. The Damascene scholar and Sufi Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi (d. 1731) and the Shi'i polymath Baha al-Din al-Amili (d. 1621) are among the figures connected to it; the early Syrian jurist al-Awza'i (d. 774) was active in the wider region of Syria-Lebanon.
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