Dāwūd ibn ʿAlī ibn Khalaf al-Ẓāhirī (Arabic: دَاوُدُ بنُ عَلِيِّ بنِ خَلَفٍ الظَّاهِرِيُّ; 815–883 CE / 199–269 AH) was a Persian Sunni Muslim scholar, jurist, and theologian during the Islamic Golden Age, specialized in the study of Islamic law (sharīʿa) and the fields of hermeneutics, biographical evaluation, and historiography of early Islam. He was the eponymous founder of the Ẓāhirī school of thought (madhhab), the fifth school of thought in Sunnī Islam, characterized by its 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. He was a celebrated, if not controversial, figure during his time, being referred to in Islamic historiographical texts as "the scholar of the era."
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Dawud al-Zahiri in the context of Zahiri
The Zahiri school or Zahirism is a school of Islamic thought within Sunni Islam. It was named after Dawud al-Zahiri and flourished in Spain during the Caliphate of Córdoba under the leadership of Ibn Hazm. It was also followed by the majority of Muslims in Mesopotamia, Portugal, the Balearic Islands, and North Africa. The Zahiri school lost its presence around the 14th-century. The school is considered to be endangered, but it continues to exert influence over legal thought. Today it is followed by minority communities in Morocco and Pakistan.
The Zahiri school is characterized by strict adherence to literalism and reliance on the outward (ẓāhir) meaning of expressions in the Quran and a limited amount of ḥadīth literature; the consensus (ijmāʿ) of the first generation of Muhammad's closest companions (ṣaḥāba) excluding the scholars, 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.