Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani عبد الله بن أبي زيد القيرواني

Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani (310-386 AH / 922-996 CE) was the foremost Maliki jurist of his generation and the recognized leader of the school in Qayrawan and across the Maghrib. His command of Maliki fiqh was so complete that scholars called him Malik al-Saghir, the lesser Malik, while others named him the Imam and model of the Malikis of his time. Of Berber descent and settled in Qayrawan, he gathered the rulings of Imam Malik and his companions, taught widely, and corresponded with the jurists of Baghdad, who sought his authorization. Ashʿari in creed, he wrote in defense of Sunni theology against the Muʿtazila and the Qadariyya. He authored more than thirty works, of which two endure above all. His al-Risala, a concise treatise on Maliki law and belief composed for the young, became one of the most widely studied primers in North Africa and beyond. His al-Nawadir wa al-Ziyadat is a monumental encyclopedia of Maliki jurisprudence, gathering and weighing the views of the school, a work whose comprehensiveness drew the praise of Ibn Khaldun in the Muqaddima.