Al-Awza'i

Al-Awzāʻī
Born	707 CE Damascus, Syria
Died	774 CE Beirut, Lebanon
Ethnicity	Arab
Religion	Islam
Jurisprudence	Awza'i
Main interest(s)	Hadith, Fiqh
Notable idea(s)	Awza'i madhhab

For further information on the Awza'i madhhab see Awza'i.

Abu Amr Abd al-Rahman ibn Amr al-Awzai (707–774) was the chief representative and eponym of the Awzai school of Islamic jurisprudence.

Apparently, born in Baalbek, Lebanon in 707, very little of al-Awzai's writings survive, but his style of Islamic jurisprudence (usul al-fiqh) is preserved in Abu Yusuf's (died 798) book Al-radd ala siyar al-Awzai, in particular his reliance on the "living tradition," or the uninterrupted practice of Muslims handed down from preceding generations. For Awzai, this is the true Sunnah of Muhammad (died 632). Awzai's school flourished in Syria, the Maghreb, and Muslim Spain but was eventually overcome by the Maliki school of Islamic law in the 9th century. However, given his authority and reputation as a Sunni Imam and pious ancestry, his views retain potential as a source of law and a basis for alternative legal approaches and solutions. He died in 774 and was buried near Beirut, Lebanon, where his tomb is still visited.

Some posit that the reason why the people of Morocco took up the madhhab of Imam Malik, is that the people of Morocco and al-Andalus were originally upon the madhhab of al-Awza’i. However since the Umayyad conquest of the region and the Berber revolt, Morocco and western Algeria were following Kharijites schools which were adopted by the ruling dynasties such as the Maghrawa, the emirate of Toudgha and the Ibadhi Rustamid dynasty. And, with the exception of Tunisia and al-Andalus, the Maliki school only became established in the region after the rise of the Almoravid dynasty.

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