Ẓāhirī

The Ẓāhirī school took its early name from Dawud al-Zahiri, who studied in Baghdad and attracted followers opposed to binding adherence to earlier jurists. By the end of the tenth century, Zahiri judges served in cities from Baghdad and Damascus to Bukhara.

In al-Andalus, Ibn Hazm of Córdoba, who lived from 994 to 1064, became a leading exponent of the school. The Almohads later gave Zahiri scholars state patronage, but the school declined around the fourteenth century.