Dawud al-Zahiri
815 CE–884 CE · Kufa
Dawud ibn 'Ali ibn Khalaf al-Zahiri (born c. 815 CE / c. 199-202 AH; died c. 883-884 CE / 269-270 AH) was a jurist of Abbasid Baghdad remembered as the founder of the Zahiri madhhab, a "school" of Islamic law named for its method. The label comes from zahir, the "outward" or plain meaning of a text: where other jurists extended the law by qiyas (reasoning by analogy) or ra'y (considered personal opinion), Dawud's circle held that only the apparent sense of the Qur'an and the hadith (reports of the Prophet's words and deeds), together with scholarly consensus, could bind. His birthplace is genuinely disputed: Ibn Hazm, the historian al-Dhahabi, and the modern scholar Christopher Melchert place it in Kufa, attributing the rival "al-Isbahani" (from Isfahan) name to his mother's or family's origins. He studied hadith and Qur'anic interpretation in Baghdad with teachers such as Abu Thawr and is reported to have traveled to Nishapur in Khurasan to study with the traditionist Ishaq ibn Rahwayh. He began as a follower of al-Shafi'i before developing his own principles. Returning to Baghdad, he taught a large following and is traditionally said to have drawn hundreds to his sessions. The school was at first called "Dawudi" after him; in keeping with its rejection of taqlid (uncritical imitation), even his students felt free to dispute his rulings. He died and was buried in Baghdad; the exact year is reported variously.
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Kufa
What they did here
Ibn Hazm, al-Dhahabi, and the modern historian Christopher Melchert hold that Dawud was born in Kufa around 199-202 AH (c. 815 CE). His alternative name al-Isbahani (of Isfahan) is explained by these scholars as reflecting his mother's or family's Isfahani origin; Goldziher linked it to his father's posting near Kashan. The Kufa-vs-Isfahan question is unsettled, so this stop is marked uncertain.
About Kufa
Kufa, on the Euphrates in central Iraq near Najaf, was a garrison-town (misr) founded by the Muslims around 638 during the conquest of Iraq. It became a major centre of early Arabic grammar, jurisprudence, and Shi'i scholarship, and for a time the capital of the caliph Ali; the traditionist Ibn Abi Shayba (d. 849) and the Twelver scholar Ibn Babawayh al-Saduq (d. 991) are among those connected to it.
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