al-ʾAwzāʿī
أبو عمرو عبدُ الرحمٰن بن عمرو الأوزاعي
Personal
Born707 CE
Baalbek, Lebanon
Died774 CE (aged 66–67)
Beirut, Lebanon
ReligionIslam
EraIslamic golden age
DenominationSunni
JurisprudenceAwza'i
CreedAthari[1]
Main interest(s)Hadith, Fiqh
Notable idea(s)Awza'i madhhab

Abū ʿAmr ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAmr al-ʾAwzāʿī (Arabic: أبو عمرو عبدُ الرحمٰن بن عمرو الأوزاعي) (707–774) was an Islamic scholar, traditionalist and the chief representative and eponym of the ʾAwzāʿī school of Islamic jurisprudence.

Biography

Awzāʿī was probably born in Baalbek (in modern-day Lebanon) in 707. He was referred to by his nisbah Awzā (الأوزاع), part of Banu Hamdan.[2] The biographer and historian Al-Dhahabi reports that Awzāʿī was from Sindh, and he was a mawali of ʾAwzā tribe in his early life.[3][4] He may have descended from the Zutt (Jats), who had a strong presence in Syria and Iraq during Islamic Golden Age.[5] Very little of al-Awzāʿī's writings survive, but his style of Islamic jurisprudence (usul al-fiqh) is preserved in Abu Yusuf's book Al-radd ʿala siyar al-Awzāʿī, in particular his reliance on the "living tradition," or the uninterrupted practice of Muslims handed down from preceding generations. For Awzāʿī, this was the true Sunnah of Muhammad. Awzāʿī's school flourished in Syria, the Maghreb, and Al Andalus but was eventually overcome and replaced by the Maliki school of Islamic law in the 9th century. He died in 774 and was buried near Beirut, Lebanon, where his tomb is still visited.[6]

Views

Theologically, he was known as a persecutor of the Qadaris, but also one of the main historical witnesses of them. He alleged that the Qadaris merely appropriated heretical doctrines from the Christians. Awzāʿī had met their founder Maʿbad.[7]

Al-Awzāʿī differed with all the other schools of fiqh in holding that apostates from Islam ought not be executed unless their apostasy is part of a 'plot to take over the State', i.e. treason.[8]

In the introduction to his work al-Jarh wa-l-ta'dil, Ibn Abi Hatim al-Razi (d. 938 (AH 327)) preserves a corpus of ten letters attributed to al-Awzāʿī. In these letters, al-Awzāʿī addresses a series of high ranking officials, in order to plead the cause of individuals and groups. Among other things, he encouraged the Abbasids to ransom Muslims who were captured by the Byzantines in Erzurum, and to increase the wages of the Syrian soldiers in charge of protecting the Levantine coast.[9]

Both Christians and Muslims from the Beirut area appealed to al-Awza'i for help. In one story, a local Christian in Beirut sought al-Awza'i's help in resolving a tax dispute. When his appeal to the kharaj tax administrator failed, al-Awza'i gave the Christian the 80 dinars he thought he was owed, and even tried to return the jar of honey the Christian had given him to thank him for his efforts.

Further reading

  • Judd, Steven C. (2019). 'Abd al-Rahman b. 'Amr al-Awza'i. London: Oneworld Publications. ISBN 978-1786076854.

References

  1. ↑ Krawietz, Tamer, Birgit, Georges; Holtzman, Livnatz (2013). "Debating the Doctrine of jabr (Compulsion): Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya Reads Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī". Islamic Theology, Philosophy and Law: Debating Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya. Berlin, Germany: Walter De Gruyter. p. 63. ISBN 978-3-11-028534-5. The prominent traditionalists, such as Abū ʿAmr al-Awzāʿī (d.157/774) and Ahmad b. Ḥanbal (d.241/855)..{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. ↑ "سير أعلام النبلاء". shamela (in Arabic). Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 28 November 2017.
  3. ↑ The Voice of Islam. Jamiyat-ul-Falah. 1967. p. 96. The origin of al - Awza'i is traced from Sind, wherefrom he or his parents came to Syria...
  4. ↑ Isḥāq, Muḥammad (1955). India's Contribution to the Study of Hadith Literature. University of Dacca. p. 199.
  5. ↑ Schacht; Lewis; Pellat, ed. (1998-05-28). Encyclopaedia of Islam, Volume II (C-G): [Fasc. 23-40, 40a]. Brill. p. 489. ISBN 978-90-04-07026-4. Imām al-Awzā'i was of Sindhī origin and his forefathers might have belonged to those Jāts who fell into the hands of Muhammad b. al-Kāsim and were sent as prisoners of war to 'lrāk.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link)
  6. ↑ John Esposito, The Oxford Dictionary of Islam, Oxford University Press, 2003
  7. ↑ Steven C. Judd, "The Early Qadariyya" in The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Theology, ed. Sabine Schmidtke (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), 47-48.
  8. ↑ Wood, Asmi (2012). "8. Apostasy in Islam and the Freedom of Religion in International Law". In Paul Babie; Neville Rochow (eds.). Freedom of Religion under Bills of Rights. University of Adelaide Press. p. 169. ISBN 9780987171801. JSTOR 10.20851/j.ctt1t3051j.13. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  9. ↑ Tillier, Mathieu (2022). "La Syrie d'al-Awzāʿī (m. 157/774). Les pétitions d'un savant au pouvoir abbasside". In Boudier, Mathilde (ed.). Autour de la Syrie médiévale. Études offertes à Anne-Marie Eddé (in French). Leuven: Peeters. pp. 65–114. ISBN 9789042947986.
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