Islam. 59higher officials of the government, who adhered to the more
autocratic norms of the pre-Islamic period in order to make
the Abbasid state a going concern.
Under the Umayyads, each town had developed its own
fiqh, but the Abbasids pressed the jurists to evolve a more uni-
fied system of law. The nature of Muslim life had changed
drastically since the time of the Quran. Since conversion to
Islam had been encouraged, the dhimmis were becoming a mi-
nority. Muslims were no longer a small elite group, isolated
from the non-Muslim majority in the garrison towns. They
were now the majority. Some of the Muslims had come to the
faith recently, and were still imbued with their old beliefs and
practices. A more streamlined system and recognized reli-
gious institution was required to regulate Islamic life for the
masses. A distinct class of ulama (religious scholars; singular:
alim) began to emerge. Judges (qadis) received a more rigorous
training, and both al-Mahdi and al-Rashid encouraged the
study of law by becoming patrons of fiqh. Two outstanding
scholars made a lasting contribution. In Medina, Malik ibn
Anas (d. 795) compiled a compendium which he called al-
Mutawattah (The Beaten Path). It was a comprehensive account
of the customal law and religious practice of Medina, which,
Malik believed, still preserved the original sunnah of the
Prophet's community. Malik's disciples developed his theo-
ries into the Maliki School (madhhab), which became preva-
lent in Medina, Egypt and North Africa.
But others were not convinced that present-day Medina
was really a reliable guide to pristine Islam. Muhammad Idris
ibn al-Shafii (d. 820), who had been born in poverty in Gaza
and had studied with Malik in Medina, argued that it was not
safe to rely on any one Islamic city, however august its pedi-
gree. Instead all jurisprudence should be based on ahadith
about the Prophet, who should be seen as the inspired inter-
preter and not simply as the transmitter of the Quran. The