Al-Shafi'i

Al-Shafi'i was a Muslim jurist and theologian, the founder and eponym of the Shafi'i school of Sunni jurisprudence, regarded as the founder of the principles of Islamic jurisprudence (usul al-fiqh). Born in Gaza into the Banu Muttalib clan of the Quraysh and raised in Mecca, he studied under Malik ibn Anas in Medina and later under the Hanafi jurist al-Shaybani in Baghdad. His al-Risala, among the earliest works on legal theory, set the order of the sources of law: the Quran, the hadith of the Prophet, consensus and analogy. He left for Egypt in 814, where he taught and dictated his major works, and died in al-Fustat in 820; his mausoleum remains an important site.