Maliki School

(Malikiyyah)

Malikiyyah is the second of the Islamic schools of jurisprudence. The sources of Maliki doctrine are the Qur"an, the Prophet"s traditions (hadith), consensus (ijma"), and analogy (qiyas). The Malikis" concept of ijma" differed from that of the Hanafis in that they understood it to mean the consensus of the community represented by the people of Medina. (Overtime, however, the school came to understand consensus to be that of the doctors of law, known as "ulama.)

Imam Malik"s major contribution to Islamic law is his book al-Muwatta (The Beaten Path). The Muwatta is a code of law based on the legal practices that were operating in Medina. It covers various areas ranging from prescribed rituals of prayer and fasting to the correct conduct of business relations. The legal code is supported by some 2,000 traditions attributed to the Prophet.

History:

Malikiyyah was founded by Malik ibn Anas (c.713-c.795), a legal expert in the city of Medina. Such was his stature that it is said three "Abbasid caliphs visited him while they were on Pilgrimage to Medina. The second "Abbasid caliph, al-Mansur (d.775), approached the Medinan jurist with the proposal to establish a judicial system that would unite the different judicial methods that were operating at that time throughout the Islamic world.

The school spread westwards through Malik"s disciples, becoming dominant in North Africa and Spain. In North Africa Malikiyyah gave rise to an important Sufi order, Shadhiliyyah, which was founded by Abu al-Hasan, a jurist in the Malikite School, in Tunisia in the thirteenth century.

During the Ottoman period Hanafite Turks were given the most important judicial in the Ottoman Empire. North Africa, however, remained faithful to its Malikite heritage. Such was the strength of the local tradition that qadis (judges) from both the Hanafite and Malikite traditions worked with the local ruler. Following the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Malikiyyah regained its position of ascendancy in the region. Today Malikite doctrine and practice remains widespread throughout North Africa, the Sudan and regions of West and Central Africa.