Encyclopedia of Islam

Malik ibn Anas

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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 

m

edina

 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 q

Uran

, 

hadith

, and 

Medinese practice (amal) as sources of Islamic 

law. In contrast, Malik’s near-contemporary Abu 

Hanifa (progenitor of the h

anaFi

  l

egal

  s

chool

) 

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 t

Unisia

), a

ndalUsia

, (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 m

Uhammad

ibn

  r

Ushd

 (Averroës). Maliki teaching later died 

out in Andalusia, due to the Christian reconquista,

and it was supplanted by the s

haFii

 l

egal

 s

chool

in Iraq and Medina. However, the Maliki School 

would experience great success in North and 

W

est

 a

Frica

, 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 Cory