Further reading: Yasin Dutton, The Origins of Islamic
Law: The Quran, the Muwatta and Madinan Amal (Lon-
don: Routledge Curzon, 2002); Wael B. Hallaq, The
Origins and Evolution of Islamic Law (Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Press, 2005).
Maliki Legal School
One of the four approved schools (sing.: madh-
hab) of Sunni Islamic law, the Maliki derives
its name from the eighth-century scholar of
medina Malik ibn Anas (d. 795). Malik’s text Al-
Muwatta is one of the foundational legal tomes
of the Maliki school. His approach places almost
exclusive emphasis upon the qUran, hadith, and
Medinese practice (amal) as sources of Islamic
law. In contrast, Malik’s near-contemporary Abu
Hanifa (progenitor of the hanaFi legal school)
drew upon personal reasoning (ray) in addition
to the textual sources of the Quran and hadith in
his legal formulations.
Highly respected as a scholar and collec-
tor of hadith, Malik passed on his knowledge
to many students, who carried his doctrine
throughout Muslim lands. In the decades after his
death, Malik’s teaching established a following in
Qayrawan (modern tUnisia), andalUsia, (modern
Spain), and Iraq. These locations later became
centers of the nascent Maliki madhhab and were
home to influential Maliki scholars such as the
Tunisian Abd al-Salam Sahnun, and the Andalu-
sians Yahya ibn Yahya al-Laythi and mUhammad
ibn rUshd (Averroës). Maliki teaching later died
out in Andalusia, due to the Christian reconquista,
and it was supplanted by the shaFii legal school
in Iraq and Medina. However, the Maliki School
would experience great success in North and
West aFrica, where it remains the dominant mad-
hhab to this day.
The early Maliki insistence upon traditional
Medinese practice gave the school a decidedly
practical emphasis. This can be seen in the Maliki
development of istislah, a procedure that gives pre-
cedence in some cases to a tangible human inter-
est over a legal conclusion reached through strict
analogical reasoning. However, Maliki jurists have
always looked with suspicion upon the principle
of qiyas (the use of analogy in legal judgments),
unlike their brethren in the Hanafi and Shafii
schools. The Maliki disinclination to use qiyas is
such that Maliki jurists sometimes preferred to
base their judgments upon weakly attested hadith
rather than to employ analogy. While accept-
ing the concept of ijmaa (scholarly consensus),
Maliki scholars have frequently given preference
to the ijmaa of Medina, since it was the city of the
Prophet and his companions, as well as the home
of Malik himself.
These particular emphases have led to distinct
Maliki stances on matters such as inheritance law,
marriage and divorce, and dietary restrictions.
However, in most areas, Maliki law is surprisingly
similar to the positions of the other Sunni legal
schools. Like them, the Maliki madhhab has had
to adapt to changing circumstances over time.
Initially hostile to mystical practices, Malikis
eventually learned to coexist with Sufi customs as
the latter became widespread throughout North
and West Africa. Many Muslims now adhere to
both Maliki law and a Sufi order. The modern
era has brought various innovative approaches
and a heightened debate regarding the essence
of Islamic law. Despite these new circumstances,
the Maliki madhhab remains firmly established
in African Islam, a situation that is unlikely to
change in the foreseeable future.
See also Fiqh.
Stephen CoryFurther reading: Jonathan E. Brockopp, Early Maliki
Law: Ibn ’Abd al-Hakam and His Major Compendium of
Jurisprudence (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2000); Joseph Kenny,
The Risala: Treatise on Maliki Law of Abdallah Ibn Abi
Zayd Al-Qayrawani (922–996) (Islamic Edition Trust,
1992); Malik ibn Anas, Al-Muwatta of Imam Malik Ibn
Anas: The First Formulation of Islamic Law. Translated
and edited by Aisha Abdurrahmann Bewley. (The
Islamic Classical Library Series, Kegan Paul Intl., 1989);Maliki Legal School 455 J