Dawud al-Zahiri

Who is Dawud al-Zahiri?

Dawud bin Ali bin Khalaf al-Zahiri was a Muslim scholar of Islamic law during the Islamic Golden Age, specializing in the fields of Hermeneutics, Biographical evaluation, and historiography. He is widely regarded as the founder of the Zahiri school of thought, the fifth school of thought followed by Sunnis Muslims to this day, though he never viewed himself as such, nor do the followers of the school.

He was a celebrated, if not controversial, figure during his time, being referred to in Muslim historical texts as "the scholar of the era."